ASMAA JAMA
A Song for the Slippages
I am thinking about converging tales in the city. I am exploring slippages, and glitches in the built environment. Rooting this tale in Stapleton Road, in a soundscape and performance, I am exploring the idea of a hidden or parallel world and the stories communities have carried with them. Using the magic realism of urban myths, this tale will reveal how porous our worlds are.
Asmaa is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and filmmaker based in Bristol. Their solo exhibition Except this time nothing returns from the ashes, made in collaboration with Gouled Ahmed, was presented at Spike Island, Bristol in 2023.
Jama's first film work Before We Disappear (2021), was an interactive moving image piece commissioned by BBC Arts, followed by The Season of Burning Things (2021), also made in collaboration with Ahmed, was commissioned by
the Bristol Old Vic (2021).
Their work has also been presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and Theatre Neumarkt’s 100 Ways to Say We Programme (2021), and was the official selection at Blackstar Film Festival, Aesthetica Film Festival and Sharjah Film Platform 5 (2022).
Jama’s writing has been commissioned by Jerwood Arts, Hayward Gallery, Arnolfini and Ifa Gallery, Berlin. Their written works have been published in places like The Poetry Review, Nataal and Magma. In theatre, they have written for, and are performing in, Dorothee Munyaneza’s Mailles, and have written for Radouan Mrziga’s Akal. They were a Film London FLAMIN fellow (2022); a resident artist at Somerset House Studios and a Barbican Young Poet.