The Sea Between My Soul - Raed Yassin

Download photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/di8ncew10szi1mc/AADZNY54z4pqJU4d2FDV2FeGa?dl=0

Watch video clip from the production here: https://youtu.be/h5jgZYL0K4A

A black-humor rock musical makes its world premiere at the Onassis Channel on YouTube. On December 20, 2020, the Onassis Stegi presents digitally the The Sea between My Soul in concept and direction by Raed Yassin and music by Alan Bishop. Taxidermy animals taking the stage and singing about the long history of death and murder in the Mediterranean Sea. Can their absurd singing reveal the world around us

The Sea between My Soul narrates stories of the Mediterranean Sea, inviting us to think about the current situation. Who is more suitable to talk about death than someone who has already died?

The taxidermy animals used in the performance were preserved after dying of natural causes, narrate in the role of performers, their story. A multi-sensory theatrical performance, which turned into a cinematic spectacle promises to cross boundaries between installation and theater, music and light, and even life and death. A morbid reflection on the long standing history of fatalities in the Mediterranean sea, the work will punctuated by the high-strung notes of Alan Bishop’s singing voice, adding a whiff of absurdity to the otherwise apocalyptic scenario that surrounds us in the world today.

A morbid reflection on the long standing history of fatalities in the Mediterranean sea, the work will punctuated by the high-strung notes of Alan Bishop’s singing voice, adding a whiff of absurdity to the otherwise apocalyptic scenario that surrounds us in the world today.

Programmed for the March 13, 2020, the production was cancelled due to the precautionary national health measures put in place by the Greek government to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. In September of 2020, the show was restaged at the Onassis Stegi’s Main Stage and filmed for its digital screening. Anamorphic lenses were used to breathe life to the protagonists and make them better heard. Slow-motion camera was employed to emphasize the staged ʽstillnessʼ, but also to suggest a CinemaScope illusion. You can watch the video in the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVRfjfxpO0

Credits

Concept & Direction: Raed Yassin

Music & Lyrics: Alan Bishop

Scenography: Hussein Baydoun

Lighting Design: Charlie Astrom

Lyrics translation in Greek: Lenia Safiropoulou

Technical supervisor: Vasilis Saltas

Production design: Konstantinos Sakkas

Assistant: Raisa Hagiu

Line production assistant: Angelika Stavropoulou

3D modelling & buildings manufacture: George Loukrezis

Set construction & installation: Panagiotis Lazaridis

Electrical equipment & installations: Nikos Papathanasis

Production management: Delta Pi

Produced by: Onassis Stegi

Music/Instrumentation/Credits

Adham Zidan: Piano, Organ, Harpsicord, Clavinet, Backing Vocals

Alan Bishop: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Alto Saxophone

Amelie Legrand: Cello

Aya Hemeda: Vocals, Percussion

Cherif El Masri: Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals

Eyvind Kang: Viola

Jessika Kenney: Vocals

Morgan Mikkelsen: Drums

Nadah El Shazley: Vocals

Mark Gergis: mastering

Produced by: Alan Bishop & Adham Zidan

All music, lyrics, and narration text by Alan Bishop (2019).

Recorded and engineered by Adham Zidan in Cairo, December 2019/January 2020.

The taxidermy animals used in the performance were preserved after dying of natural causes.

Filming

Director: Christos Sarris

Director of Photography: Evan Maragoudakis

Camera: Dimitris Zivopoulos

Sound: Panagiotis Papagiannopoulos

Produced by: Onassis Stegi

With Greek and English subtitles

Raed Yassin’s Note

“In much the same way as animals have been pushed out of view in recent times, so has death itself. Seeing death directly causes discomfort, even though humans are the main cause of so much of it in the world. The face of death is increasingly concealed from us, as we shy away from confronting it in every way possible. No matter how disconcerting it is, these animals embody a truer representation of death than any other. In order to narrate a story about death, there is no better narrator than the deceased themselves. As if resurrected from an unknown past, these animals chronicle their fatal journey by speaking from a dimension beyond the one we know. Removed from their natural habitat and displaced into an urban landscape somewhere by the sea, their appearance in this way somehow predicts the current dark moment of our times.”

Raed Yassin

Raed Yassin (Beirut, 1979) lives and works between Beirut and Berlin. He graduated from the Theater Department of the Institute of Fine Arts in Beirut in 2003, and in 2015 he was awarded a research fellowship at the Akademie der Künste der Welt in Cologne.

One of the organisers of Irtijal Festival – Beirut’s experimental contemporary music festival – Yassin has released several music albums and founded the production company Annihaya in 2009.

His work, as a visual artist and musician, stems from an examination of his personal narratives and their place in collective history, through the lens of consumer culture and mass production.

He has presented exhibitions and performances in countless museums, festivals and art galleries, including: Borderline Festival (Onassis Stegi, Athens , 2019), MaerzMusik (Berlin, 2018), Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham, 2017), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2016), Leighton House Museum (London, 2015), Akademie der Künste der Welt (Cologne, 2015), Kunsthalle (Vienna, 2015), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 2014), ICA (London, 2014), Gwangju Museum of Art (South Korea, 2014), Castello di Rivoli (Turin, 2014), Fondation Boghossian – Villa Empain (Brussels, 2013), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2012), New Museum (New York, 2012), Sharjah Biennial 9 & 10 (United Arab Emirates, 2009 & 2011), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, 2011) and Delfina Foundation (London, residency 2010-11 & 2014). Yassin has also received various scholarships and honors: Sharjah Art Foundation Project Fund (2014), Abraaj Group Art Prize (2012), Fidus Prize (2009), AFAC grant for production (2010-2018), YATF grant for production (2008 & 2012) and Cultural Resource grant for production (2008). He is represented by Kalfayan Galleries (Athens), gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (Dubai) and the Marfa’ projects (Beirut).

Alan Bishop

Alan Bishop (AKA Alvarius B.) is a founding member of Seattle's avant-garde and genre-defying Sun City Girls, whose career spanned 27 years and over fifty releases. His work in Sun City Girls, with Richard Bishop and Charles Gocher, alone stands as a testament to his fearless exploration of the outer reaches of improvisation and composition.

As Alvarius B., Bishop has penned hundreds of his own original folk songs in a primitive “out” style that is extremely unique. And as an interpreter of other people’s work, his songbook includes hundreds of cover songs from the obscure to the very familiar. This body of work is informed by an obsessive love of the singer-songwriter genre, folkloric music from beyond borders, Italian film soundtracks, and an extraordinary sense of humor. Over much of the past nine years, Bishop has been based in Cairo, composing & recording new Alvarius B. material while simultaneously establishing his own Egyptian-based band, The Invisible Hands, and joining forces with Sam Shalabi and Maurice Louca in the trio Dwarfs of East Agouza. His latest solo album was released in October of last year; a triple album juggernaut entitled With a Beaker on the Burner and an Otter in the Oven.

Read more: https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/sea-between-my-soul

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVRfjfxpO0

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