Mokhallad Rasem - Diary of an empty bed
Mokhallad Rasem (1981, Iraq) became a director and an actor in Baghdad. Since 2005, he has been living and working in Belgium. His theatrical work is flashy and physical, associative and fragmentary.
Rasem made his mark with Irakese Geesten (creation prize Theater aan Zee, Flemish Theatre Festival 2010) and with Monde.com (Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2011). From 2013 to 2022, he was associated with Toneelhuis as a creator. His play Romeo & Julia won the Young Directors Award 2013 at the Salzburg Festival and in 2014 he was awarded third prize at the BEfestival in Birmingham for Wachten; resulting in a tour of the UK and Spain. Body Revolution (2015) also enjoyed an extensive international tour, with selections for Fadjr Festival in Tehran, among others. Afterwards, he surprised audiences with Delivery Theatre, takeaway theatre-on-demand. His collaboration with Kuno Bakker, De verse tijd, was selected for the Dutch Theatre Festival in 2018, as was his performance Dagboek van een leeg bed (Diary of an empty bed) in 2019. As an actor, he appeared in A Seperation (2021) and About Elly (2022) by TG Stan. He recently made Gelukzoekers (2023), with Charlotte Vandermeersch, at Malpertuis/Theatre Arsenal and Alles is niet perfect for Het Paleis (2024). Mokhallad Rasem is also a lecturer at the Antwerp Conservatory and a member of the artistic council.
ABOUT DIARY OF AN EMPTY BED
What happens in the mind and heart of one who has to leave home and who is forced to start from scratch somewhere else? Mokhallad Rasem has been collecting personal notes for twenty years: he jots down daily images that appear to him in his dreams, memories that surface and impressions that tumble into his imagination from everyday reality. Between an empty bed and boxes full of memories, he sometimes expresses profound thoughts and intense emotions, sometimes hushed observations and surprising fantasies. And all this for the first time in his mother tongue, Arabic. Diary of an empty bed is a poetic invitation to think about the passing of time, about distance and intimacy, about having to say goodbye and starting all over again.
