Biography - 2025 

Abdullah Miniawy (born 1994) is an Egyptian expressionist, writer, singer, composer, 3D generalist (programmer) and actor. Over the years, he has shared the stage with celebrated artists like Erik Truffaz, Kamilya Jubran, Yom, Médéric Collignon, Aly Talibab, A Filetta, Hvad, Ziur, Zuli, Simo Cell, Maurice Louca, and many others. Abdullah has performed at prestigious international venues and festivals, including the 72nd Festival d’Avignon, French national theaters, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Haus der Kunst in Munich, MAO Museum in Turin, Philharmonie de Paris, and even the Louvre in Paris.

Beyond his music, Abdullah showcased his acting talent in Ala Eddine Slim's Tunisian feature film Tlamess, which premiered at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival in 2019. The film received critical acclaim, winning Best Full-Length Feature Film at Kino der Kunst 2020 and Best Director at the Marrakech International Film Festival in 2020. Abdullah was shortlisted for Best Actor by the Arab Cinema Center at Cannes. He also directed his first short film, Rain Ticket in 2021.

As a composer, Abdullah has composed soundtracks for dance, theater, and exhibitions, including Wael Shawki’s Cabaret Crusades III, premiered at MoMA PS1; Kirsten Dehlholm’s AMDUAT, premiered at Hotel Pro Forma; Insurrection by Jilani Saadi; and On the Hill by Belhassen Handous.

His influence extends beyond the arts. In 2021, the European Parliament in Strasbourg selected Abdullah as one of three "change makers" from the Schengen area, inviting him to share his French-Egyptian perspective on contemporary issues at the European Youth Event’s “Live Fully” section. He also took part in "Europe Takes Part," a forum of 30 diverse speakers discussing economic models and digital solutions for artists in a post-pandemic world. Since 2015, Abdullah has collaborated with the German trio Carl Gari, blending avant-garde electronic sounds with his poetic lyrics. Their debut album, Darraje, was named one of the top 50 albums of 2016 by NPR. Theirfollow-up, The Act of Falling from the 8th Floor, received acclaim from Pitchfork, The Quietus, and Wire Magazine, while the track "Zawaj" topped Resident Advisor’s list of "Deep Listening" tracks in 2019.
 
In 2023, Abdullah’s album Le Cri du Caire, featuring Erik Truffaz, won the Les Victoires du Jazz award—the French equivalent of the Grammy Awards—achieving global distribution and acclaim.
As a writer, Abdullah's lyrics resonate deeply across the Middle East, especially during the Arab Spring, where they were displayed in places like Syria's Yarmouk Camp, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab and Western countries. In early 2022, he released his first collection of stories, Extinguishing The City of Lights. 

To date, Miniawy has created or collaborated on nearly 700 shows and cultural exchanges across Europe and beyond, with up to 80 live performances scheduled worldwide for the 2023-2024 season. 
Each performance has been met with standing ovations and has left audiences with unforgettable moments.

on tour 2025 ;

Abdullah Miniawy - Nigma Enigma (solo)
Abdullah Miniawy (TRIO ; with Robinson Khoury Trombone, Jules Boittin Trombone) (inv. Erik Truffaz)  
Abdullah Miniawy and Maurice Louca

Across decades, Porest (aka Mark Gergis) has issued a trail of confounding agitprop sound art, post-globalized hate-pop, diabolical radio dramas and carefully rearranged realities. Porest’s blatant embezzlement of human syntax and cultural misunderstanding broadcasts vital mixed messages across all fields. Live performances integrate Porest’s music, performance and sound into a grand total sum that can’t be unseen. Ongoing collaborations have included: Negativland (USA) Alan Bishop / Sun City Girls (USA), and Aavikko (Finland), among others.

 Porest’s Modern Journal of Popular Savagery LP was released by Nashazphone (Cairo) in 2016, followed by an appearance at TUSK festival (UK) and a European tour. In 2017, Porest’s Optimized! – The Parallel Broadcasts was issued as a split LP alongside London’s People Like Us on the Discrepant label (UK), followed by performances in Cairo, and at the Beirut and Beyond festival in Lebanon (curated by Egypt’s Maurice Louca). 2017’s album Flimsy Tomb was released by Sucata Tapes (UK) on cassette, celebrated with a performance at Café OTO, London. Past releases can be found on the Seeland, Resipiscent and Abduction labels. 

 London-based Mark Gergis was born in California, where he begat the Porest project. Mark was co-founder of the long-running experimental Bay Area music and performance collective Mono Pause, as well as its offshoot Neung Phak; performing inspired renditions of southeast Asian folk and pop music. Since 2003, with the Sublime Frequencies label, and more recently, with his own record label Sham Palace, Mark has shared decades of research and scores of archived international music, film footage and sound recordings acquired during extensive travels in the Middle East and South East Asia. 

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I have no fuckin' idea how to describe this monster...how about brazen, sample-driven, manic, pissed-off, over-the-top, brilliant?  – BLASTITUDE

Porest creates subversively comedic and extremely leftist audio collages on as current and confrontational a tip as creatively possible. …Venomous…uninhibitedly outspoken sound-bite masterpieces. Porest lodges a well-aimed spit-wad into the eye of capitalist America. You can’t argue with the truth.  – Kevin Hainey, EXCLAIM!

All I know is the way Mark Gergis cuts and pastes signifiers of our global predicament into songs that are funny, baffling, catchy, reverent, subversive, absurd, and logical is a knack that has a few parallels (Negativland, Eugene Chadbourne, Gergis’ brethren Sun City GIrls) but no real peers. …The Porest POV is so intact it’s blinding – and I’ll be staring at this sun for a while.  – Marc Masters, 200 WORDS

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