Journée Paroles et Manœuvres: Sound Art, War and the Arab World

Monia Abdallah is a professor of art history at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM, Canada). Her recent research focuses on artistic practices in the Middle East. She defended her doctoral thesis at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), which was entitled “Building the continuous progress of the past investigation of the notion of contemporary Islamic art.” Her publications study the links between art, Islam and Modernity.

Mirna Boyadjian holds a master’s degree in Art History from UQAM. Her thesis project focused on Taryn Simon’s photographic work. In February 2015, a four-part version of her thesis appeared in the Parisian web Magazine Jeu de Paume. She writes articles for various art journals, and she recently co-organized a day-long study event at DHC-ART on the connections between aesthetics and politics in contemporary art. In September 2015, she will begin her PhD in Art History on the sonic elements (music, noise, voices, etc.) in representations of conflict in the art of post-civil war Lebanon (1990-2014).

Serge Cardinal is a professor of cinema at the Department of Art History and Film Studies at University of Montreal. He leads the research-creation laboratory La création sonore : cinéma, arts médiatiques, arts du son, www.creationsonore.ca. He is a member of the interdisciplinary Observatory of creation and musical research (l’Observatoire interdisciplinaire de création et de recherche en musique).

Mary Ellen Davis is a documentary director. He first short film was Nelson Symonds Jazz Guitarist.
She traveled several times to Guatemala, where she filmed a 16mm documentary,
The Devil’s Dream (1992), and later Tierra Madre (1996). Both films denounce the profound injustices that plague the country, while honoring Guatemalans and their cultures. They won several awards, as well as widespread recognition inside and outside of Québec. With the same inspiration, Davis directed Mexico: Dead or Alive (1996),
and helped produce Alejandro (1994), by Salvadoran director Guillermo Escalon.
In 2001, Davis releases a third documentary about Guatemala: Haunted Land. This documentary also receives local and international recognition.
Since 1997, she works as program advisor for Montreal’s First Nations film & video program within Festival Présence autochtone. In 1999, Davis becomes part-time teacher at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (Fine Arts Faculty, Concordia Univ.).
In 2007 Davis completes three projects: Territories, Los Músicos, and A Day in Palestine.

Radwan Ghazi Moumneh is a Lebanese/Canadian musician, record producer and multidisciplinary artist living in Montreal. Focusing on morphing and re-interpreting Arabic music and culture, he presents his performances under the moniker “Jerusalem In My Heart.” He is the co-owner of Montreal Hotel2Tango recording studio, and releases his albums on Constellation Records.

Raïa Haïdar is a lebanese and french actress born in Paris and raised in Gambia. She has starred in numerous short films, Jocelyne Saab’s What’s Going On? (2011), Dima El Horr’s Everyday is a Holiday (2009), Ghassan Salhab’s and The Last Man (2006). She has co-written, co-produced and co-starred in the play Who Killed Marilyn? Raïa Haïdar teaches acting to children and adults. She has also worked behind the camera as a production designer and set decorator.

Born in 1975, Mazen Kerbaj lives and works in Beirut. His main activities are comics, paintings and music. Kerbaj published more than 15 books and many short stories and drawings in anthologies, newspapers and magazines in Lebanon, Europe, and the USA, and exhibited his work both in solo and in collective exhibitions in Lebanon, France, England, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Dubai, Malaysia and the USA. Mazen Kerbaj is also one of the founders of the Lebanese free improvisation scene, both as a trumpet player and as an active member in the MILL association that organizes the annual Irtijal festival (www.irtijal.org) in Beirut since 2001.

Thomas Sinou was born in Marseille. In 2006, he immigrated to Montreal where he works as a sound designer and chief sound for festivals and concerts. Sinou designs various media devices allowing interaction between sound, space, actors, performers, spectators … In 2008, he founded the company L’eau du bain with Anne-Marie Ouellet where he acts as a sound designer and actor-performer.

Rehab Nazzal is a Palestinian-born multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. She holds an MFA from Ryerson University (Toronto), a BFA from the University
of Ottawa, and a BA in Economics from Damascus University (Syria). Nazzal’s
work deals with forms of representation
of violence of war and colonialism. Her
work has been shown in Canada and internationally in both group and solo exhibitions and screenings. Nazzal has received awards from the University of Western Ontario, Ryerson University and the University of Ottawa, as well as grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa and SAW Video.

Samir Saul is professor of History of International Relations at the University of Montreal. His interests are France and the Arab world. His investigations focus on the relationship between political and economic dimensions at the international level. In economic history, he studies the movement of capital, international trade and business history. He is a founding member and coordinator of the Groupement interuniversitaire pour l’histoire des relations internationales (GIHRIC).