Yasmine Hamdan

[Screenshot from video below.] [Screenshot from video below.]

Yasmine Hamdan

By : Medrar TV مدرار تي في

 April 2014

D-CAF Festival, Qasr el-Nile Theater, Cairo

Yasmine Hamdan became known with Soapkills, the Arab indie band she founded in Beirut with fellow musician Zeid Hamdan in the nineties. Soapkills’ music quickly became the soundtrack to a vibrant, young arts scene which developed in postwar Lebanon, and the band gradually acquired an emblematic status. To this day, Yasmine is considered an underground icon throughout the Arab world. After moving to Paris, she worked with Mirwais, CocoRosie and Marc Collin on producing her solo albums, which draw on various Arab and Western music genres and styles, and often use irony and humor for social critique. 

In this interview with Medrar.TV, the musician discusses the developments in her music after Soapkills broke up, and how she creatively adapted her voice and lyrics to Western pop music style, without being limited by the pop love songs cliche.

Amira El Masry translated the interview into English.



 [This video was produced by Medrar TV and is featured in partnership with Jadaliyya Culture.]     

A Scenography Workshop by Hussein Baydoun

A Scenography workshop by Hussein Baydoun

8-16 September 2013

Falaki Theater, Cairo, Egypt

 

Hussein Baydoun is a Lebanese artist, architect, and scenographer who is known for his unique approach to set design. Baydoun frequently participates in the creation and development of performances from their early stages with the view that scenography is an essential component to the creation of theatrical work, one no less important than the script. His designs are often inspired by the performance spaces in which he works, where he creates fascinating sets from whatever is available as he challenges conventional notions about theater production, such as in his most recent performance "Alice," which was produced in collaboration with Lebanese playwright and director Sawsan Bou Khaled. In September, Baydoun returned to Cairo to lead a scenography workshop following the same vision. At the American University in Cairo`s Falaki Theater, he worked with six upcoming set designers, in addition to amateurs, on creating imaginative environments from the remnants of old sets and other discarded objects. This video highlights the vision and development of the workshop as Baydoun describes the aim of his teaching methods.  


 

      

     [This video is produced by Medrar TV and is featured as part of a new partnership with Jadaliyya Culture.]