Concept/Performance: Diana Sabri
Sound: Diana Sabri
Lighting & technical assistance: Maria Stefanidis
Theatro Anapoda Festival - Rhodes, Greece
Body & Politics Festival at Embros Theatre - Athens, Greece
4th Compartments Dance Festival - Athens, Greece
Peace Process #20 is a solo performance installation that embodies the suffering and suffocation that one experiences under a military occupation. It explores the ways in which the body is transformed by altered repetition of movement, speech and sound in performance.
Based on the Oslo Peace Accord of 1993 , between the PLO and Israel, the performance questions whether peace is ever possible between the oppressor and the oppressed. The performance criticizes the Oslo peace accord and its corrupt leaderships and the way in which the Palestinian people were decieved by the peace process, as an agreement to bring hope and justice, which turned out to be a facade and furthermore fuelled Israeli violence and occupation in the decades that have followed since then. Therefore, I have used extracts of the political speeches that marked a historical moment in the Palestinian struggle against Zionist / Israeli occupation, to question the notion of peace and how its language is abused for interests of power rather than for the interest of the people.
Embodying this suffocation and suffering has been the main physical exploration in the process of developing and finalizing this performance. Peace Process #20 is a body under constant siege and violence. It is a body without a voice; constantly gasping for a breath of freedom in the struggle for peace.
My approach to convey this struggle and question peace itself, has taken a more abstract form. I have avoided creating a 'heroic' aesthetic about resistance as instead I have focused on the psychological and physical fragility of the human body and mind under harsh conditions.
Focus and practical exploration of theme
* How can the use of repetition construct different interpretations throughout the duration of a performance?
* How can the perception of time be altered (slowed down or speeded up) via movement which is interpreted differently with the use of repetition?.
* What potentials are created through such a practical method?.
* What are the potentials of such a composition, that uses methods of repetition in the attempt to explore a 'language' which protests against such a political issue/theme?.
* How can a political speech be used to expose lies and re-emerge the truth of the Palestinians' desire to live with dignity? - Without , of course, using a propagandist approach.
* How possible is it to convey (through such a practical exploration) the heroism behind a struggle which no longer uses weapons for resistance, in the name of 'Peace' and unarmed struggle for freedom?.
* How can breath construct rhythm and become a 'metronome' initiating different perceptions of time during performance?.
* How can the 'iconic Palestinian hero' be a 'terrorist' and simultaneously be terrorised under the reality of circumstances which were imposed by the Oslo Agreement of 1993?.
