ISSUE Project Room has announced the selection of Leyya Tawil as 2020 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow. Tawil presents NOMADIC SIGNALS, a vessel for sonic performance operating in what she refers to as the “diasporic imaginary,” a description of how sounds change in the diaspora: how they tether to their environment, accumulate, synthesize, and adapt at each location.
Tawil notes, “the artists of NOMADIC SIGNALS use transdisciplinary practices to address origin and inherency; they choose their own references, resistance strategies and archetypes. They whisper community secrets and report on war, magic and victory. This sonic field proposes a post-national dream of what is possible.”
The Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellowship supports emerging curators in realizing ambitious new projects that will significantly transform their own artistic practice, move their work in new directions, and enable them to gain exposure to a broader audience. In its fourth year, ISSUE’s Curatorial Fellowship commissions emerging New York curators to organize challenging projects, serving a central role in fulfilling ISSUE’s mission to support and cultivate innovative art within the local community. Leyya Tawil follows Benedict Nguyen, ISSUE’s current 2018 Fellow, Queer Trash in 2018, and DeForrest Brown Jr. in 2017.
Named for ISSUE’s visionary founder Suzanne Fiol, the program mentors a Curatorial Fellow by providing them with financial, technical and marketing support as they work to cultivate, incubate and present innovative music and performance projects.
The Curatorial Fellowship complements and builds upon ISSUE’s existing Artists-In-Residence Program (AIR). Both ISSUE’s AIR and Fellowship programs provide artists and curators with an opportunity to develop significant new works in partnership with ISSUE over the course of a year by offering a stipend as well as access to rehearsal space and facilities, equipment, documentation, pr/marketing, Curatorial mentorship and technical expertise.
Suzanne Fiol, who passed away in October, 2009, was an extraordinary spirit, a force of nature and a prominent figure in the visual and performing arts worlds. As both a visionary artist and the founder of ISSUE Project Room, she created one of New York City’s premiere destinations for experimental culture and avant-garde performing arts— a legacy that will resonate for decades to come.
Leyya Mona Tawil, also known as Lime Rickey International, is an artist working with sound, dance and performance practices. Leyya is a Syrian, Palestinian, American engaged in the world as such. Her 23-year record of performance scores have toured throughout the states, Europe and the Arab world. Tawil was a 2018 Saari Residence Fellow (Finland) and has upcoming support from Gibney DiP Residency, Pieter Performance Space and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Lime Rickey International’s Future Faith, commissioned by Abrons Arts Center’s AIRspace program and the Kone Foundation, has been nominated for a 2019 Bessie Award in Music. Festival appearances of Future Faith include Today is Our Tomorrow (Helsinki), New Performance Turku (Turku) and ZVRK Festival (Sarajevo). Tawil is the founding director of Dance Elixir and Arab.AMP, an Oakland-based platform supporting experimental music and live art from the SWANA diaspora and allied communities.
