We shall have a bon voyage - with Mourad Belouadi and Chaimaa Qaouioun, a performance by Mohammed Abdelkarim

We shall have a bon voyage is an ongoing project that began in 2014 and explores myths, histories and ideologies through a variety of aesthetic forms such as poetry, prose, narrative, oral storytelling and religious rhetoric. The project interweaves personal anecdotes with historical events, featuring protagonists both real and imagined. Using fictional characters, the project aims to crystallize collective desires. The result is a speculative historiography that draws on conspiracy theories, plays and dramas, as well as facts. It is a performative essay that unfolds historical truth as an encounter between an event and its multiple mediations. The project conceptually re-examines the opposition between the materialist and cultural vision of history through various social phenomena such as religion, gender, nationalism and identity. It uses stories from medieval times as a paradigm for understanding contemporary issues.

Mohamed Abdelkarim

Mohamed Abdelkarim lives between Cairo, Rotterdam and Vienna, where he is a doctoral student at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna.

A visual artist, performer and cultural producer, Abdelkarim turned to text-based performances after completing a Master's degree in Switzerland in 2016. His works, informed by multidisciplinary research, explore narrative, song and speculation, while focusing on the creative process and cultural genealogy. Her current project examines the landscape as a witness to a missed history and an unexplored future.

Her performances have been presented at Guild Master of Cabaret Voltaire, Manifesta 11 in Zurich (2016), Sofia Underground Performance Art Festival (Bulgaria, 2016), Photo Cairo 6th at Contemporary Image Collective (Egypt, 2017), Live Works Performance Act Award Vol. 5 at the 37th Edizione Drodesera (Trento, Italy, 2017), At the Crossroads of Different Pasts, Presents and Futures at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin, Italy, 2018), Interazioni Festival (Rome, Italy, 2022) and at the Festival Internazionale della Performance, Performative 04, at MAXXI L'Aquila (2024). He is also behind "Live Praxes", a performative meeting featuring workshops, seminars and performances.

Mourad Belouadi

Mourad Belouadi, born in 1982 in M'hamid el Ghizlan, southern Morocco, currently lives in Salé. A self-taught musician and composer, he explores a wide variety of musical worlds and masters nearly sixty instruments. His passion for music has led him to play repertoires from different African cultures, including Gnawa, Ahwache and Andalusian music (gumbri, cora, balafon, n'goni, percussion and vocals), as well as blues (guitars), jazz (flute, trumpet, double bass) and Indian music such as raga (sitar, tabla, bansuri flute).

His music, imbued with sensitivity and authenticity, combines a mastery of tradition with a unique personal touch. Known as "Magic Fingers", Mourad can transform any object into a musical instrument. His deep connection with the rhythms of the desert, the land of his origins, can be felt in his musical creation, where he tells stories through a rich palette of sounds.

For years, he traveled Morocco in search of masters to deepen his knowledge of the Gnawa repertoire, mastering with talent the Gumbri, a three-stringed instrument used in spiritual and trance music. In addition to traditional music, Mourad has an eclectic repertoire and has collaborated with renowned jazz and blues figures such as Amino Belyamani (Morocco-USA) and Christian Belhomme (France), as well as in experimental music projects with Alexis Paul, Steve Shehan (France-USA), Jaime de la Pena (Spain) and electronic music with Remix Culture (NY-USA, Morocco). He performs in concert, composes for film and documentaries, and runs music workshops.

Chaimaa Qaouioun

Chaimaa Qaouioun, co-founder of Slam Dunk collectif, is a young slam artist. Winner of the first edition of Bayt lfann 2021 and of the second Mobdiaat Minister of Culture Award in the slam category in 2022. Semi-finalist in the Dklam 2022 competition. She took part in Lamma à L'uzine, which combined the art of Zajal poetry with spoken word poetry and theater. She has performed on theBoulevard 2022 open mic stage as well as on the stage of La Scène café in Rabat, and at the American Art Center during the "Creative writing camp" in 2023. She also runs numerous writing workshops and is currently the expert for the SLAMENA competition, which will bring together young poets from the Arab world.