Playground: Performance by Ali El-Darsa

Playground 

Performance by Ali El-Darsa

Playground (2018) is a research-based performance developed over a series of workshops with performers living in Beirut. Employing open-ended strategies of rehearsal, the work regards movement, rituals, playtime, and stillness as forms of labor lacking pre-existing meaning, while contemplating the body as an object devoid of affect.



The performers examine everyday movement and its rendition in real time, as language, sound, and image-making,based on personal videos they have documented over a week.



Performers: Bassam Abou Diab, Ghida Hachicho, Stephanie Kayal, Christel Salem, and Corinne Skaff.



This performance is part of Ali El-Darsa’s residency at Ashkal Alwan.



Ali El-Darsa lives and works between Berlin and Montréal. He holds a Master of Visual Studies (MVS Studio) from Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Intermedia/Cyberarts from Concordia University, Montréal. El-Darsa’s interdisciplinary research in performance manifests in forms of happenings, durational and gestural, endurance, and site-specific works often questioning the specificity of media at hand and their crucial part in creating networked and mediated memories and narratives. 



The artist acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

L’artiste remercie le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.



The artist would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, Christine Tohme,, Ashkal Alwan team, Zeina Hanna, Joyce Joumaa, Mark Khalifé, Petra Serhal, Franziska Pierwoss, Amanda Abi Khalil, Elias Abou Mrad, Lina Majdalanie, and all participating performers for their support.