Hamlet Symphony - Foto Frieke Janssens Urok Shirhan – visual artist who studied Fine Arts at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and Goldsmiths’ University of London. In 2012/2013 she was a participant in the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, Lebanon.
Urok has recently worked on a research project regarding the mediatisation of the Iraq War, Occupy Baghdad (2012-2014). In the exhibition Crisis of History, she presents her video work Communist Parents (2013) and Children of the Left (2014).
Mokhallad Rasem – theater director and actor. In Iraq he was a director at the National Theater of Baghdad, but since 2005 he has lived and worked in Belgium. Mokhallad made headlines with his piece Iraqi Ghosts (2010), which won the Creation Prize Theater aan Zee, and which was selected for the national Theater Festivals in both Belgium and the Netherlands. This dynamic theater piece portrayed the impact of the war on his generation. Since 2013 he is an associated artist at Toneelhuis Antwerpen, where he currently is concentrating on directing European repertoires, such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet
Muhanad Rasheed – choreographer, composer and dancer/performer of the group Iraqis Bodies. He was born in Baghdad, and studied theater at the Institute for Visual Arts there. In 2010 he won the Dutch Dance Days prize for the most promising choreographer. In the same year he won the Swan Prize for the most impressive dance production of the year with Mourning. The piece was inspired by Iraqi funeral rites and was premiered during the Dancing on the Edge Festival in 2009.
The moderator of the evening is Ozkan Gölpinar, writer, art critic, and filmmaker. Ozkan is presently associated with the research program Contemporary Art Beyond Boundaries (CAbB) of Leiden University.
Cineblend is a monthly night in an informal atmosphere with dinner, film and debate. Cineblend deals with the representation and perceptions of cultures in Dutch media. The evenings are often linked to current social issues. Prominent speakers from the field are invited to open the conversation with the public using video and film fragments. Each evening ends with a drink. This makes Cineblend an appropriate networking opportunity.
Cineblend is an initiative of SAVAN (Dutch Foundation for Visual Anthropology).
