Neimënster to Host "Traverses" Exhibition on Syrian Migration

Neumünster Abbey (neimënster) in Luxembourg-Grund has announced that it is hosting "Traverses", an exhibition by Leyla Rabih, on 27 and 28 May 2021.

Developed in residency at neimënster, "Traverses" is a documentary theatre project that takes as its backdrop recent migrations in Syria. An account of often dramatic human trajectories, of their incredible determination to continue their existence and of their strength to rebuild themselves despite everything, it is based on the testimonies of refugees met in exile.

Leyla Rabih is a director and artistic director of the Grenier Neuf theatre company. Trained in directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, she focused on most of her activities in Germany for ten years. With "Traverses", the Franco-Syrian director presents her long-term work on the indelible traces that exile leaves on refugees.

Spring 2011 marked the first demonstrations for democracy in Syria. From then on, Leyla Rabih met refugees in France, Greece, Luxembourg and Lebanon, as part of the Institut Français' tailor-made residency programme. Their testimonies constitute the raw material of "Traverses", which she mixes with travel accounts, sound and visual historical archives to question the individual and collective traces left by exile.

Following a first research and translation residency in summer 2019, Leyla Rabih underpinned her work around the emancipation processes at work within migration routes. She had also expressed the wish to return with her team to neimënster in order to continue and conclude her work with a play and work on the original scenic device chosen for the play. 

The exhibition "Traverses" will be open to the public (in French language) on Thursday 27 May and Friday 28 May 2021 at 20:00. Tickets cost €22, €9 (reduced) or €1.50 with a Kulturpass. Registration is obligatory via email: billetterie@neimenster.lu or tel.: 262-052444.