Projects / Social Acoustics / MAGNUNA, part 1: HAYOUNA
Partners: Doa Aly
MAGNUNA is a long-term research and performance project, dedicated to locating the ambiguous narratives of female madness in Arabo-Islamic literature from the Middle Ages. The research consists of finding, collecting and organizing the descriptions of female madness in the literature. The performances deploy the research findings in the creation of choreographies for female performers.
MAGNUNA, part 1 is inspired by the character of Hayouna al-Majnuna (the mad Hayouna), a Sufi mystic who lived in Iran in the 10th century. Hayouna is mentioned in al-Naysaburi’s Wise Madmen, written before 1015-16 AD. Her life is recorded in the oral tradition central to Islamic sacred texts, as a woman who vacillates between ecstatic rapture and suffering.
A symbolic pattern, and a choreographic configuration is based on her sufi poetry and mantras. The circle, center, and square are the elements I use to illustrate the three planes of existence attributed to her, as a wandering mystic in search of the truth (the circle), longs to be united with her God (the center), and suffers the material plane (the square).
The work was premiered at Bergen Kjøtt, as part of the exhibition Social Acoustics, August 12 - 28, 2022. Performance by Noura Seif.
Partners to the project: Brandon LaBelle, Doa Aly, Ricarda Denzer, Errant Sound, Berlin , Zorka Wollny, Achim Lengerer, Julia Tieke, The Listening Biennial