When we can’t dream any longer we die.
― Emma Goldman
These songs come from the very eye of the storm. Aida, Dheisheh, Fawwar, al-Arroub, Balata, Jalazone, Qalandiya – those are the Palestinian camps where they have been recorded. In the streets of the camps, overt violence against and unjustified arrests not only of adults but of kids as well are a daily occurrence, while at night IOF carry out home searches and disturb silence. Sleep deprivation, a torture method used by oppressors all over the world, is employed here against whole neighbourhoods. In those places, Karolina Grzywnowicz has recorded lullabies sung by residents (usually women) in spite of two techniques of power: cultural uprooting and sleep deprivation. Quiet and tender, these songs are also acts of subversion and resistance for which one can get punished.
exhibition
"Everyday Forms of Resistance"
Ujazdowski Castle – Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
23 / 07 – 21 / 11 / 2021
collaboration
singing: Ghada Azzeh, Leila Daayna, Tohfa Abo Ebyea with her daughter Dima, Em Elias, Tamara Abu Laban, Abu Nasser
curator: Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka
residency curator: Sally Abu Bakr
producer: Joanna Saran
mastering: Marcin Lenarczyk
text: Paweł Mościcki
translation: Suhail Matar, Michał Lipszyc
publication: Studio Lekko
textiles: Dekoma
photos: Michał Matejko
installation
4-channel sound installation
8 lullabies from refugee camps
15:00 audio recording in a loop