Marlaut

Free Event

SEA:
MARA (Scottish Gaelic)
MAR (Spanish)
LAUT (Indonesian)

Marlaut is a performance-installation that uses sound, textiles, film and site-specific instruments, co-created by Debbie Armour, Maria Sappho, Nadya Hatta and Arum Dayu. Drawing on traditional stories, songs, and patterns from Indonesia, Puerto Rico and the UK, it seeks to evoke a contemporary folklore that gives life and consideration to discarded and unnoticed objects, inviting the audience to move through the space and consider themes including waste and resource; care and mothering; domestika; and the intertwined fates of Mother Ocean and humanity.

Receiving its UK Premiere – and first complete performance – at hcmf// 2025, Marlaut was developed during Networking Archive: UK-Indonesia Contemporary Music 2024; a collaboration between hcmf// and Perempuan Komponis: Forum & Lab resulting in a three-month residency undertaken by Armour, Sappho, Hatta and Dayu. Drawing on the Sound Archive of the School of Scottish Studies (part of Edinburgh University); Indonesian Ornamental Design, published by Pepin Press; and Seigfried Zilenski’s notion of the Anarchive; the work itself – a journey through earth, sea, and life, through the sounds of women – is also an ongoing archive of film, sound, object and process.

Produced by hcmf//

Networking Archive: UK-Indonesia Contemporary Music 2024 was supported by British Council’s Connections Through Culture grant programme