Faith as a Melody – Listening in Jeddah
Saudi artists Roaa Lamfon and Nouf Almugairin walk us through the circumstances and creative processes that birthed their artistic pieces presented in this session. The two met during The Hospitable Ear, a participatory workshop exploring listening as a practice; organised by Hayy Jameel and the Goethe-Institut and led by German researcher and artist Julia Tieke and Saudi urban strategist Zainab Ali Reza.
District Mayoress filmed by Nouf Almugairin, is an eight-minute experimental documentary commissioned by SawtAsura, a collaborative project led by artist Tara Aldughaither, that collects, records, reenacts feminine musical histories in the Kingdom. From the starting point of an oral historical account and observational footage, the film offers a brief encounter with the life and a legacy of a wedding percussionist in South Jeddah, while Roaa Lamfon’s sonic piece Kurd Al-Tha'alba is an ode to women’s community resilience and an appreciation of the public space(s) they claim; she expresses this through her own Oud composition following the soundscape of a public park frequented mostly by women.
Click here for more information!