Navine G. Kahn-Dossos

Anthem for the Prophet's Birthday
Musical Tour, 2017

Navine Kahn-Dossos' mural Echo Chamber (2017) is a 'portrait' of the 'white widow', a British terrorist converted to Islam. The Arabic motifs show a transition in shape and color from soft to hard, from feminine to masculine. And turn gray and pink into menacing and aggressive black and red. In this work, the Van Abbe­museum Choir sings Anthem for the Prophet's Birthday, one of the British Muslim songs, variations on old English songs. Kahn-Dossos writes on her site about our performance and about the back­ground of the song we sang.

Hold on
2021

Hold On by Tom Waits is performed by us in No Such Organisation, a solo presentation by artist Navine G. Khan-Dossos, part of Positions #6 (Van Abbemuseum, 2020-2021). The song was chosen by loved one who at the moment of singing was being held in Saudi Arabia.

The text reflects the need to stand firm in uncertain times, given the high number of arrests of human rights activists, lawyers, political parties, religious scholars, bloggers, individual protesters, as well as long-standing government supporters who have expressed only mild and partial criticism of government policies. Our performance took place on the initiative of the artist. On her site she writes about us and the song we sing.

_{Recording: Ron Eijkman, Van Abbemuseum}