“RITES OF LIFE: BEAUTY AND DESTRUCTION”
An artistic residency with Milad Khawam (SY/DE) and Annie Khoury (CY) during Windcraft Music Fest 12, supported by EFFEA and co-funded by the European Union.
The residency will culminate in an immersive performance, that merges composed and improvised music, movement and poetry. Reimagining the ancient deity of love and war, Ishtar, the piece explores cycles of creation and destruction in the modern world, through a multi-sensory experience. The artists construct a contemporary ritual, a sacred environment of now, with the audience swinging between the contrasting realms of human nature; violence and beauty. The work is performed next to an abandoned mine, on a hill overlooking Cyprus’s dividing line. It challenges us to confront our own response to violence, while inviting us on a reflection on themes of transformation, unity, and healing.
How could we shift witnessing destruction to reclaiming force as a means of creation?
Artists-in-residence
Milad Khawam is a Syrian-born composer, producer, and trumpet player based in Berlin, where he is an active part of the city’s vibrant music scene. With a foundation in classical and Arabic music, he fuses traditional sounds with crossover jazz and electronics. His work explores cultural identity through sound. His albums “To the West” and “Funeral on the Moon” reflect deeply personal and artistic journeys.
Annie Khoury works in the field of performing arts, as a performer and creator (text, choreography, direction) and also as a facilitator in dance workshops and movement research labs. Her practice explores contemporary versions of the ancient triptych Movement-Poetry-Music, creating immersive, multi-medium experiences and has been presented in various local festivals and productions.
The residency “Rites of Life: Beauty and Destruction” is supported by the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA), an initiative of the European Festivals Association (EFA), co-funded by the European Union. It is organised by Windcraft Music Fest in collaboration with Al.Festival (Germany) and Anopolis World Music Festival (Greece).
MEET OUR PARTNER FESTIVALS
Since 2019, AL.FESTIVAL celebrates the rich and diverse contemporary pop and alternative music of South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA). Over the years, it has evolved into a vital space within Berlin’s cultural landscape — bridging generations, disciplines, and geographies through a shared commitment to creativity, resistance, and care.
Anopolis World Music Festival is a three-day celebration of contemporary musical creation in the public spaces and monuments of Thessaloniki’s Ano Poli. Across nine different sites, improvisation, experimentation, multiple languages and styles weave a polyphonic mosaic of melodies echoing from Greece, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean, to Anatolia, the Black Sea region, and beyond.
WHAT IS AN EFFEA RESIDENCY?
The EFFEA Residency is an artist-in-residence programme aimed at fostering the international career of emerging artists in the seat of a minimum of 3 festivals. Co-produced by a leading festival in collaboration with partner festivals, each from a different eligible country, the residency provides emerging artists with dedicated time, space and support to explore their ideas and creative projects, whether original works or the evolution of existing ones. Within this framework, artists forge close ties with festival programmers, emphasising a commitment beyond a singular presentation. The goal is to establish lasting and meaningful connections between artists, festivals, and audiences.
Festivals act as fertile ground for tapping into and expanding talents. They are spaces of exchange between artists and the public, facilitating connections among artists themselves and with other professionals. Festivals are alchemists of innovation, curators of risk-taking endeavours, both guardians and intermediary springboards for artists across artistic disciplines.
Main Objectives
To offer emerging artists more opportunities to present their work and develop their career on an international level
To offer cooperation opportunities for festivals to work cross border on the topic of emerging artists
To offer audiences new and surprising encounters with emerging artists in their towns and cities through the platforms of their festivals