بين الموروثات الاستعمارية وتغير المناخ والعنف البطيء والروايات التاريخية المتضاربة ، تم إعداد "كمان 50 سنة" في الذكرى 150 لافتتاح قناة السويس. المشروع  لا يعيد النظر في سجلات التاريخ المصري فحسب ، بل يعود أيضًا إلى الروايات البريطانية والألمانية والفرنسية التي شكلت الكوكب ماديًا وسياسيًا في القرن التاسع عشر. يستكشف المشروع هذه الأسئلة من خلال تنظيم عرض ثلاثي ، ومعرض على نطاق واسع وإنشاء حديقة عامة في مدنية الشارقة 

Between colonialist legacies, climate change, slow violence and conflicting historical narratives, “In 50 Years Or So” takes place on the 150th anniversary of the Suez Canal inauguration. “In 50 Years Or So” revisits not only chronicles of Egyptian history, but of British, German, and French narratives that shaped the planet physically and politically in the 19th century. The project explores these questions by staging a performance triptych, and a large scale exhibition. Led by the Egyptian research and art platform HaRaKa, in partnership with the American urban development and consultancy firm Kuchar&Co, this multidisciplinary and multimedia performance work has been commissioned for the inaugural Sharjah Architecture Triennial, and co-produced by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. “In 50 Years Or So” is a unique project that brings together knowledge about our fragile climate and the dramatic history of hydrological intervention on a continental scale, and positions it within the question of ongoing postcolonial critiques, framing hopeful imaginations of a better future. This work premiered at the inaugural Sharjah Architectural Triennial in November 2019 in Sharjah, U.A.E., in partnership with the waste management authorities in UAE, the American University of Sharjah, Sharjah Art Foundation, and Royal College of Art in London

Mona Gamil and Lamia Gouda performing ‘In 50 Years Or So’

Mona Gamil and Lamia Gouda, reenacting speeches of US politician Mike Pompeo, in costumes by Monzlapur New York

Mona Gamil, in costume by Monzlapur New York, performing an animal-humanoid futurist choreography

In 50 years Or So used multiple resources to build its triptych that strides dance, performance art, film, installation, and urban practice. Through a dense research conducted in Cairo, Suez, London, Paris, Berlin and Sharjah, the project staged historical records and documents in the form of experimental futurist songs and dances, aimed at the children of a new post-apocalyptic world. Creating an eerie performance that feels like a children play at times, and then becomes a protest piece mourning lives lost in the digging of the canal, the project is camp, political, anticolonial and humorous. Taking the Suez Canal’s story s a point of departure, the project guides the audience through an Anthropocene journey to think of Lessepsian migration, plastic filling our bodies and our environment, lifeforms lost to colonialism, disappearing heritage in song and dance, as well as contemporary environmental crisis created through modern day colonial capitalism

 
إستخدم المشروع موارد متعددة لبناء ثلاثية  تخطو خطوات واسعة في الرقص وفن الأداء والأفلام والتركيب والممارسة الحضرية. من خلال بحث مكثف تم إجراؤه في القاهرة والسويس ولندن وباريس وبرلين والشارقة ، قدم المشروع سجلات ووثائق تاريخية على شكل أغانٍ ورقصات تجريبية مستقبلية ، تستهدف أطفال ما بعد نهاية العالم. خلق أداء مخيف يبدو وكأنه مسرحية أطفال في بعض الأحيان ، ثم يصبح قطعة أداء احتجاجية حزنًا على الأرواح المفقودة في حفر القناة . المشروع  ينطلق من قصة قناة السويس ثم  يوجه المشروع الجمهور عبر رحلة في الأنثروبوسين للتفكير في هجرة الكائنات الحية وأشكال الحياة التي فقدناها للاستعمار، واختفاء التراث في الغناء والرقص ، وكذلك الأزمة الرأسمالية الاستعمارية الحديثة
 

Adham Hafez narrating and singing the history of forced labor and mega projects

 

The triptych unfolded in three parts
”Of Beasts and Plastic”, a performance by Mona Gamil, Lamia Gouda, Adam Kucharski, and Adham Hafez
”Repeating Suez”, a solo lecture-performance by Adham Hafez based on historical records from the British Archives chronicling colonial violence against Arab and African bodies
”Nozhet El Mushtaq”, a film and storytelling performance with Sara Soumaya Abed, Mona Gamil, Lamia Gouda, Adham Hafez, Adam Kucharski exploring through absurdist cinematography notions of migration, displacement and climate change

Watch the videos from ‘In 50 Years Or So’, at the Sharjah Architecture Triennial
انقر أدناه لمشاهدة مقاطع فيديو الأداء من ترينالي الشارقة للعمارة

In 50 Years Or So

Performances by: Mona Gamil, Lamia Gouda
With appearances by: Adham Hafez, Adam Kucharski
Videos and images filmed by: Adham Hafez, Mona Gamil, Mohsen Binali
Video editing and design by: Mohamed A. Gawad
Original texts by: Mona Gamil, Adam Kucharski
Academic texts by: Mona Abaza, Roland Barthes, Valeska Huber, Adrian Forty
Costume Design: Mona Hamid (Monzlapur New York)
Costume Support: Nelly Kareem
Research Director: Sara Soumaya Abed
Dramaturgy: Lamia Gouda
Choreographic development: Adham Hafez, Mona Gamil
“Nowadays” choreography: based on original choreography by Bob Fosse
“Nowadays” original score: John Kander, Fred Ebb
Charles Billema Music digital reconstruction: Heidi El Sabban
Sound score sampling of original simsimeya music by Rayyes Hassan El Ashri
Technical Director: Mido Sadek
Choreographer, Sound Designer, and Director: Adham Hafez
Stage Designer: Adam Kucharski
Commissioned by the Sharjah Architecture Triennial
Additional support by Hilal Cultural Foundation (Egypt), Sharjah Municipality (UAE) Special thanks to: Constanza Macras, Alia Mossallem, Ashraf Gharib, Sarah El Miniawy, Reda Gharib, Mohamed Hafez, Reem Aly Abdelaal.
We owe endless gratitude to every worker who constructed the stage and garden in Sharjah. All costumes are made from responsibly sourced and recycled plastic and fabrics

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