Salam Orient

Vienna [ENA] The Salam Orient took place in October 2020 in various locations in Vienna. The Salam Orient festival exists already for 15 years due to fascination and energy of Norbert Ehrlich, its founder and director, who decided to devote himself to the fascinating culture of Middle East and Arabic-influenced regions of the world, from Andalusia to Maghreb, West and East Asia as well as Middle and East Asia.

Since the year 2017 Katrin Pröll and Martina Laab also dedicate themselves to the organization of the festival. The festival takes place every year in October and lasts for ten days. It combines various locations in Vienna, international concerts, panel discussions, artist talks, workshops and a special children's program. The aim of the festival is to create a platform of social, cultural and political debate while also presenting the rich cultural diversity of the region. The events have a special focus on women and sociopolitical critical artists and combine traditional and modern music.

This was an impressive event for several reasons. First, it took place during the Covid pandemic and extensive health protection measures had to be considered. Second, for the first time it was combined with several visual arts and literature events. But the most interesting was the topic of the festival which was dedicated to the Silk Road with the major focus on Central Asian art and culture. Some of the highlights from the festival were concerts of Elaha Soroor and Kefaya, of Salah Ammo and Damir Imamović together with Jelena Popržan.

Salah Ammo is a Kurdish-Syrian musician who was born in the Northeast of Syrian and grew up in a multi-cultural neighborhood where Kurds, Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians have lived together for thousands of years. The special identity of the music of Salah Ammo comes from this rich cultural diversity. The musician also puts his music into the European contest thus creating bridges between cultures, between east and west, between classical and oriental, between traditional and modern. His music is a hymn to the cultural diversity and variety.

Damir Imamović is a Bosnian musician who was born in Sarajevo. His works are dedicated to sevdah songs, which in translation from Arabic mean “black bile” to express longing and love. This music appeared in the 15th century and evolved further in the caves of Sarajevo and Mostar. During the Bosnian war it took a new meaning for the young generation. In his music Damir explores century-old connections between Sevdah and Ottoman music. Jelena Popržan, who is a viola player, singer, performer and composer, combines music from Viennese to Vojvodina. She brings together voice experiments, contemporary art music, pop and chansons, political songs and Balkan folk music.