HOUB

How can we describe our bodies if we have no language? In Arabic, ḥoub means ‘love in all its forms’. The root ح ب ب (‘ḥbb’) refers to the seed, the core, that which carries life within itself. The Houb of the title stands for a sisterly dialogue between the poetry of Zaïneb Ḥamdi and the turntablism practice of Soumaya Phéline Abouda. Drawing from her poetry collection Où mon amour sera houb*, Zaïneb Hamdi expresses urgent issues that engage both artists: the reappropriation of non-white bodies, their languages and history, withdrawal from the ‘systems of the Fathers’, and the rejection of any essentialization used as an instrument of power. Houb unfolds these poetic words in scenes, somewhere between confessions and incantations. Like an echo, the live orchestrated music behind the turntables becomes a full-fledged narrative that deconstructs and composes voices, textures, and samples and guides the breath of the poem. Zaïneb and Soumaya let a living language float between orality and sounds between them. They call for discursive plurality by inviting a voice from the world of poetry onto the stage at every performance, to allow a unique story – for the duration of a text – to resonate in the heart of the show. In a circular, science-fiction-like setting, Houb immerses the audience in an artistic, sensory cross-pollination in which poetry, music, and silence pave the way for listening and shared vibration. • Zaïneb Hamdi is a Belgian poet, writer, and performer. Fils d’Arabe, her first poetry collection, was published in 2017. In 2024, she published Où mon amour sera ḥoub, which was awarded the 2025 Les Grenades – Prix de la marraine literary prize, which recognizes a feminist work of poetry. Her texts explore otherness, the place of women, their relationships with masculinity, the body, and language, blurring the boundaries between the intimate and the collective. In addition to the written word, she is also active in the digital space of social media, where she creates short-form visual and auditory poetry that combine image, text, and video. On stage, she is developing a form of performance poetry that combines spoken word, recitation, and solo performance. Her shows have been presented at various cultural institutions, including La Bellone, Maison Poème, the Beursschouwburg, and the Palais de Tokyo. • Soumaya Phéline Abouda, originally from Brussels, is a sound artist, DJ, composer, and performer, active on Belgian and international stages since 2006. As a resident at Kiosk Radio, co-founder of the High Needs Low club nights, and co-organizer of Club Détour, she has positioned herself at the intersection of sound design and alternative electronic cultures. Her work explores the evolution of the DJ profession and the way in which the tools (CDJ, turntables, and mixer) can become true narrative and expressive instruments. She calls this approach CDJism, an extension of the turntablism from which she develops her gestures, physicality, and imagination. Through this exploration, she transforms the DJ performance into a space of active listening, improvisation, and composition in real time, in which every movement becomes an act of writing. Her sonic universe is characterized by a technical and organic exploration of sounds, combining deep basses, complex breakbeats, and polyrhythmic structures to create unique and ephemeral experiences. As a member of the ‘Psst Mlle’ feminist collective, she advocates for more diversity and inclusivity in electronic music.