Walls Will Fall: The 28 Trumpets of Jericho / Beirut Birds

Die Genezarethkirche dient als Resonanzraum für zwei experimentelle Kompositionen. Mazen Kerbaj versammelt 28 Trompeter, um mit Walls Will Fall die Akustik des Kirchenschiffs zu nutzen. Das Stück greift das biblische Motiv der fallenden Mauern auf, um die trennende Wirkung von Grenzen musikalisch zu hinterfragen. Nour Sokhon kontrastiert dies mit Beirut Birds. Hier fließen Feldaufnahmen, Interviews und Live-Improvisationen an Klavier, Elektronik und Violine ineinander. Die Performance arbeitet mit Bildprojektionen, die das Stadtleben Beiruts und Vogelzüge über das Mittelmeer thematisieren. Beide Arbeiten setzen auf eine eindringliche, transzendente Atmosphäre. Die Veranstaltung ist auf Spendenbasis zugänglich.

The Dream Atlas multidisciplinary storytelling project presents a very special double bill featuring two of Berlin's most innovative artists and composers in the beautiful setting of the Genezarethkirche in Neukölln. "Walls Will Fall" is a site-specific composition by Mazen Kerbaj that will guide 28 Berlin trumpet players through the unique acoustics of the Genezarethkirche. According to the Old Testament, Jericho's walls collapsed under the sound of seven trumpeters, blowing their horns for seven days while circling around the city. Far from the religious background of the story, it is the idea of music breaking walls and barriers that is central to this composition. During the performance of "Walls Will Fall," the Genezarethkirche's natural reverberation becomes the accomplice of every sound and movement. "Beirut Birds" ("طيور بيروت") is a sonic memory capsule that interweaves live improvisations, interviews, field recordings, and sounds of objects that symbolize migration. When performed live, it is accompanied by juxtaposed images of the Lebanese capital's city life and avian migration across the Mediterranean Sea, reflecting themes integral to the music. The songs are enriched by Nour Sokhon's improvisations on classical piano, electronics, synthesizers, violin, and various percussion instruments. About the artists: Mazen Kerbaj is a Lebanese comics author, visual artist, and musician born in Beirut in 1975. He also works on selective illustration and design projects and has taught at the American University of Beirut. Kerbaj is the author of 15 books translated into more than ten languages and his work has been shown in galleries, museums and art fairs around the world. Mazen Kerbaj is widely considered as one of the initiators and key players of the Lebanese free improvisation and experimental music scene. As a trumpet player, he pushes the boundaries of the instrument beyond recognition. Based between Beirut and Berlin, Nour Sokhon's practice draws on archival methods and the activation of inanimate matter as living narrators, taking the form of sound and music pieces, performances, interactive installations, and moving-image works. She earned a master's degree of Design in Sound for the Moving Image from The Glasgow School of Art. She received the Emerging Artist Prize from the Sursock Museum in 2019, for a moving image piece entitled 'Revisiting: Hold Your Breath' and the Sound Art grant from HBK in 2020. In 2024, she released her debut album "Beirut Birds" supported by AFAC. She has exhibited her artwork internationally and performed in various sound/music festivals including This Is Not Lebanon (2021), Punkt Festival (2023), Gaudeamus Festival (2023), United in Grief (2024), Vorspiel (2024), the Biennale d'Aix (2024), Salam Music (2025), Mapping Sounds in Exile (2025), Avant Art Festival Berlin (2025), Sonic Acts (2026) and Biennale Rencontres Archipel #Chaos-Monde (2026). Her work has also been shown at institutions such as Spatial Sound Institute, Beirut Art Center, SAVVY Contemporary, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Silent Green, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, GMEM, Frankfurt Lab, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Kampnagel Hamburg, neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK), KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles/Paris. "Those Beautiful Days" "احلى ايام" is her visual art solo show, currently being presented at La Condition Publique until December 2026. The event is donation-based and supported with funding by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion's Recovery Grant Programme.