Sharbakat 2024
Sharbakat is a residency program and mentoring initiative that led to a two-day festival of site-specific performances and artistic interventions in the neighborhood of Karantina. The program was designed to give emerging artists the opportunity to bring their projects to life in favorable conditions, with access to professional workspace at Amalgam Studio, guidance from a mentor, and the visibility of the festival itself. It also aimed to push the boundaries of performance beyond conventional venues and production frameworks, offering new ways to engage with audiences and explore the neighborhood from fresh perspectives.
During the first edition, we mapped out a route that invited the public to wander through Karantina, experiencing the area in an entirely alternative way. The journey began with a dance performance under a large tree in a vacant parking lot near the neighborhood's public garden. A few blocks away, a tragic-clown show took place, followed by a dance performance inside the home of Em Mohamed, a Karantina resident. From there, the audience moved through the alleyways of the neighborhood to witness a live graffiti intervention, followed by a sound installation inside an operating car garage. At another intersection, a theater performance awaited, and the route concluded with a photography installation in an abandoned house, its walls overtaken by climbing vines. The final performance took place at a former church that was later converted into a metal factory.
Sharbakat #1 was performed by Khalil Alhajj Al, Nader Bahsoun, Riwa Baroud, Abbas Bayram, Mohamed Choucair, Angela El Haddad, , Alexandre Habre, Mara Ingea, Natasha Karam and Spaz.