An Interview with Smerz
Music // Interview // MusicBewildering and fulfilling. Believe.
Ever so pertinent in a fast-paced era dependent on visual identity, New Radicalism aesthetically recontextualises Edward Saïd’s Orientalism for the here and now. Through the “seductive power of design” the festival draws from within the countercultures of the MENA to reach outside of it. Amidst a swirl of festivals that all promise to tinker with boundaries and barriers, (A)WAKE new initiative gives an appropriately plural, contemporary account of the Middle East and North African (MENA) diaspora in a weekend filled with music and art as well as lectures, panels and workshops. We have our eyes on the club night on Friday and the In-between music and movement panel on Saturday. We shot the creators, Shirin and Narges, a couple of questions ahead of the festival.