Bouchra Khalili
The Circle
2023
Synchronised 2-channel video projection
56 minutes 33 seconds
1/5
Comissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation, MACBA, Barcelona, and Luma Foundation
Bouchra Khalili’s ‘The Circle Project’ (2023) delves into the history of the Mouvement des travailleurs arabes (MTA) [Arab Workers Movement] and its theatre groups, Al Assifa [The Tempest] and Al Halaka [The Circle], which were active in France between 1973 and 1978. As little visual material of Al Assifa and Al Halaka's performances remains, The Storytellers (2023) poetically reimagines fragments of their work. Reviving the Maghrebi tradition of al halqa, a form of public storytelling performed for an audience gathered in a circle, Khalili invites founding members of both theatre groups to perform selections from their oral repertoire. In Timeline for a Constellation (2023), Khalili attempts to map the chronology of events that led to the formation of the MTA, drawing on archives and excerpts from interviews with members of Al Assifa and Al Halaka. The Circle (2023) initiates a transgenerational dialogue to bring the legacy of the MTA into contemporary focus.