Enad Marouf: In My Hand a Word – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Enad Marouf:
In My Hand a Word
In My Hand a Word
Due to the Christmas market in Sophienstraße, the Sophiensæle cannot be approached by car on December 16, 2023.
For Syrian-German performance and video artist Enad Marouf, body and text act as central elements. His works have a unique poetic language of coexisting media; a temporality which allows to overcome potential boundaries of dance, text, video and installation.
The performance In My Hand a Word is based on the eponymous text by the artist. In the text we follow a person who is watching their hand. The longer they gaze at their hand, the more the hand looses its meaning. In this context, the hand does not only carry a history of cultural symbolism, but also an embodiment of the self. The loss of meaning is just as mournful as it is liberating, since new understandings can be reconstructed of what is gone, a duality of loss and restoration therein emerges.
In his scenic adaptation of the text, Marouf focuses on loss and uncertainty: the loss of relationships, familiar spaces and culture, but also the loss of meaning and language. The audience enters a place where fragments of movement, speech and music overlap. This place represents Marouf's fragmented memories of Damascus. Here, two figures move through scenes whose inner coherences are increasingly dissolved by remembrance, grief and associative references.
If any questions remain from the following information, please feel free to contact Hannah Aldinger at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).
Duration
- Approx. 50 minutes
Language
- Little language: a poem is spoken in English.
Light
- The lighting situation in the audience area is rather dark.
- The following lighting effects are used on stage:
- strobe effect
- darkening
- blinding transitions
- fading light
Sound
- Loud sounds are used.
Other effects
- Fog is used.
Audience area
- Seated grandstand
- 2 beanbag seats bookable according to availability
- 2 wheelchair seats bookable according to availability
- Audience will be strongly blinded at one point.
Arrival
- Due to the Christmas market in Sophienstraße, the Sophiensaele cannot be approached by car on December 16. Further information on how to get there and parking can be found here.
Early boarding
If, for artistic reasons, the door to the auditorium does not open until very shortly before the performance begins, there is the option of early boarding.
Tickets
- Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm–6pm
- Via the online ticket shop
- At the box office
You can also find more information about accessibility here.
Concept, Choreography and Text: Enad Marouf
Performance: Ewa Dziarnowska, Steph Quinci
Music: Billy Bultheel
Installations: Enad Marouf
Architectural support: Jim Scully
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Light: Jacqueline Sobieszewski
Production Management: Florian Greß
A production by Enad Marouf in co-production with Sophiensæle. Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR and by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
Media partners: Arts of the Working Class, Berlin Art Link, Das Wetter, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.
Enad Marouf is a Syrian-German performance and video artist based in Berlin. His work focuses on body and text, using video, dance, language and installation as poetics and articulation of temporalities that influence our physicality and the way we narrate the world around us. He completed his Masters in Choreography and Performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Gießen/Frankfurt. His solo works and collaborations have been shown at Sophiensæle, the Athens Biennale, Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, Centre culturel Francais de Damas, Babel Beirut, Tate Modern London, Art Institute of Chicago, Shedhalle Zurich, Kampnagel and Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, among others. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Will Grohmann Prize.