Read the Room - Day #1

8.00pm Moonscape 
Single channel video by Mona Benyamin, 2020 

Exploring the relationship between hope, nostalgia and despair, Moonscape is a short film which takes the form of a music video for a ballad performed by a male-female duo. The song traces the story of a man called Dennis M. Hope, who claimed ownership of the Moon in 1980 and founded the Lunar Embassy. The visuals of the film are a mix of the main characters – played by the artist’s parents - reenacting scenes from the Arab music industry, film noir motifs, material from NASA’s archives, and other found footage.

8.40pm Listening Along with Cheb Mimo 

Cheb Mimo takes the audience on a deep dive into some of the lesser-known genres and subgenres of North African music starting with what is known as the Proto-Rai Underground – music that came out of communities around the port of Oran in Algeria during the 1970s and 1980s. By playing some of the records and cassette tapes he has found in local shops and personal collections, Mimo shares his exploration of the many different and complex twists and turns that music takes from its origins to becoming its modern progeny. 

10pm Nadah El Shazly Sings the Classics 

On Mophradat’s invitation, Nadah El Shazly sings some of the classics of the Arab world’s rich pop music vernacular. With her voice, she creates a space for the memories and emotions that bring this community together in their shared joy in music, as well as the intimacy and familiarity that comes with having a common language. 

Mona Benyamin is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work examines intergenerational perspectives on hope, trauma, and identity. Mona works in a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, archival material, and time-based media. In consideration of art history’s political potential, she uses humour and irony as tools of resistance and reflection in her art practice. Her work is heavily influenced by television culture ranging from film noir to contemporary Arab pop music. 

A DJ, selector, and NTS Radio resident, Cheb Mimo has roots in both Algeria and Tunisia and is currently based in London. He is working to uncover and share forgotten musical treasures from North Africa and the Arab world as a way of contributing to preserving and reviving this complex and rich musical heritage. 

Cairo-born producer and vocalist Nadah El Shazly is a prominent voice in the electronic music underworld of her hometown. As heard on her debut album “Ahwar” (2017), her music radically reinvents Egypt’s popular music while exploring electronic and improvisational idioms. In 2022, Nadah produced her first film score for Fyzal Boulifa’s award-winning feature, The Damned Don’t Cry, and, most recently, she made another for Mahdi Fleifel’s first feature To A Land Unknown. Later this year, she will be releasing her second album, which she will be presenting at this year’s Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht.   

Mophradat is a Brussels-based association that creates opportunities for artists from the Arab world through an inventive approach to funding, commissioning, collaborating, and gathering. Launched by Mophradat in 2023, New Agents is a programme that brings together a group of people from across arts fields from the Arab world, whose practices are singular, future facing, and committed to public engagement, to work towards a joint project. The New Agents are Bayan Kiwan, Dani Arbid, Nour El Safoury, Sara Bouzgarrou, and Siwar Krai(y)tem.