[alefwow] قبر / grave

[alefwow] دموع سعيدة / happy tears

[alefwow] كابريكورن مون / capricorn moon

Lovesong Revolution
Sonic Essay by Urok Shirhan
2020 

Can a sound start a revolution? The Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 1974 is known to have been triggered by a love song aired on the radio. Eighteen days prior, “E Depois do Adeus” was performed by Paulo de Carvalho as Portugal’s submission for the Eurovision Song Contest.  

Departing from this love song, this sound essay traverses other, more recent instances of public speech, bodies in the street, political songs and sounds. While some of the sounds are explicitly political, expressing solidarity or speaking directly of struggle, other sounds are political only implicitly – or “accidentally” – politicized through their adaptation in contexts such as protests. 

This piece thinks about the amplification of sound through embodiment, all while keeping in mind the following: Where can dissonance and dissidence be located within our own lives? Is there place in the public sphere for those unamplified voices inside our heads: the soft voices that speak of fear, doubt, powerlessness and precarity? Can the revolution include our heartbreak and exhaustion, as well as our courage and defiance? 

Can a love song start a revolution?

Lovesong Revolution

𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 / 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿 /  𝗱𝗷 
عراقية من هولندا في اليونان 🧿 
📍Iraqi from NL based in Athens

UROK (NL/Iraq) – aka Urok Shirhan – is an Athens-based artist, researcher and DJ working at the intersection of performance, visual arts and critical theory. 

As a DJ, her sets unfold a polyglot club sound—where uptempo Arab, Latinx and Brazilian rhythms meet leftfield techno and deconstructed bass, blending sweet pop melodies with dark percussive drums. 

Most recently she DJed for the opening of the 18th Istanbul Biennial at Soho House Istanbul; for Radio Alhara x Art Explora in Piraeus, Athens and has contributed a DJ-set for Ibraaz London's new online platform. She’s currently a resident DJ at 1982 Art Space & Bar in Athens, with regular DJ-sets at other local venues such as Latraac, BIOS, Ela Na Sou Po, Cantina Social and Romantso. Previously, UROK hosted the monthly live show ‘Sound Without Image’ on Radio Alhara, broadcasting from Bethlehem, Palestine. 

Some of her music productions (under the alias 'alefwow') have been released on the Dutch experimental label ‘aural conduct’ (EP 03 Invert Dance). 

______


As an artist, her research often emerges from questions rooted in her biography and family history of political struggle and (forced) migrations. Her latest body of work considers the role of sound––and the voice in particular––in relation to collectivity, dissidence and belonging. Her texts have been published with Infrasonica; NORIENT; The Derivative at the Beirut Art Center; Sonic Continuum at Nottingham Contemporary; and PrintRoom in Rotterdam. 

Urok holds an MA (Hons.) in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths University in London. She has been in residence at the Delfina Foundation in London and held research fellowships at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht; the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in Amsterdam; Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht; and Ashkal Alwan in Beirut. Most recently, she was a 2024/25 Onassis AiR Fellow in Athens, Greece.

Urok Shirhan

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