Spotlight on Georgia

Together with many other Belgian arts organisations, DE SINGEL is opening its doors for the biennial arts festival Europalia, which this time around is focusing on Georgia. Georgia, on the border between Europe and Asia, located on the Black Sea in the South Caucasus, is a country with a complex history and rich cultural traditions, but also with great expectations for the future. DE SINGEL will see the premieres of two new productions that link Georgian traditions to contemporary perspectives. The Georgian writer and theatre maker Nino Haratischvili creates her version of the traditional supra, a celebratory meal in which this time women take the lead. Another rich Georgian tradition is that of polyphony, which sounds completely different to Western polyphony. Just as every Georgian organises and attends supras, everyone can sing at them too. The renowned Georgian male choir Basiani is coming to Belgium for the first time and can be admired exclusively at DE SINGEL in combination with a three-part video installation by Meggy Rustamova. And theatre maker Khadija El Kharraz Alami, in-house artist at DE SINGEL, presents Nu ben ik Medea: according to tradition, the mythical figure Medea hails from Georgia.