Now Is The Time To Say Nothing
By Reem Karssli and Caroline Williams

Shows:
Date:27 April
Times: 11.30am, 1pm, 4pm, 5.30pm
Date:28 April
Times: 10am, 11.30am
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Venue: Foyle Room, Turner Contemporary, Rendezvous, Margate. CT9 1HG

‘If you are thinking about someone and they don’t know it, do you think it still matters?’

Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an interactive video installation exploring the role of screens in observing global conflict.

The show is a provocation against armchair passivity. Using stunning video and immersive sound, it follows the real story of Syrian artist Reem Karssli as she captures her daily experience of the Syrian conflict on camera. We see what emerges when she is contacted by a group of teenagers from the UK who want to see beyond the footage they’ve watched on their TVs.

Together they co-author an experience which attempts to connect a UK audience to the human story behind the news. Created over four years, following Reem into an exile which forces her to leave her camera behind, Now Is The Time To Say Nothing is an intimate exploration of what it means to stay connected to each other and of what happens when war and the need for survival gets in the way. 

‘Exquisitely simple and moving. This is a cunningly constructed and heartfelt piece that acknowledges the complexities of what is happening in Syria, reminds how sitting in the dark watching a screen only distances us, and actively tries to bring us together to reach out to the real people, just like us, whose lives are blighted by war.’
— Lyn Gardner. The Guardian

Duration: 1hr approx
Suitability: 12 + 
WARNING: Depictions of war, sudden, loud noises including gun fire and bombing.

​Lead artists Caroline Williams and Reem Karssli 
Sound Artists Keir Vine and Tom Parkinson 
Video Artists May Abdalla and Christina Hardinge
Associate Sound Design Lewis Gibson 
Production Manager Andrew Crofts 
Produced by MAYK
 
Reem Karssli is a Syrian film-maker and researcher now living in Berlin. Reem Karssli made her first film Everyday Everyday with independent film producers Hakawti. Everyday, Everyday is an intimate and honest portrayal of her family, as they become internally displaced in Damascus.
 
Caroline Williams is an award-winning artist working in multi-disciplinary participatory performance. She represented the UK at the Prague Quadrennial with her performance installation for the V&A Museum: Shakespeare’s Fools. Other projects include Can You Hear Me Now (MAYK), Make Yourself At Home (Nuit Blanche Brussels), Millions of Years (English National Opera), Dad Dancing with Second Hand Dance, Shadwell’s Tempest and Le Malade Imaginaire (Shakespeare’s Globe).
 
More information can be found here: http://carolinemarywilliams.com
  
MAYK is a theatre producing organisation that collaborates with artists and audiences to make exciting things happen in unusual ways. As well as Mayfest they deliver many other public projects throughout the year for audiences around the world. 
 
More information can be found here: https://www.mayk.org.uk/