RAWABET
Performing Artists-in-Residence
Malmö/Sweden
Our Rawabet Artists-in-Residence 2025
Meet the artists
Photo: Ettijahat
ABDALLA DAIF
Daif’s work examines hegemony and post-colonial capitalist representations in daily life, spanning contemporary artistic, cultural, and urban practices. He pushes audiences beyond passive spectatorship, immersing them in experiences that challenge perspectives, biases, and assumptions. His goal is to foster critical thinking and encourage deeper engagement with personal and collective narratives.
To achieve this, Daif merges live performance with interdisciplinary media and digital solutions, transforming public, private, and virtual city spaces into creative platforms. His research-driven approach not only questions conventional thinking but also drives social transformation.
Photo: Ettijahat
AHMED TOBASI
I am a Palestinian actor, director, and educator from Jenin refugee camp. A former political prisoner, I turned to cultural resistance using theatre. Training at The Freedom Theatre in Jenin and Nordic Black Theatre in Oslo, I went on to join the Nordic Black Theatre’s professional company, performing in Norway, Morocco, Spain, and Poland. Returning to Jenin in 2013, I worked as an actor and educator at The Freedom, later becoming the Artistic Director, which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize during my leadership.
Directing and performing in award-winning productions in Palestine, Norway, and around the world, my project And Here I Am has toured over ten countries and continues to be invited to play after eight years.
Other highlights include performing in The Siege touring Palestine, the UK, and the US, and Metro Gaza, which won the MESS Festival 2024 Jury award and has toured Palestine, Tunisia, Iraq, Switzerland, France and Serbia. I am currently part of the team at the award-winning company Artists On The Frontline, working with artists from around the world who use cultural resistance and innovative art forms to respond to an increasingly hostile world.
Photo: Ettijahat
AJOUGUIM ABDELLAH
I am a playwright, director, and theater actor who received my theatrical training in Morocco during my youth under the guidance of renowned theater professionals at art institutes in Casablanca. I later pursued academic education in Italy, studying under esteemed professors, particularly in Commedia dell'Arte. I have performed in numerous theater productions and participated in international festivals in Morocco, Italy, and France. My theatrical projects are distinguished by artistic diversity, integrating world music and blending three languages Arabic, Italian, and French to promote the universality of art and foster cultural integration and communication.
Photo: Ettijahat
FRANÇOIS MONARCHA
I grew up in Beirut and moved to Oslo in 2021. I studied geography and filmmaking and have worked in the film industry since 2014. My cultural heritage and experiences have driven me towards projects exploring social issues and sexuality. I’ve worked on award-winning short and feature films and TV series in Lebanon and Norway, primarily in the art department and occasionally as an actor. Frustrated by the vacuous commercial machine, I shifted towards more personal, expressive projects. In 2024, I joined Masahat festival’s grief-tending residency discovering a love for performing and papier mâché. Since then, I've collaborated with other artists, making sculptures for multi-media installations.
Photo: Ettijahat
FRIDA MARIDA
Frida Marida is a Transdisciplinary performing artist blending songwriting, costume design, choreography, and activism to create engaging performances aimed at inspiring positive change.
Frida is a proud trans woman who began her career as a drag artist upon arriving in Norway. Over time, she transformed the fantasy of drag into reality, becoming the persona she initially created.
She has performed on various stages and Prides across Norway, was awarded Drag of the Year in 2023, and appeared on a reality show in 2022. Frida’s multidisciplinary musical projects, funded by Kulturdirektoratet in Norway, focus on designing costumes that produce music, bringing her unique campy songs into life.
Photo: Gergely László Ofner
EMIRHAKIN &
ghenwa (noiré) abou fayad
Ghenwa Noiré (LB) and Emirhakin (TR) are interdisciplinary artists working across performance, sound, installation, and text. Noiré’s practice revolves around improvisation using their electro-bouzouqi setup, blending oriental-synth with experimental storytelling that explores oral history, mental struggles, and socio-political themes. They have performed at Sonic Acts Biennale, Van Gogh Museum, and Stedelijk Museum, among others. Emirhakin’s work challenges bodily experience and the perception of time through performance and video, engaging with queer temporalities and expanding the idea of space beyond physicality. His work has been shown at the Rijksmuseum, EYE Museum, Het Nieuwe Instituut, and more. Together, their artistic practices question boundaries, resist norms, and create new ways of engaging with sound, body, and space.
Photo: Ettijahat
KHULOUD HIFZY
An architect and artist exploring the intersections of storytelling, urban identity, and cultural heritage, my work bridges architecture, art, and research.
At the core of my artistic research is "The Storyteller," a weaving method integrating urban, cultural, and historical dimensions into tangible art. Tested in diverse workshops, it has been praised for evoking memories, fostering dialogue, and deepening connections to urban spaces.
