Languages: Spoken in English, Dutch, Arabic, and Hebrew, subtitled in English
Dialogue between here and there
For two years, Antwerp-based artist Marah Haj Hussein – born and raised within Israel’s borders – interviewed several family members. They talked about their relationship to their native language, Palestinian Arabic, and how they relate to the official language of the country in which they live: Hebrew. How does a language evolve within the social and political conditions in which it finds itself?
In her performance “Language: No Broblem,” Haj Hussein engages in a live conversation with the audio clips she recorded and juxtaposes them with her experiences in the Belgian context. This creates an intriguing, personal story. Haj Hussein walks a tightrope between two worlds, not only addressing the (im)possibilities of translation, but also raising questions about the translation of one reality into another.
The first phase of the performance was developed as part of Marah Haj Hussein’s Master’s program at KASK. In 2023 she won the Roel Verniers Prize for the subsequent development of her performance, and in 2024 she was selected for the Vlaams Theaterfestival.