Batool Mohamad: OM-EL BEAT

a.k.a. Performans Serisi: Batool Mohamad a.k.a. Em-El Beat, 16.11.2016

Batool Mohamad is producing as “Om-El-Beat” mainly on the Internet. This stage performance took place in an experimental space at İstanbul Bomonti Bira Factory.  Batool Mohamad uses analog sounds and digital effects to produce electronic music in dub step style. Artists with a visual art background are  featured in a.k.a. sound series (curated by Asena Hayal) in winter 2016 to demonstrate a sculptural plastic approach to sound and performance.

Batool Mohamad’s songs and music performances are are cynical reflections of a tragic reality. Despite the fact that she has released only a few songs, her most popular songs “I Love Death” and “I’m From Syria” went viral in civil activism circles. “ISIS Funk” is a clever and honest jab at the fundamentalist group. The sharp but absurd lyrics speak accurately of the state of Syrian civil activists, particularly female activists, today.

Batool Mohamad studied acting at the High Institute for Dramatic Arts in Damascus. In 2011 she joined the demonstration in Damascus and Homs and had to leave Syria. She has acted in many theatrical productions in Syria, including “A Streetcar Named Desire,” High Institute for Dramatic Arts, Damascus; and “Hamlet,” Hamra Theater, Damascus. She worked with Syrian children for an interactive project, Play with Jam, in the Frame of a workshop serial designed by the Plattform InEnArt under the title Searching Traces in Istanbul 2014.  Mohamad was the female lead in Erkan Mumcu’s feature film “Sınırlar,” 2016, and one of the main Characteres in the feature documentary “In The Dark Times” by Sabine Küper-Büsch and Thomas Büsch, 2016.