Frankfurt Moves!

Carla Tapparo (Buenos Aires / Argentina) explores the relationships, interactions and commonalities of perceived opposites - such as physical-digital, body-mind, inside-outside. Her current research focus is the body and how theories of its rejection and alienation can be applied to the body as a biopolitical entity. Carla Tapparo holds a BA and PhD in Fine Arts, with a focus on painting (UNLP, Argentina) and an MA summa cum laude in Art in Public Space (École de Design et Haute École d'Art du Valais, Switzerland), for which she received a Hans Boerg Wyss Scholarship. She was a participant in NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) and works as an art director for Piuke Productions. Carla Tapparo has received prizes and awards from institutions such as INCAA (National Institute for Audiovisual Arts) and her work has been exhibited and performed in Argentina, Ireland, Switzerland and Germany.

Stephanie Kayal is a performer, dancer and choreographer from Beirut, Lebanon. She is currently developing her second original creation, which will premiere at NEXT Festival - Kortrijk 2022 and reflects the current end-time mood in Lebanon. It is a loose continuation of her first work "Evidence of Things Not Seen" (2021), a performance about a family haunted by dance and their past.

Abed Kobeissy is an electro-acoustic musician and composer from Beirut, Lebanon. His work has been performed in over 18 countries and has a strong local flavour, but without claiming traditional or ethnic representation. From solo to collaborative projects to music for film, theatre and dance, his musical language draws primarily from the local urban soundscape and his works often revolve around family and home.

Emmanuel Ndefo is a dancer, choreographer, curator and researcher at the Center for Contemporary Art in Lagos, Nigeria. He is interested in the critical representation of bodies within architectures and alternative sites, e.g. museums, galleries, archives, etc. He believes that through the use of the body and interactive performances, it is possible to experience the relationship between art, audience and space. Through bodies moving in space, thought processes can be influenced, memories evoked and narratives challenged.

Femi Adebajo is a multidisciplinary artist from Nigeria with a focus on dance as a way to access the human mind. As a choreographer, he explores different styles in detail before creating movement patterns with musical accompaniment. His radical choreographies appeal to people all over the world. Femi Adebajo has participated in a number of workshops and trainings with Prof. Wole Soyinka, Segun Adefila, Seun Awobajo, Qudus Onikeku, Sunday Israel, Akpan, Adedayo Liadi (Ijodee), Sahar Rahimi, Isioma Williams, Stine Hertel, Alice Ferl, Tairu Ajibode, Abel Utuedor and Haracio Macuacua, among others. He has worked for global brands such as Adidas and with renowned festivals and companies such as Theater der Welt, Monster Truck, Company Christoph Winkler, Hektomeron Theatre Festival (Romania), Irineu Nogueira Dance Program (Munich) and Sanskar Virtual Dance.

Manjari Kaul is a performer, director and educator from New Delhi, India. She graduated from DUENDE School of Ensemble Physical Theatre (2015) and holds an MA from The School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Most recently, she devised and performed in the digital production "Firefly Woman" supported by ReFrame Arts Genderalities 2.0. She received ThinkArts grant 2022 and is currently developing a new play for young audiences with Aagaaz Theatre Trust. She has taught at DUENDE School and Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology as a guest lecturer and co-directed a production with students from The National School of Drama. Her solo "Chronicle of a Death Foretold", based on the novella by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and commissioned by Instituto Cervantes, has been performed in London, Athens, New Delhi, Bangalore and Lucknow. Manjari Kaul's work deals with the irritation caused by the inappropriate and unusual in live performances. Gender, sexuality and memory are themes she explores again and again.

Savita Rani is a graduate of the National School of Drama (NSD) from New Delhi, India, with a focus on acting. She works as a researcher, actor and director and teaches acting. She recently completed her PhD from the Department of Performing Arts, Pondicherry University with a study titled "A Study on Devised Solo Theatre in India". She has received training in martial arts such as Kalari and Tai-Chi. Savita Rani has worked with renowned theatre makers like Anuradha Kapur, Anamika Haksar, Tripurari Sharma, K. S. Rajendran, Abhilash Pillai, Amitesh Grover, Suresh Anagali, Harish Khanna, Vivan Sundram, Roysten Abel, Khalid Tyabji and Jyoti Dogra. Her work has taken her to Peru, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Austria, Bangladesh, Japan, Thailand and England. Parallel to her research, she developed the solo theatre piece "RIP: Restlessness in Pieces", with which she performed in many places in India and abroad. She is currently working on the new solo "Notions", which is supported by Serendipity Arts Festival 2020.

Priiya is a performer, dancer and video artist currently based in Berlin. They received an MA in Movement Direction from the University of London and is on a research journey to establish roots in the moving body. Priiya thinks about the way we organise bodies and space in an attempt to make diverse languages, fictions, memories and identities flow into each other.

This Is Not Lebanon
Festival for Visual Arts, Performance, Music and Talks (26.08. – 12.09.2021)

Frankfurt LAB & Künstlerhaus Mousonturm

Lebanon has experienced a fourfold catastrophe in a short period of time: the stalling of the revolution in October 2019, hyperinflation as a result of a bottomless fall of the Lebanese lira, the explosion in the port of Beirut in the summer of 2020, and most recently the pandemic.

This Is Not Lebanon gave a platform to artists who defy the simplistic reporting on the situation in Lebanon and develop multi-layered perspectives on the country. The three-week festival at the Mousonturm and SOMMERBAU in Frankfurt presented mainly younger protagonists from the fields of performance, visual arts, choreography and music.

Four new artistic works were created as part of Frankfurt Moves! - the residency programme of the KfW Stiftung and the Frankfurt LAB. Ghida Hachicho explored the dynamics of group behaviour with four other performers in the SOMMERBAU. Marwa Arsanios continued her feminist work with a performative video installation on questions of heritage, property and value. Bassem Saad's film and text-based artistic work addresses the distribution of violence and desire, and Ali Eyal's multidisciplinary practice explores contemporary forms of struggle and collective violation. Saad and Eyal both presented performative works for the first time as part of the festival.

Developed and curated by Matthias Lilienthal, Christine Tohmé, Anna Wagner, and the members of the Ensamble Modern Jaan Bossier, Uwe Dierksen and Christian Hommel.

The festival in Frankfurt will be followed by a second part of the festival in Beirut in October 2021, in collaboration with the Goethe Institut Lebanon and Ashkal Alwan, a leading centre of the Lebanese arts scene. It has been funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Goethe-Institut, the Ensemble Modern Patronatsgesellschaft e.V. and its accompanying discourse programme is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education/bpb.

Städelschule is an art school in Frankfurt am Main. Since 1817 it has been committed to provide equal, international, experimental, and independent artistic education. Public events include „Rundgang", the annual student exhibition, "Absolvent*innenausstellung", the graduate exhibition and the lecture program.

For more information, please click here.