December 4, 9pm.
To mark the release of her new album 3TWI, the Bourse de Commerce welcomes Kuwaiti composer and multidisciplinary artist Fatima Al Qadiri, whose work draws on Western dance music and West Asian cultural traditions, reimagining their sounds and conventions through a distinctive contemporary lens.
On Thursday, December 3, Fatima Al Qadiri presents an exclusive screening of the full-length music video for 7ilween, a track from 3TWI. Named after a Kuwaiti slang term for a "dirty old man", 3TWI explores the world through the eyes of this character across four club tracks that pay tribute to the diversity of West Asian musical traditions, reinterpreted through a queer perspective. The screening is followed by a conversation between Fatima Al Qadiri and Sophia Al-Maria, moderated by Mo Dafa.
On Friday, December 4, Fatima Al Qadiri presents a new audiovisual performance combining tracks from her latest release, selections from her catalogue and previously unheard rave compositions. Created in collaboration with her longtime creative partner Sophia Al-Maria, the live performance brings together personal archival material, found footage from the Internet and previously unseen images from the filming of 7ilween. The evening also features a back-to-back DJ set by Bobby Beethoven and Manara.
Programme
Thursday, December 3
7 - 8 pm | Auditorium
- Sophia Al-Maria, Tiger Strike Red, 2022
Video excerpt (5 min). Music composed by Fatima Al Qadiri.
Inspired by Tipu’s Tiger, an 18th-century automaton depicting a tiger attacking a British soldier, Sophia Al-Maria explores the ambiguity of this scene, which evokes both a desire for revenge against colonial oppression and an intimate, almost erotic encounter. Through this duality, the work examines Orientalist fantasies and the enduring influence of the colonial gaze on how we perceive and represent the world.
- Sophia Al-Maria et Fatima Al Qadiri, 7ilween, 2026
Vidéo (5 min)
Meaning "pretty young things", 7ilween opens with Shaneera, Fatima Al Qadiri’s dark, nocturnal alter ego, whose defiant gaze confronts the camera and, by extension, the "dirty old man" evoked in the title 3TWI. Drawing on contemporary Gulf and Iraqi cultures, the video reimagines their visual codes to create a dreamlike world where fantasy and reality blur, infused with humour and surrealism.
- Conversation between Fatima Al Qadiri and Sophia Al-Maria, moderated by Mo Dafa
(50 min)
Friday, December 4
9 pm - 00 am | Foyer
- 9 pm. Bobby Beethoven b2b Manara
- 11 pm. Fatima Al Qadiri
Lighting design by Transforma.
Bar service available throughout the evening. Last admission at 11:30 pm.
Fatima Al Qadiri (born in 1981 in Dakar, Senegal) is a Kuwaiti composer and multidisciplinary artist based in London. Her practice spans electronic music, film scoring and visual art. She is also a founding member of GCC, a Gulf-based art collective whose work has been exhibited at institutions including MoMA PS1, the Fridericianum, the Berlin Biennale and the Whitney Biennial. In 2019, she composed the score for Atlantics, Mati Diop’s debut feature film, which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and earned Al Qadiri her first César Award nomination for Best Original Score. She has since composed music for five feature films, including François Ozon’s recent adaptation of The Stranger, for which she received her second nomination in the same category.
Sophia Al-Maria (born in 1983 in Tacoma, United States) is a Qatari-American artist, writer and filmmaker. Working across drawing, sculpture, video, performance and experimental film, she draws on the power of storytelling and mythology to construct alternative narratives that bring marginalised perspectives to the forefront. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Tate Britain in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She also participated in Qatar’s pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Mo Dafa is Head of Production and Programming at Cafe OTO, a London venue dedicated to experimental music. With over twenty years of experience in the independent music scene, their work spans curating, radio, festivals and the production of artistic projects.
7ilween : Directed by Sophia Al-Maria. Produced by NG PARTNERS. Artistic direction led by Fatima Al Qadiri, Sophia Al-Maria & Abdullah Al-Mutairi.
