In the experimental audio visual performance “ctrl.xx.tension”, funded by the “Senate for Culture and Europe”, the audience will be taken on a 75-minute live musical exploration of the image of women as shaped by female pop icons, united in a dance performance that makes visible the experiences of discrimination.
The performance features different female* BPoC musicians based in Berlin:
𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐌 (Turkey / Germany) – producer & musical director
𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐀𝐦𝐢𝐧 (Egypt) - performer
𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚 (Italy) - ney
𝐋𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐢 (Algeria) – violin
𝐀𝐳𝐢𝐧 𝐙𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐢 (Iran) – santur
The idea originated in RUSNAM's favorite songs from her youth.
She works through the pop music of female performers at the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, which both shaped her, but in which she was simultaneously excluded as a queer, Turkish-German Berlin musician with Arab roots. Her goal is to reflect these images & to deconstruct their songs to recreate their music, free from stereotypes.
The personal discrimination experiences of all musicians participating play an important part in shaping this project.
Detached from the stereotype of the pop icon beyond the borders of our origins. With BPoC women* who are different and ambivalent, united in a musically experimental performance in which there is not THE woman.
We reclaim space, especially in popular music,
which has also shaped and influenced our audience.
*All project participants have been affected by discrimination on different levels.
"Ctrl.xx.tension" works through experiences of discrimination and reinterprets roles.