Beursschouwburg announces their five new associated artists

Farida Amadou, Loucka Fiagan, Rand Abou-Fakher, and the duo nadjim bigou-fathi and soto labor are Beursschouwburg's new associated artists. They busy themselves with the wondrous worlds of curious string work, subconscious censorship, a planned feature film, poetic criticism and critical poetry – but they don't do this alone.

The Constellation

The five artists were selected through an open call by Beursschouwburg's artistic team together with an external jury formed by Joachim Ben Yakoub, Moya Michael and Arne Huysmans. For two and a half years, the associated artists will be supported by the dedicated network The Constellation. The teams of Beursschouwburg, Zinnema (open space that supports talent), Hiros (organisation supporting the development of artistic trajectories), Bâtard (performance festival),  Argos (the centre for audiovisual arts), Volta (workspace and venue for music) and Level Five (the artist-run cooperative studio for artists) will provide infrastructural, business and content related assistance.

soto labor & nadjim bigou-fathi 

From speech to song, from text to score, from research to performance: this critical-poetic duo invites the audience to think about the production and transmission of histories.

FRSH (search for an object in a pocket) is a critical study of the production and performance methods of discourse: from speech to song, from gesture to dance, from text to score. Far beyond any distinction between research and performance, poetic duo soto labor and nadjim bigou-fathi focus their gaze on the power dynamics that determine how histories are produced and handed down. In doing so, they ask the audience to help think – with their ears and/or mouths – about how we can shuffle the cards again. Specifically, soto labor (they/them) and nadjim bigou-fathi (he/him) engage with theoretical and videographic materials and transform them into one/their performative language.

nadjim bigou-fathi (1990, FR) is a designer, visual artist and performer. He is concerned with the production of limits – from walls to words – and the normative, territorial or authoritarian dynamics behind them. Through curatorial, sculptural or performative projects, he investigates waiting and expecting situations, questioning the power relations between participants.

soto labor (1993, FR) is a poet, visual artist and performer. Strongly influenced by hip-hop as a means of empowerment, they explore different forms of telling and performing, exploring the conditions that make this (im)possible for some. Their short stories, fables, poems and rap lyrics thereby become tools for political critique.

Farida Amadou

With her bass as a faithful sidekick, the self-taught sound pioneer is working on, well, something new, of course –but exactly what, no one knows.

For years, Farida Amadou (she/her) has been pushing the limits of her electronic bass. In 2021, she used video for the first time during a vibrant performance fusing image and sound. Farida is currently planning to expand on this by organizing workshops and building new communities. No one knows what it'll sound like yet. But you can count on Farida for it to be something totally new and unheard of.

Farida Amadou (1989, BE) is a self-taught musician and performer based in Liège, Belgium. The electric bass has been her main instrument since 2011. In 2013, she started playing many different genres of music, including blues, jazz and hip-hop. Consistently named as one of the most remarkable new stars of the European free and improv scene, Amadou extracts the most exciting sounds from her Fender bass without losing sight of musicality. She has proven herself (inter)nationally in challenging collaborations with such luminaries as free jazz pioneer Peter Brötzmann and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. In 2018, she played with Liège punk combo Cocaine Piss. For Europalia 2021, Farida created a sound installation, with the support of Overtoon, QO2 and les ateliers claus. 2023 is set to be a year of touring and working on a new album.

Rand Abou-Fakher

This rising-star film director is working on her first fiction feature film: about healing from the illusion of love, lost between empathy and guilt.

In her first fiction feature film, director Rand Abou-Fakher (she/her) explores the notion of forgiveness as long as our pain is not acknowledged. And memory as a sacred material on the way to heal. As well as the searching to belong in displacement and double life. With her unique visual approach and experimental way of directing, Rand sometimes, pleasantly blurs the line between fiction and reality.

Rand Abou-Fakher (1995, SYR) studied as a flutist in the Syrian Conservatory, broadening her practice in Brussels to audiovisual arts. Today, she works as a director, theatre actor, (art) project manager and programmer. Her short films Braided Love (2018) and So We Live (2020) have been shown at festivals and museums worldwide. In the process, So We Live won an Oscar Qualifying Award.

Loucka Fiagan

Multidisciplinary poet delving into the shadows of our (sub)conscious in search of censored poses, performances, forms, stories, noise and more wonderful abominations.

Our subconscious contains poses, life forms, sounds and stories that we self-censor without realising it. These are the objects of multidisciplinary poet Loucka Fiagan's (he/him) quest. He physically and mentally delves into psychoanalytic shadows until video, audio and words flow from the darkness into the spotlight. 

Loucka Fiagan (1994, BE) is a multidisciplinary poet who, while living in Belgium, dwells in the (collective) subconscious realm and the many stories it holds. There, he gathers, creates and uses text, music, dance in all possible hybrid mixtures to skillfully break conventional art forms, like the surrealist or underground beat bop artists who inspire him. For instance, crafting multimedia performances with Oscar Cassamajor and Castélie Yalombo under the name WDKY, or experimental hip-hop with Vinco Zine under the name The Eskaton 115. He is also part of the Home JAN foundation for art, permaculture and care.