Ruba In Red Fog

This work was created in response to poetic texts written by Habibah Sheikh, a nomadic performance artist originally from Lebanon, and the curator of the Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) exhibition. In the text, a character named Ruba experiences the destruction of war firsthand and becomes a refugee in the process. Use of imagery and violence evokes the emotional and physical vulnerability of certain Mediterranean themes...such as being without asylum.

Act 1, Scene 1, Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me):

“They threw away her dignity.
There, that was easy...
Made sure to ruin her before she’d ever begun.

They pushed her down...
And now, she can’t get up...
From social injustice

(In the mirror) What do you want from me??
If it's a baby...can’t give you one...
Imagine how ugly it would be...

That led to poverty, fear, and shame.

(In the mirror) You whore! You like being a whore, don’t you?
You belong to me. You are my slave.
I'm going to kill you.”

Darweish’s work is concerned with the changing perceptions related to the continuous social metamorphosis that Egypt has experienced as an African, Arab and Middle Eastern country. He explores issues of colonization and liberation and the contemporary constraints of time, diaspora, gender, and identity.