My upcoming research focuses on refining "The Storyteller" through a specialized loom prototype, incorporating traditional Syrian weaving techniques, and enriching the method's capacity as both a storytelling tool and an artistic medium.
Photo: Ettijahat
Mubeen Khashani & Ali Thamer
They are two Iraqi artists living in exile, working across cinema, theater, and cultural journalism. Ali is an award-winning actor and filmmaker with a background in theater and film training from the Iraqi Independent Film Center. He received Best Actor at the Cairo International Film Festival 2019 for Haifa Street. Mubeen is a poet and journalist, winner of the Al-Rafidain Prize (2021) and Qareeb Journalism Award (2023), currently exploring the intersection of archives, politics, and performance. Together, they are developing their first collaborative theater piece, blending poetic language, lived experience, and visual storytelling.
Photo: Ettijahat
MOHAMED ISMAIL
A multi-talented Egyptian artist residing in Sweden, working as a singer, musician, actor, and singing teacher. He has participated in performances on major stages such as Dramaten and Stockholm City Theatre and has international experience in France, Italy, Jordan, Syria, and others. He is a member of diverse musical ensembles such as El Warsha and Rawa Ensemble. He has taught singing at the Musikhögskolan in Malmö and has extensive experience in theatre, music, and artistic education. He has performed over 100 concerts in Egypt and worldwide and has been involved in theatre, cinema, and creative workshops since 2003.
Photo: Frederik Tellerup
MONA ABDEL-FADIL
Mona Abdel-Fadil is an Egyptian-Norwegian multidisciplinary academic and genre-bending comedy performer and writer, with expertise on diversity, cultural stereotypes & racism. Mona has a gift for fusing societal critique with comedy. In A Superiour Guide to Performing an Academic Self, published in ASAP (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), Mona highlights the racial, gender, and heteronormative biases of the academy, through a satirical lens. This piece has been adapted for the stage and performed in the US, Austria & Norway. Mona is one of the curators of the exhibit In/visible: Everyday Racism in Norway (2021-) and facilitates workshops for coping with racism through improvised comedy.
Photo: Ettijahat
MUSTAFA AL DARWISH ANDERSSON
Mostafa Al-Darwish is an independent artist with over 11 years of experience in theater, social media, and film across Sweden, Finland, Lebanon, and Syria. He is an actor, theater trainer, and co-founder of the "Theater for Everyone" troupe in Sweden.
He has conducted many theater workshops for children focused on puppet-making and performance, supported by Järfälla Municipality in Stockholm. He has received grants for projects like "Wool Puppets" and "Al Hakawati," aimed at engaging Arabic-speaking children in Sweden, awarded for five consecutive years by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
As part of the Al Hakawati project, he worked with The Arab Theater Troupe, promoting storytelling and puppet theater in public libraries. Additionally, he served as an artist-in-residence at Huset på Höjden, specializing in wool puppets, and performed in Strindberg's "A Dream Play" at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, touring with children's theater and delivering over 250 performances across Sweden.
Photo: Ettijahat
OLA HUSAMOU
I came from Syria to Sweden as an ICORN guest in Eskilstuna from 2019 to 2021. I have conducted interactive performances to experiment with my new theater project (I am the goblin) and engage the audience in a unique artistic dialogue in 2024.
2022-2023 Worked as an actress in the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre Dramaten in the production of "Maktens diskreta charm", which also performed at the D-Caf Cairo Festival in 2023.
Between 2013 and 2016, I performed in various children's and adult plays in Syria. I am a poet and singer with three published poetry books and an album. I wrote and directed several plays for children and adults in Syria. independently and in collaboration with international organizations."
Photo: Ettijahat
RAHMA BEN FREDJ & THOMAS LEHMANN
Rahma ben Fredj studied theatre at the High Institute of Dramatic Art in Tunis. She was awarded Best Student Actress at the 2016 Festival of Arabia Theatre in the UAE. She has performed in productions across Tunisia, the UAE, and France, leads acting workshops for children and adults, and trained in dance theatre with Najib Ben Khalfallah and Hafedh Zallit. Since 2017, she has been based in Dresden, acting in plays such as Lysistrata, Ich und das Andere, and Hiob and choreographing Carmina Burana in 2023.
Thomas Lehmann, born in 1987 in Grimma, is a self-taught painter and musician whose work blends geometry and chance in an inspiring way. His artistic approach is deeply influenced by nature and urban experiences, merging visual art and sound to create immersive experiences.
More at www.liebekunst.org | www.rahmatheater.com
Photo: Ettijahat
THURAYYA ALKURY
I hold a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a diploma in culinary arts, with 15+ years of experience in the food and beverage industry. In more recent years, my interest in healing through somatic experiencing (taking form in movement, breathing, role play, art making, or sound making) made its way into my culinary work through what I like to call experimental experience making.
