This event is wheelchair accessible.
Arabic, TamazightFetching prices
In a world driven by human ambition and technology, mountains, deserts, and oceans remain untamed, uncontrollable spaces. Magec / the Desert explores vast, arid landscapes, revealing their wisdom and rethinking humanity's relationship with nature. From the Sahara to the Thar to the Central Asian steppes, deserts prove to be places of reflection where human smallness is revealed and myths, literature, and cultural knowledge take shape.
Radouan Mriziga's choreography understands the desert not as emptiness, but as a source of knowledge—a space that demands humility and reciprocity rather than domination. It explores the rhythms, ecosystems, and forms of knowledge of the desert, embodied by symbols such as the sundial, which measures time through light, shadow, and landscape. Using craftsmanship, music, and the physical practices of desert cultures, the piece seeks harmony and connectedness—and shows how the silence of the desert reveals a profound richness.
In Mriziga's collaborative working method, rhythm, text, movement, and sound merge into a polyphonic whole. Like the desert itself, the performance defies a single interpretation, instead opening up a multi-layered, sensual, and spiritual experience. Magec / the Desert invites the audience to find peace, perceive the intelligence of nature, and reconnect with the essential.
Duration: approx. 70 minutes
In cooperation with Culturescapes 2025 Sahara
Credits
concept, choreography & scenography: Radouan Mriziga
created with and performed by: Robin Haghi, Bilal El Had, Hichem Chebli, Feteh Khiari, Sofiane El Boukhari, Nathan Félix
music & sound design: Deena Abdelwahed
video: Senda Jebali
costume design: Salah Barka
assistant costume designer: Rim Abbes
research: Maïa Tellit Hawad
text: Mahmoudan Hawad
technical director: Zouheir Atbane
production & tour manager: Emna Essoussi
company management: Cees Vossen
production: A7LA5
coproduction: Sharjah Art Foundation, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Festival d'Automne, de Singel, Festival d’Avignon, Pact Zollverein, Culturescapes, Tanz im August/HAU Hebbel am Ufer.
thanks to: Destelheide & L'Art Rue/Dream City
Biography
Radouan Mriziga, an artist from Marrakech now based in Brussels, has developed a unique voice in contemporary dance through his thoughtful and innovative approach to choreography. After his education in Marrakech, Tunisia, and at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, Mriziga quickly began creating his own work. His early trilogy—55 (2014), 3600 (2016), and 7 (2017)—explores polyrhythms and non-binary rhythms within temporary geometric contexts, merging concrete and imaginary spaces.
Mriziga’s recent work focuses on the mythology and culture of the Amazigh, the indigenous people of North Africa. His trilogy Tafukt (2020), Ayur (2019), and Akal (2021) delves into themes of time, historical space, and mythology, centering on three female deities from Amazigh lore. In 2023, he began a new trilogy—Atlas / the Mountain, Magec / the Desert, and Awessu / the Sea—which continues his exploration of Amazigh culture through choreographic landscapes and ecosystems.
