Category: Festival

  • Women’s Voices: Kurdish Sound Archive & Beyond

    Women’s Voices: Kurdish Sound Archive & Beyond

    17-18 July 2026 @ Cafe OTO London


    Archive Khanah – Part of the SPACE21 Festival Presents: “Women’s Voices: Kurdish Sound Archive and Beyond” festival offers two immersive evenings at Cafe OTO dedicated to Kurdish sonic memory, archival storytelling, and live performance. On July 17th, the focus is on rare historical recordings of women’s voices from across Kurdistan, with a panel discussion and sound exhibition led by Zeyneb Yas Salam and her team, followed by live performances that creatively reinterpret the traditional dengbêj style. On July 18th, the spotlight shifts to contemporary Kurdish home archives from London, with a panel exploring diaspora sound culture and a collaborative live performance responding to these intimate recordings. Each night blends archival listening, thoughtful dialogue, and innovative music-making, inviting audiences to experience the vibrancy and resilience of Kurdish women’s voices past and present. Exclusive Kurdish music merchandise will be available on both evenings.

    Panel Discussion & Sound Exhibition: 30 archival recordings of Kurdish women’s voices from 1905–2000, representing Bakur, Rojhalat, Bashur, and Rojava, curated by Zeyneb Yas Salam and her team from the Amed Museum. Discussion on the archival process, the significance of women’s oral traditions, and the challenges of preservation. Live Performance: Neslihan Ediş’s reflection on Dengbêj, the distinctive Kurdish song style, responding to the archival material. Live Performance: Heja Netrik presents a contemporary reflection on Dengbêj reinterpreting the archival material.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

    Panel Discussion & Exhibition: Collection of Kurdish home archives from London, curated by Hardi Kurda. Archive owners and a Kurdish artist working in this field discuss the role and impact of diaspora home recordings on Kurdish cultural memory in London. Live performance: Duo Moment, Hardi Kurda, and Khabat Abas explore how the home archive can contribute to and respond to the evolving Kurdish modern archive, reflecting on its cultural significance within the city.  Siavash Nameshiri: Live Electronics: Drawing on almost-forgotten ancestral echoes of Heiran and Dengbêj traditions across different regions of Kurdistan, as well as early recordings from Kurdistan, Siavash re-synthesises the movements of heritage and tradition, reimagining them within a collective memorial context. A bridge to the present, an act of remembrance that both honours the past and acknowledges its ongoing transformation.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

  • Slemani Sonic Horizon

    Slemani Sonic Horizon

    22.10 – 03.11.2026


    The 10th edition of the SPACE21 Festival transforms Slemani into a living soundscape, featuring immersive installations in public spaces, site-specific performances and more by local and international artists. Explore the city’s acoustic and ecological layers through sound archives, experimental music, and collective listening.

    SPACE21 Youth Workshop engages youth in attentive listening walks, collaborative composition, and sound-making. These activities encourage participants to creatively explore Slemani’s sonic ecology and history through sound. By blending environmental awareness and artistic practice, the workshop fosters confidence and collaboration. Participants learn to map memory and place through listening, forging a deeper connection to Slemani’s past and present while inspiring new sonic perspectives.

    Volunteer
    Location

    SPACE21 Sound Gallery, in Slemani’s historic tobacco factory, transforms industrial memory into a creative hub, inviting artistic collaboration and echoing the city’s sonic and cultural past.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

    The Saray Building explores how this historic site’s echoes, history, and transformation shape Slemani’s evolving sonic identity and collective memory.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

    Hammam Mufti’s unique acoustics and history inspire visitors to Kurdish memory and culture through listening, reflection, and site-specific works.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

    SPACE21’s Slemani Sonic Horizon conference at the University of Sulaimani explores sonic ecology, youth empowerment, and inclusive pedagogy through talks, panels, and creative workshops.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

    Bus Tour offers a collective radio listening experience, reviving Kurdish bus culture and unity through shared broadcasts, music, and stories aboard a moving exhibition space.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

    Maryam of Al Adra Church, among Slemani’s oldest buildings, preserves memory through unique acoustics, each sound connecting visitors to the city’s enduring spirit and history.

    Buy Ticket
    Location

    Simon Martin, born in 1981 in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, is a composer and artistic director of Projections libérantes, a Montreal-based company he founded in 2011. Celebrated for his “fascinating” and “hypnotic” music, Martin explores the beauty of sound emerging from silence. His works balance evocative sound phenomena with dramatic structure, shaping his unique artistic vision. Projections libérantes produces Martin’s distinctive creations, sharing his passion for the evocative, intangible qualities of sound.

    Youth Workshop funded by ernst von siemens musikstiftung.
    Radio Resonance funded by the programme WAYS of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
    Festival Partners: