ALPHABET, (Un)folding the line: Movements, Transmissions, Improvisations

Beginnings are a delicate thing.

For the past 12 months I have been working behind the scenes on a familial history project “Unfolding the line(s): Movements, Transmissions, Improvisations” that I started in the summer of 2022. The project began as a series of interviews with my mother (Algerian) and my father (Croatian); I interviewed my mother and father separately about their experiences of Algeria during and after the war of Algerian Independence; they met in Algeria in 1962. The first written piece (currently work in progress) coming out of the family materials and recordings I collected is called “Alphabet”; this is a long multilingual poem in prose piece on the letters of the Arabic alphabet, written in English, French, and Arabic, containing calligraphy and text. 

Arabic is a heritage language for me, yet it has taken me until now to be brave enough to dive into that language; for that I had to start small - with the letters of the alphabet. I am at the beginning, but the process of re-discovery has been an extraordinary one. I am able to fully integrate the Arabic sounds and signs passed on to me by my Algerian grandmother in my childhood into my daily art writing practice. To unfold the line(s), recover the lost thread(s), to release the work.

In December 2024 a couple of videos (long and short) were recorded by the artist, coach and mentor Caroline Bergvall on my new writing practice, the first her Practice conversations series. You can listen to them on this page (see top).🪬✨

31 December, 2024, Zagreb.