Jumana Emil Abboud - Gazelle in a Mother’s Eye

Invited to do research for a performance in Riyadh, artist Jumana Emil Abboud, working with collaborators Tamara Kalo and Ileana Gonzalez Pacheco, has created an immersive study of local folktales and the experience of embedding herself in the local landscape. In her “water reading,” Abboud examines how historic relationships with natural sources, primarily water, have informed the present day. Abboud translates and detangles intangible heritage and questions around water resources into spoken word, video, movement, and live drawing, creating a context-specific work of both imagination and reenactment. The resulting stories are presented with dedication, care, and attention to the watery environments, shaping the connection to the past and future. Exchanging water, this new performance also comprises readings from folk tales, imagination, and improvisation as well as lived experience and audience participation.