Myriam Omar Awadi, “Chiromani Boule à facettes” in Cambodia

Myriam Omar Awadi presents “Chiromani, boule à facettes” (Chiromani, glitter ball) as part of the “Natte, Nappe, Mappe” exhibition at the Institut français in Cambodia between June and July 2021. The work of Myriam Omar Awadi, a performance at the centre of the exhibition will enable to link textiles, the body in movement, and identity, by the “turning round and round” choreographic movement. You can discover more about the Natte, Nappe, Mappe” exhibition during an online conference, on Thursday, June 10, at 1.30 pm.

Updated on 10/06/2021

2 min

For the first time, the Institut français in Cambodia is presenting an exhibition devoted to all kinds of textiles where threads, cloths, loincloths, krama, mats, tablecloths, mappes mix and get mixed up in each other. This exposition groups together threads of lives, as the textiles are presented. Cloths from the collection of the Cambodia National Museum, costumes and fabrics from the Cambodia royal ballet, the emblematic krama fabric worn by all generations of Cambodians, these textile sets will be shown with contemporary woven works as well as clothes from today and yesterday. The Institut français in Cambodia has invited Myriam Omar Awadi to present her performance with the involvement of Cambodian dancers.

“[…] When they come into a room, they are not people, characters or subjects, they are an atmospheric variation, change of shade, a molecule that can’t be seen, a discrete population, a mist or cloud of droplets. Everything has changed in truth”. Extract from Dialogues, Gilles Deleuze – Claire Parnet, published by Editions Flammarion, 1996

“A woman, her body covered in a Chiromani, a traditional Anjouanese fabric and enhanced with embroidered sequins, turns round and round for hours. The body revolves slow and gently projects its reflections and extends its territory throughout space. Through this elementary choreographic gesture, it thus creates, through its presence alone, the decor of a festival that could take place…”
Myriam Omar Awadi

Myriam Omar Awadi is a Franco-Comorian artist, born in Paris in 1983. She lives and works on Réunion. She shows her work regularly in exhibitions, fairs and residencies on Réunion, mainland France, in countries around the Indian ocean and abroad. She has been teaching performance practices at the École supérieure d’art of Réunion since 2013. She has been a member of the La Box/ Run space collective since 2016 where she founded the Paroles Paroles laboratory in collaboration with the Yohann Quëland de Saint-Pern artist. She also works in live performance as a scenographer and light designer.

Chiromani Boule à facettes, Myriam Omar Awadi

Performance installation, 2012

Fabric covered in embroidered sequins, four projectors (mini-cut outs).

Production assistant: Loise Braganza

Embroider: Ashfag Shaikh

Collection: Frac Réunion

Online conference « Au fil des idées » ,Thursday, June 10, at 1.30 pm.

The online conference "Au fil des idées" is organised as part of the « Natte, Nappe, Mappe » exhibition and the cultural season of the Institut français in Cambodia about textile, creation and innovation.

Participants : Myriam Omar Awadi, artist, Julie Crenn, critic of art and curator, Eric Raisina, fashion designer, Em Riem, artist, designer Director of the X-em Gallery, Valentin Rodriguez, Cultural Attaché culturel and assistant director of the Institut français in Cambodia.

Participate in the conference (in French)

The Institut français and the work

The work “Chiromani, boule à facettes” by Myriam Omar Awadi is a proposition of FRAC Réunion as part of the La COLLECTION. La COLLECTION is a programme of the Institut français which aims to match a high-quality French cultural offer with the expectations / needs of the network to feed its programming, while guaranteeing its "lightness" of implementation to facilitate its dissemination.

Find out more about La COLLECTION