Saga – Mythology of Departure
H21:00
“I Pomeriggi” series
H21:00
“I Pomeriggi” series
Free entrance, registration here
The event is part of the series I Pomeriggi dedicated to the Fellows.
Curated by Noha Mokhtar (Fellow Roma Calling / Visual Arts)
The screening will be in French with English subtitles
Saga – Mythology of Departure is a film that explores the construction of individual and collective identities, the sense of belonging, and familial claustrophobia.
The work is based on research conducted in Cairo that began in 2015, and on interviews that Noha Mokhtar and Sahar Suliman carried out with Egyptians of different generations and socio-economic backgrounds about their experiences within their families. The film introduces six characters—the mother, the daughter, the aunt, the son, the uncle, and the father—who make up a fictional family. All the roles are performed by a single actress, Malika Khatir. The artists aim to deconstruct the family in order to better understand the power dynamics that shape it. The filming relied on a specific technique: the artists read the lines of each character aloud in real-time. The actress, hearing the lines through an earpiece, immediately repeated them in front of the camera. This method allowed them to explore the idea of the body as a space of resonance—the text literally passing through the actress before being captured by the camera. Unfamiliar with the script beforehand, Malika followed the reading moment by moment, guided by the inflections and cues conveyed through Noha and Sahar’s voices.
The film is a collaboration between Noha Mokhtar and Sahar Suliman. Initially presented as a video installation at Halle Nord in Geneva, as part of the eponymous exhibition curated by Elise Lammer, the work is shown for the first time as a single-channel film. This screening presents a work in progress.
Noha Mokhtar and Sahar Suliman are cousins. They share (half of) a family, a diasporic condition, and the experience of being women artists. Their collaboration was born out of a desire to reflect on the concept of family in a transcultural and transmedial way. They bring together visual arts and anthropology, video and theater.
The work is co-produced by Halle Nord, Genève and Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain, Lausanne.
Noha Mokhtar is an artist, anthropologist, and editor. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Anthropology and Critical Media Practice at Harvard University, where her research focuses on the relationship between kinship, space, and materiality in contemporary Egypt. Multidisciplinary in nature, her artistic practice draws on ethnographic research methods. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich; the Centre d’Art Contemporain and the Centre de la Photographie in Geneva; the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne; Aargauer Kunsthaus, and more recently at Halle Nord in Geneva. In 2020, she co-founded the interdisciplinary publishing house Hors-Sujet with Gregor Huber and Ivan Sterzinger.
Sahar Suliman develops a practice that spans theater, writing, film, and visual art. Her artistic research in Egypt explores issues related to the role of women in public space and collective memory. Her work has been presented at venues including the Palais de l’Athénée in Geneva; Carré d’Art in Nîmes; the Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art in New York; and at the Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon. In 2020, she earned a Master’s degree in directing from La Manufacture in Lausanne. Her work has also been shown at Théâtre Sévelin 36 in Lausanne and Théâtre Amstramgram in Geneva. In 2021, she co-founded the artistic company Marguerite Complexe with Louise Bentkowski. Their work has been staged at Théâtre du Loup, Geneva; TU – Théâtre de l’Usine, Geneva; and Le Grütli – Centre for the Production and Diffusion of Performing Arts, Geneva.
Malika Khatir is a Franco-Algerian actress, performer and singer. She has worked with several directors, and many different theaters internationally, among other at the Schausipelhaus in Zurich, Basel, Berne, Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin, the Théâtre de l’Arsenic in Lausanne, Les Halles de Sierre and the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris. In 2009, she and Fiamma Camesi founded the Südenbock company, with whom they create performances.
Noha Mokhtar & Sahar Suliman, Saga – Mythology of Departure, 2025, film still