Tears of Tar
18/05/2024
TEARS OF TAR- in collaboration with Pary El Qalqili.
76 years of Nakba. We mourn
Who has the right to mourn and who doesn't? In 2022 and 2023, our Nakba memorial events were banned. Tar Tears overwrites these bans: We will not let go of our right to mourn and perform in public spaces. We commemorate and grieve for all those killed, wounded, prisoner, all losses in Gaza and throughout Palestine.
On the occasion of the 76th commemoration day of the Nakba, Tearsof Tar invited 76 women from the Palestinian community and women in solidarity between the ages of16 and 80 to take part in the mourning ritual.
Accompanied by a traditional mourning singer, equipped with black tar, pomegranates and small bells on our feet, we carried out our mourning ritual in a 30-minutes perfomance
2024, Performance with 18 performers in public space, Oranienplatz Berlin Who has the right to mourn – and who doesn't? Tar Tears is a 15-minute public performance that opened the Nakba Commemoration Day in Berlin on May 18, 2024 – as an act of collective mourning. It is dedicated to all those who were wounded, abducted, imprisoned, or killed during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Against the backdrop of the bans on Nakba demonstrations in 2022 and 2023, the performance reclaimed the right to collective mourning in public spaces. Through choreographed movement, silence, ritualized gestures, and color, 18 performers transformed Oranienplatz into a site of witnessing. Tar Tears reclaimed the space for collective reflection, remembrance, and mourning – and simultaneously opened a space for solidarity, responsibility, and the recognition of resilience.
Tears of Tar (2024, rehearsal, 2:18min)
Tar Tears (2024, Performance Oranienplatz, 3:36 min)
