Samkome
Kulturkirken Jakob and Scenehuset
12. October - Kl 14.00
This is an invitation to grieve. Together.
The public is invited to join a ritual of difference and to hold each other’s grief. Kurdish, Palestinian, Greek, Gambian, Israeli, Norwegian, and Jewish voices and melodies create a weave through this gathering.
How to grieve, how to move through despair, how to hold ourselves and each other. How to hold space for others’ pain.
Samkome is an attempt. In impossible situations. In spaces that have already collapsed. There is no other way than to try. Together. This is an attempt for today. An attempt to grieve.
How to continue living, how to host what feels impossible, how to open up to a gentle encounter. How to heal.
Song, poetry, and fire guide us through this together – friends and strangers.
«My grief is lifted out of me into something greater than myself; a gathering. This is the strength and central quality of the ritual, that the repetitions within the community are both symbolic and tangible. Like when two unarmed hands meet in a handshake as a greeting»
Coverage of Samkome in Norsk Shakespearetidsskrift, Willy Walder.
“We are, at present, swimming in a sea of grief. That sea includes death, but it is also so much larger, encircling all sorts of sorrows. In a better world, many of these disappearances would be avoidable, even unimaginable. For now, given the loss-filled waters we inhabit, how to better navigate through them, and without drowning? How to shift course, veering closer to a more humane self and society?”
Excerpt from ‘Rebellious Mourning’, Cindy Milstein
Welcome to ‘Samkome,’ a public gathering and mourning ceremony.
The main event will take place outdoors. It is free, and open to all.
Location: Outside of Jakob Cultural Church
Date and time: Saturday October 12th, 14.00-15.15
Additional events:
Samkome Conversation at Scenehuset
Location: Scenehuset
Date and Time: Sunday, October 13th, 14:00–16:00
Cooking class with Jassem El Hindi
You can find information about the cooking class here.
ABOUT THE MAKERS:
Samkome is the first collaboration between Mia Habib and Ariel Efraim Ashbel.
Mia Habib is an Oslo-based dancer and choreographer with a significant international reach. She holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution and negotiation and works at the intersection of performing arts, exhibitions, publications, lectures, teaching, and curation.
Through Mia Habib Productions, she engages in and facilitates laboratories and research with a wide range of specialists, including artists, researchers, political activists, and others.
In the Norwegian public sphere, Habib has been involved in discussions on artistic freedom and racism related to the independent performing arts field, in addition to being one of the driving forces behind the group “Jewish Voices for a Just Peace,” a network of Jews and people of Jewish background in Norway who support a free Palestine.
Read an interview with Mia Habib here.
Samkome was created together with Israeli director Ariel Efraim Ashbel, who has lived and worked in Germany since 2011. In addition to being a resident artist at HAU in Berlin, his works have been presented at many major theaters and festivals across Europe.
Ashbel works interdisciplinarily at the intersection of theater, dance, music, and installation, weaving together a wide range of historical, political, theoretical, and pop cultural references. In his work as a theater maker, he invests not only in creating stage images to be experienced from a distance, but also in building spaces for conversation and togetherness.