On October 1 and 2, the Building Barakat, emblematic of the history of Beirut hosts the performance A perfectly safe hideout by Mari Meen Halsoy, Sara Christophersen and Helle Siljehom, against the backdrop of the Beirut Street Festival. This event was made possible thanks to the support of Zico House, the municipality of Beirut, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Office of Contemporary Art Norway and Umam Documentation and Research.
A perfectly safe hideout is a collaboration between visual artist Mari Meen Halsøy and choreographers/dance artists Siljeholm/Christophersen. Martin Lervick and Katarina Eriksson interpreted the choreography while Mathias Eick played music. Combining dance, visual art and music, the project sets out to explore common perception of our surroundings linked to the location in which we are.
The Barakat building glaringly illustrates the war, by its dilapidation but also by its location on the demarcation line between East and West Beirut. Mari Meen Halsoy covered the walls riddled with bullet marks with scraps of fabric in the room steeped in history where the dancers performed.
Mari Meen Halsoy has a Diploma from the National Academy of Fine Art, Oslo (NO), and a college candidate degree in tapestry from the Oslo University College, Faculty of Art, Design and Drama (NO). Mari works with a variety of forms of expression, such as photography, tapestry, performance, video, installation and scenography. She led another project in Beirut : WOUNDS, a work on the several trials that Beirut has undergone and which have wounded it.
Sara Christophersen has an MA in human geography from the University of Oslo (2020) and BA in dance and choreography from Laban in London (2004). Her academic and artistic interests intersect, with a particular interest in feminist methodologies, notions of solidarity and care, and collaborative processes of knowledge creation. For the past 15 years, she has worked as an independent choreographer and dancer, taking part in and leading several collaborative projects in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Ethiopia. Her artistic practice includes performance work for theatre, public spaces and site-specific work, choreography, installations, and writing. In 2015 she was awarded together with colleague Helle Siljeholm the Hans Christian Ostrø Memorial Award for their distinctive work in Palestine and the Middle East.
Helle Siljeholm is an artistic director for the Barents Spektake. Helle is a choreographer, performer and visual artist with an MA in Visual Arts (Oslo National Academy of the Arts) and a BA (Hons) in choreography and dance (London Contemporary Dance School). Her artistic practice involves film, installation, choreography and performance.