Residencies

• 23.09 > 27.09.2024
• 08.07 > 13.07.2024
• 29.04 > 04.05.2024
• 08.02 > 17.02.2024

Black Hole is a music and dan­ce per­for­man­ce by DJ and sound artist Sara Dziri, who, together with dan­cer-cho­re­o­grap­her Yasmina Tayoub, explo­res the inter­sec­ti­ons of rave cul­tu­re and North-African tran­ce tra­di­ti­ons. Drawing from Sara’s research on tran­ce prac­ti­ces in Egypt and Tunisia, the per­for­man­ce invi­tes the audien­ce into an ima­gi­na­ry rave spa­ce bet­ween dark esca­pism and other­world­ly bliss.

During a work visit to Cairo (EG), Sara got inspi­red by the zār, an ancient hea­ling tran­ce tra­di­ti­on cen­te­red around women who do not fit into the con­ven­ti­o­nal mold and find com­mu­ni­ty with each other. A zār is led by women who, through sin­ging, dan­cing, and music, search for the ori­gin of some­o­ne’s strug­gle. Under the guid­an­ce of repe­ti­ti­ve music, they seek hea­ling together. She later went on a second work visit, this time in Tunis (TU), to learn more about other local tran­ce prac­ti­ces, such as stam­be­li and isawaya. 

“Zar cults buf­fer the indi­vi­du­al cau­ght in dif­fi­cult struc­tu­ral con­di­ti­ons by cre­a­ting a com­mu­ni­ty with a sha­red expe­rien­ce of other­hood, par­ti­cu­lar­ly for the most vul­ne­ra­ble iden­ti­ties, tho­se rela­ted to gen­der and sexu­a­li­ty. Members of a zar com­mu­ni­ty buf­fer each other’s pains and mis­for­tu­nes through friends­hips, mutu­al sym­pa­thy, com­mu­nal dan­ce, enter­tain­ment, and con­ver­sa­ti­ons out­si­de the imme­di­a­te kin group.” – Hager El Hadid in Zar — Spirit, Possession, Music, and Healing Rituals in Egypt.

Sara saw strong res­sem­blan­ces with rave cul­tu­re: com­mu­ni­ty, hea­ling, and con­nec­ti­on through dan­ce and music, far from the eyes of socie­tal and poli­ti­cal con­dem­na­ti­on. With Black Hole she wants to high­light rave cul­tu­re and tran­ce tra­di­ti­ons as spa­ces of resis­tan­ce and connection.