Suspended Delirium

2021 | Robotic performance, 30 minutes
In collaboration with Monira Al Qadiri

Suspended Delirium is a collaborative project by Monira Al Qadiri and Raed Yassin that traverses the space between performance, installation and robotics, resulting in an uncanny and unclassifiable work. Three floating robotic heads hanging from the ceiling - based on the two artists and their pet cat - converse in an absurd manner about dreams, conspiracies, urban memories and life in the digital age among other subjects. Accompanied with a musical soundtrack and a stage set laid out on the ground, the work attempts to highlight the difficulties experienced through migration, isolation and destruction. The artists aim to pose timely questions about life under crisis (the pandemic), as well as the feelings of madness they must overcome by being totally uprooted from their past and their home.

Conceived and produced by Berliner Festspiele within the framework of the 70th Jubilee programme "Wild Times, Planetary Motions", curated by Natasha Ginwala and Jeroen Versteele.

Credits: Concept, direction and script: Monira Al Qadiri & Raed Yassin; Robotic system development: So Kanno & Piet Schmidt; Music: Raed Yassin; Set Design: Rabih Beaini; Heads painting: Said Baalbaki; Assistance: Raisa Hagiu & Sarah Zeryab.

Photos by Tony Elieh, Frédéric Duval and Shun Sato