AZIZA GORGI

Unburying Echoes is the latest iteration of Aziza Gorgi & Emily Sarsam's artistic research project "Shaping Narratives". Criss-crossing between Tunisia and Modena, the work invites audiences to engage through scent, taste, sound, memory, and collective acts of grief and commemoration. The performance took place in Modena's modernist cemetery, built by Aldo Rossi, in the context of Periferico Festival, a festival focussing on site-specific performance art.

Developed through a series of physical and virtual encounters with archaeologists in Modena, the performance takes as its starting point the shared culinary traditions of North Africa and Northern Italy. These exchanges unfolded into speculative explorations of funerary practices within Etruscan and Roman tombs, offering a context through which to examine the transformation, survival, and reimagining of ritual across geographies and histories.

Through this work, the artists reflect on archaeology as both a scientific and speculative discipline - one that continuously reorders historical narratives through fragmented discoverie.

Central to this piece is a collaboration with a local ensemble of singers who co-created and performed the live vocal score. Over the course of two intensive workshops on site, the group, composed mainly of non-professional singers, was guided through vocal exercises and improvisations around practices of grieving and caring.

The research was materially translated into glass and ceramic objects, such as pouring vessels and spoons. The glass pieces were crafted in collaboration with Sadika in Tunis, while the ceramic objects were produced in Vienna.

Spoons were handed to each audience member upon entering the performance space who were invited to move between the three levels of the cemetery, while observing, listening for and tasting the sensorial transitions within the space. The choir was spread across the three levels. On each level, one choir member could be found holding a vessel filled with a ceremonial liquid: garum (fermented fish sauce) on the ground level, balsamico (donated by Federica Rocchi's family) on the second level, and honey on the third level.

The work was intimately supported by curator Salma Kossemtini, who invited us to perform at Periferico Festival.

Unburying Echoes is the latest iteration of Aziza Gorgi & Emily Sarsam's artistic research project "Shaping Narratives". Criss-crossing between Tunisia and Modena, the work invites audiences to engage through scent, taste, sound, memory, and collective acts of grief and commemoration. The performance took place in Modena's modernist cemetery, built by Aldo Rossi, in the context of Periferico Festival, a festival focussing on site-specific performance art.

Developed through a series of physical and virtual encounters with archaeologists in Modena, the performance takes as its starting point the shared culinary traditions of North Africa and Northern Italy. These exchanges unfolded into speculative explorations of funerary practices within Etruscan and Roman tombs, offering a context through which to examine the transformation, survival, and reimagining of ritual across geographies and histories.

Through this work, the artists reflect on archaeology as both a scientific and speculative discipline - one that continuously reorders historical narratives through fragmented discoverie.

Central to this piece is a collaboration with a local ensemble of singers who co-created and performed the live vocal score. Over the course of two intensive workshops on site, the group, composed mainly of non-professional singers, was guided through vocal exercises and improvisations around practices of grieving and caring.

The research was materially translated into glass and ceramic objects, such as pouring vessels and spoons. The glass pieces were crafted in collaboration with Sadika in Tunis, while the ceramic objects were produced in Vienna.

Spoons were handed to each audience member upon entering the performance space who were invited to move between the three levels of the cemetery, while observing, listening for and tasting the sensorial transitions within the space. The choir was spread across the three levels. On each level, one choir member could be found holding a vessel filled with a ceremonial liquid: garum (fermented fish sauce) on the ground level, balsamico (donated by Federica Rocchi's family) on the second level, and honey on the third level.

The work was intimately supported by curator Salma Kossemtini, who invited us to perform at Periferico Festival.

This story is part of Shaping Narratives, a multi-sensorial performance that took place on February 9th at Le19 Crac in Montbeliard for the opening of Cum Panis, an exhibition about bread and its ecologies. For 25 minutes we invited our audience to tune into their senses by deeply listening, watching, and tasting.

The performance offered a glimpse into our research on shapes of bread in Tunisia and the narratives they reproduce. With the help of science fiction, song, textile, ceramic, taste, and choreography, we built a world through which we investigated what indigenous, colonial, and contemporary shapes of bread tell us about the impact of extractive politics and economies on our social, cultural, physical and spiritual lives.

In honor of those who continue to create, protect, and transmit knowledge and culture that is embodied and oral, we have decided to leave no material traces through this performance and emphasize the importance of embodied experiencing of research and archival material. We hope that over the course of this exhibition, the exhibition props continue to gather people around stories, food, and embodied learning.

Unburying Echoes is the latest iteration of Aziza Gorgi & Emily Sarsam's artistic research project "Shaping Narratives". Criss-crossing between Tunisia and Modena, the work invites audiences to engage through scent, taste, sound, memory, and collective acts of grief and commemoration. The performance took place in Modena's modernist cemetery, built by Aldo Rossi, in the context of Periferico Festival, a festival focussing on site-specific performance art.

Developed through a series of physical and virtual encounters with archaeologists in Modena, the performance takes as its starting point the shared culinary traditions of North Africa and Northern Italy. These exchanges unfolded into speculative explorations of funerary practices within Etruscan and Roman tombs, offering a context through which to examine the transformation, survival, and reimagining of ritual across geographies and histories.

Through this work, the artists reflect on archaeology as both a scientific and speculative discipline - one that continuously reorders historical narratives through fragmented discoverie.

Central to this piece is a collaboration with a local ensemble of singers who co-created and performed the live vocal score. Over the course of two intensive workshops on site, the group, composed mainly of non-professional singers, was guided through vocal exercises and improvisations around practices of grieving and caring.

The research was materially translated into glass and ceramic objects, such as pouring vessels and spoons. The glass pieces were crafted in collaboration with Sadika in Tunis, while the ceramic objects were produced in Vienna.

Spoons were handed to each audience member upon entering the performance space who were invited to move between the three levels of the cemetery, while observing, listening for and tasting the sensorial transitions within the space. The choir was spread across the three levels. On each level, one choir member could be found holding a vessel filled with a ceremonial liquid: garum (fermented fish sauce) on the ground level, balsamico (donated by Federica Rocchi's family) on the second level, and honey on the third level.

The work was intimately supported by curator Salma Kossemtini, who invited us to perform at Periferico Festival.