The Gallery of Revolution (TGo{R}) presents
Bury Your Love Around Us
A memorial for the thousands of children & families killed by Isr@eli Military
with participation from
Palestinian artists, Biba Sheikh, Manal & Marie Kortam, Dar El Mousawar, Ramsey Haidar, Haydar Alyasiry, & Detroit Will Breathe
Program: Saturday, July 27, 2024 from 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
When a person loves a child, they tell them “TUH-BUR-NI” (bury me).
“Let me die before you, so I won’t endure your loss.”
You and I are part of the oneness.
If I have to die before you, I will.
Info
A special preview of Bury Your Love Around Us, with Audience participation, will be at the Gallery of Revolution, at the Boggs Center, Detroit, on July 27, 2024 from 2-6pm. This interactive memorial is a new sectional to be added, in September 2024, to the traveling Arab World art exhibition, Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) Edition 2. The expo displays 35 artworks from Refugee and Arab world artists, in the Concert of Colors Festival, specifically at the Scarab Club, in Detroit from July 1 - July 31, 2024.
Artist Statement
Beckett in Molloy, intended to remind us, in case we forget, 'to restore silence is the role of objects'; and so has been the art in the historical Gaza, a way to resist the shuddering sound of gunfire and bombs. For decades, Gaza has been a living site of Truth: the limited land, droned sky, and dark waters, have revealed a map of a country that has remained nameless, subtracted from its proper name, by alien authority; yet in its Soul, it has the contours of a Flower of Freedom, separated from every garden. It is understood in all of humanity’s intimate depths, beyond the Authoritarian evil, that is opposed to life itself.
This event will be a probing of humanity and a spectrum of first-person “experiential happenings” that the audience performs. Within an ‘interactive memorial’, The event presents a vigil for victims of colonial genocide. During the vigil, audience participants plant a “seed” of nature place a heart inside a pair of child’s shoes, and embody a memory of a childhood house, of a mother, father, or to tell a story of ancestors, through game-like formulas, that provide a path towards humanity’s re-connection to self and each other. Each person explores the liberation of their being. Through these acts, an elevated consciousness of the 'Gaza-environment', will be presented hand in hand with the sacred feminine of Gaia (Mother Earth).
After the intermission, artists living inside of Palestine, and in the diaspora will join us.
This project intends to plant a first seed within each, in order to awaken the impulse towards deep action and for each to find a voice to stop the destruction of people.
Despite all, a person will resist chaos and destruction by going to great lengths for his or her dream to become real. That is because each person is an Artist, and really wants to become a person who may “choose,” to sculpt his/her/their environment, and not be just a mere victim of chance circumstance.
Bio
Biba Sheikh began studying mime with Marcel Marceau and later with members of the Polish Laboratory Theater of Jerzy Grotowski. She developed vocal work in relation to voice anthropologist, Jorge Lopez, who researched singing methods from indigenous tribes of Latin America. Her foundation, The Mediterranean Fire Project, is a platform to work with artists from the Mediterranean, with a great focus on areas of forced migration. Her nomadic existence led her on a journey with vulnerable populations with the “abandoned children” of Lebanon. After the war left these young people alone, Habibah felt a strong responsibility in order to help them find their voices through storytelling platforms.
Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me), a visual and literary exhibition, and theatre production where artworks are based on Sheikh’s theater scripts of ‘Right To Live, as well as Mitli Mitlak, were in collaboration with the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit 2018, Third Avenue Playhouse, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. January-March 2019 and take place at. Central Michigan University Art Gallery, 2019, Miller Art Museum, Wisconsin, 2019, Peeler Art Center, Depauw Indiana, 2020. Sponsors include the National Endowment for the Arts, The State of Wisconsin, and others.
Currently, the script and performance piece, Seed to Cedar (I Am the Small Seed) was born in an Art Residency at the Born Global Foundation. Seed to Cedar describes resonance and resilience, depicting Gaza from an environmental spiritual dimension, and elevated consciousness about the misbalances caused by colonization.
Her recent book, Akashic Diaries: Detroit Degree Zero and Other Crisis Writings will be launched in 2024. in collaboration with Paradise NOW, Pepinieres de Creation, Paris France, and Transcultures Belgium.
The Mediterranean Fire Project Artists will be in the next edition of Riverwise Magazine.
Special thanks to
Charles Ezra Ferrell
Ismaeil Ahmed
Medhaswi Paturu
Bashar Hroub
Philippe Franck
Graciela Bustos
Sarah Sidelko
Lila Kadaj
Sabrina Jefferson
Mo Ghalil
Therese Basha Jarjours
Sophie Grillet
Brenda Oelbaum
Aajay Murphy