Photo: Ettijahat
ZAINAB AL-ALI
I am Zainab, 31 years old. I studied theater in Iraq at the Institute of Fine Arts – Theater Department – for five years, where I deepened my knowledge of performance and directing. After that, I moved to Sweden and continued my studies for two years at a Swedish institute, which allowed me to explore different theatrical techniques and approaches.
Throughout my career, I have participated in several theater projects, films, and workshops with students, which have enhanced my practical experience and enriched my artistic vision. Theater is not just a passion for me; it is a way of life that I cannot imagine myself without.
RESIDENCY PERIOD: 18-28 JUNE 2025
An invitation to performing artists (theater, dance, new circus, and other forms) originally from the Arab region (regardless of ethnicity), who arrived to European territories after 2015, to develop and create works in collaboration with European and non-European counterparts and audiences, in order to create a more diverse cultural scene and combat stereotypes and discrimination.
The residency will select 5 artists based in Sweden, 5 artists based in Norway, and 5 artists based in other Creative Europe countries and cover travel, accommodation, and artist fees to prepare a project to be showcased locally or shown at Masahat Festival 2025 in Oslo.
Join a 10-day artistic residency, including peer-learning activities, personal creation time, collective workshops, and work-in-progress showcasing to support artistic projects which rekindle the curiosity for new relationships between cultural ambassadors from SWANA and Europe, and to explore questions about the meaning of ‘Europeanness’ in the contexts of contemporary political discourse, cultural production, and migration.
WHAT DO ARTISTS GET?
A stipend of €2.500 (incl. all taxes and social costs)
Up to €2.000 in production costs support
Travel, accommodation, working space in downtown Malmö
Networking opportunities with actors from the Swedish theatre industry
Rehearse and showcase a project for Masahat Festival 2025 in Oslo
CONTEXT & CHALLENGE
Northern Europe was once seen as a safe haven for people fleeing persecution. Since the 2015 Mediterranean refugee crisis, the journey to Europe often led to disappointment upon arrival, as the rise of xenophobic discourse has since then turned migration into a polarizing political topic impacting the course of European societies. In Europe, solidarity coexists with racism. Migrant communities who often carry a rich cultural heritage navigate a landscape where cultural hybridization must come to terms with a xenophobic cultural clash within societal majorities. This residency asks what does Europeanness mean in 2025, 10 years after the so-called European migrant crisis. How do diasporic communities inhabit their new homes and cultures, and how does their cultural heritage feature as an enriching feature of their cultural expression as new European citizens and cultural producers? How do they live in Europe today as they witness their host countries contribute to global inequalities that contributed to causing their migration in the first place? What political and ethical issues arise when migration is understood within its historical, political, and economic entanglements, including imperialism, racism, and authoritarianism?
FOR WHOM?
Rawabet sought a group of 15 performing artists to develop, rehearse, and showcase small-scale individual artistic projects in 10 days. The projects may be multidisciplinary with an anchoring in performance arts, particularly in dance, theatre, spoken word, puppetry, new circus arts, or interdisciplinary formats. Artists originally from the Arab region, of all ethnicities, and who have moved to Europe since 2015 are eligible to apply, with priority given to artists who moved from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya. Applicants who moved to Europe before 2015 will also were considered on an individual case.
Download the long version of the call for more information, as well as the application questions, in the download buttons below:
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THE INFO WEBINAR
PRODUCED BY
A part of RAWABET: Participation | Connectivity | Diversity: Rawabet (Arabic for ‘links’) is a consortium of entities united by the belief that empowering the presence of artists moving from the Arab region enriches public life in Europe, and add to its dynamic, vast, and rich cultural scene. The consortium’s work includes production grants, residencies and exchange programs, artistic festivals and knowledge production.
Organized by Transversal Project: A cultural strategy agency in Malmö, working across borders to set up innovative, culture-driven, g/local development projects. Their portfolio includes international artistic residencies, trainings on sustainable cultural productions, a sunlight art festival, and a floating design market.
Co-organized by:
Ettijahat- Independent Culture: Ettijahat is a cultural organisation working to promote independent culture across the mashriq region and beyond. Its main goal is to activate the role of independent artists in enabling cultural, and social change.
Masahat: Masahat is a non-profit organization established in 2015 in Norway with the purpose of curating and presenting knowledge, history, art and culture from the Middle East and North Africa with a special focus on the Arab world.
FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY
The Rawabet programme is supported by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) within the framework of CREATIVE EUROPE. The views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
QUESTIONS?
CONTACT US
Abduljabbar [@] transversal.eu
zeina [@] masahat.no
© Copyright 2020–2024 Transversal Project AB.
All rights reserved.