Senegal-born, Kuwait-raised and Brooklyn-based artist Fatima Al Qadiri breaks the traditional codes of the Arab world with her queer and fierce black and white video of “Spiral”.
In “Spiral”, which was presented by Boiler Room, composer and conceptual artist Fatima Al Qadiri re-adapts a cult sequence from Egyptian comedy film “Ayazon” where several individuals belly dance in a brothel. It is not often that we are used to seeing male dancers dabbling belly dance moves and by its boldness, the sequence quickly turned into a viral and queer moment in the whole Arab world. In the black and white Sophia Al-Maria-directed video for “Spiral”, two dancers, Zadiel Samsaz and Eli El Sultan, fiercely perform those moves while breaking the conventions of a strict, patriarchal, and traditional culture. For a moment, we forget to wonder what is acceptable to do when you are a man or a woman and we just enjoy the individual beauty of those two dancers.
“Spiral”, which features Bobo Secret, is taken from Fatima Al Qadiri‘s recent EP “Shaneera”, which was released earlier this year via Hyperdub.
