Marianne Baillot about Zoukak
Where do they meet?
They meet in a studio. I think they have a studio in the center of Beirut. They meet virtually through their website by posting information about their activities. They meet also via Skype. For example: Daya Hammoud, a member of this artist-driven initiative does not live in Beirut in the moment. She lives in Paris. This means she often has to connect virtually to the other members of this initiative. Danya is planning to move back to Beirut in july. She is planning to be fully in Beirut from July on. But at the moment I guess she is meeting with the other members of the collective via Skype or email.
Who is the leader, and does everyone share his/her vision?
Actually I am not sure if there is any leader.It is more an artistic collective. I think there are six members but I am not sure. On their website you can see a category which is called “about us”. In this category there is a list of members. Actually I am sure that there is no leader.I am also sure that they do not necessarily share the same artistic vision. Also because some of them come from theater, some come from visual arts and some come from dance. I do think that they have a political vision. They want to be involved in their local community. This is very special because most of the Lebanese artists have the wish to go away from their country. This initiative wants to develop activity in Beirut. They meet in order to create a space for the local scene. They invite other artists to work and to do workshop proposals. To be clear: We are talking about a country which is still – even if there is no war – in a fragile situation. I think the members of this initiative share the same idea: They need to make something happen even if there is a difficult context. They have to make things happen there even if it is not easy. There are not so many possibilities in Beirut. There are only a few possibilities for an artist to show his/her work. With their space they wish to give an opportunity to artists to meet, to show their work and to show knowledge.
Where does their money come from?
Danya told me recently in Paris that there is no ministry of culture in Lebanon which supports initiatives like Zoukak. The members of this initiative pay the rent for the studio out of their own pockets. When they organize a workshop they ask for a fee and they use it to pay the rent. I think this is very fragile.
Do they do what they say that they do?
Actually yes because if I take the example of Danya: Two years ago she told me that she wanted to be more involved in Beirut and now she is finishing her master in Paris and she decided to move back to Beirut. This is a big decision because she studied in France and she did her master in France and now she wants to be more engaged in her place of origin. I think this is nice, and I also think it is not only her who has a plan like that. There are more and more people who want to go back to their home countries. I myself: I’m going to Porto which is more decent to engage myself there. There are people who invest a lot in staying in big cities like New York but actually it is not the best place for their self-development. It is more rewarding to do things in a context where there is more necessity. You feel more useful in such a context. In a context in which you feel there is a necessity to do things it is more rewarding.
How do they differ from a group therapy?
This question is funny because I was a bit surprised when I saw their website. They have a category on their website which is called psycho-social, educational theater and the reference to drama as a technique. It is a discourse which is close to somatic technique but I did not understand it properly. There is a part on their website which seems to be a bit more therapeutic, I did not really understand what was it about but Danya told me that it is more easy to get money doing this kind of acts. This is what I understood: They are not doing therapy but in a way sometimes they rob the discourse of therapy in order to be supported or to get money from the educational sector. If the cultural system is not so developed and if culture is not considered by the state as something to invest in but more considered as maybe some artistic group, they have the tendency to develop a different discourse to receive money for education! One part of their website is called educational theater. Let me check: yes, psycho-social, educational theater. It says: “Zoukak, drama therapy workshop”. So they are really using the word “therapy”.
I have never heard of this but they refer quite much to drama therapy. Zoukak exists since 2006. On a part of the website they explain that their activities concern therapy, drama and theater. Maybe one of the group is more involved in this therapeutical way.
Where do you live now? You said you moved to Porto. Do you live in Porto?
I have a little room in Paris but I moved my furniture and a lot of stuff to Porto to be more based here. I wish for Porto to become the place where I return to!
The name of the emerging artists’ initiative you were talking about and the one you are part of:
I was talking about Zoukak (www.zoukak.org).
I am part of Sweet and Tender (www.sweetandtender.org).
