When I lost my words, I found my voice

When I Lost My Words, I Found My Voice is an audiovisual live performance that uses visual projections, sound design, singing and spoken words as mediums to explore the throat as a physical and symbolic vessel for trauma.

The throat is a soft yet powerful organ that allows breathing, feeding, and vocal expression: it houses the vocal cords that allow us to speak, sing, hum, even express orgasm. However, emotions like frustration from inability of self-expression, repressed anger, unexpressed thoughts can manifest in the body and the throat becomes the focal point for these unresolved tensions.

Past experiences deeply affect our bodies. The project draws inspiration from the two artists’ shared psycho-somatic condition that affect them each in their throat. While Yara has been experiencing forms of inflammation in her throat, Deborah’s been suffering from chronic episodes of hiccups and consequential difficulties in breathing and speaking.

Deborah grew up in the mountains of Lago D’Orta in Italy, and Yara is a former refugee from Syria. Although coming by two different backgrounds, their home-countries, both touched by the Mediterranean Sea, are historically linked through trade and cultural exchange, sharing a common palette of music, food, and architecture influenced by the Mediterranean natural environment. Moreover, they have been shaped by the flux of political and social conflict.

The two artists’ rich cultural heritage and their shared migratory lived experiences, have formed the interest in exploring how the throat as a language port can form a metaphorical link with the diaspora community. The artists reflect on the hardships of growing up, maturing, becoming women, shaping their identity, searching that feeling of home and belonging in a foreign place.

The work stems from the artists’ deep-rooted urgency to amplify the voices of women and female artists, providing a platform for their stories, experiences, and creative expressions. With a feminine gaze, it explores themes of womanhood and intersectional feminism, migration and resettlement, belonging and community, oral history and embodied knowledge. The work finds urgency in the in-depth research process, exploring methods of storytelling and story-sharing. The multidisciplinary collaboration aims to create a layered, poetic, and immersive live show that is both educational and accessible.

Can we, through connecting our personal narratives, make space to engage multiple voices in a collective storytelling? Can we transcend language barriers and create a shared experience in which one can feel immersed and connected with people from different backgrounds?

This project aims to open up a space for alternative forms of healing. How can art, sound, and performance become mediums for addressing trauma and repression in ways that feel universal and personal at the same time?

premiered at Klankvorm Audiovisual Explorations
Rotterdam, NL - June 2024

presented at FIBER festival x ADE Club Lab Melkweg
following introduction on Audiovisual Storytelling by Noise Diva & orah
Amsterdam, NL - October 2024