The Ramallah-based band have impressed audiences around the world with their politically driven, audio visual performances. Ruanne, Boikutt and Basel shared their thoughts and ideas with Time Out before their sold-out concerts last month, organised by Ruptured.

How did you start working together as Tashweesh?
Ruanne: Basel was working with Boikutt in Ramallah Underground, I was studying film in London and we discovered we were working in very similar ways.
Basel: Tashweesh really brings all our different solo practices together. Boikutt’s working on composing for a contemporary dance piece in New York, and Ruanne and I just finished our first solo exhibition in the UK.

What sort of collected images and sounds are you using?
Ruanne: It’s a mixture of stuff that we’ve filmed for our own pleasure or part of a project, then also old films, found foot- age, old advertisements.
Boikutt: As well as a lot of field recordings that we take in the street, at a checkpoint, at a border point. It’s a certain atmo- sphere that’s captured in sound, used in a way that portrays this place or this kind of space through the sound.

Do you feel it’s a heavy weight, the label of a ‘Palestinian artist’?
Ruanne: It’s exhausting. There’s that burden of representation all the time. People expect a certain kind of art from you.
Basel: Where’s the checkpoint? Where are the soldiers?
Boikutt: It’s much more important for us to be part of a community as opposed to just representing the community.

Do you think there is potential for art and music as a form of peaceful protest?
Ruanne: Yeah, I think it definitely has a place.
Basel: I don’t think it’s enough by itself, but it certainly creates discourses that benefit people. If you look at what happened in Egypt and what was happening culturally, it really reflects the moment. Commercial music and films reached a really low point in the revolution. I already feel it coming, a new language. I guess as people get bolder they feel they can talk about what’s going on.
Boikutt: Some bands in Egypt weren’t allowed to release their music, they were banned by the government. Now they’re out there, they have videos, they’re on TV and they’re talking about real sociopolitical things that everyone wants to hear.

Do you have problems with censorship in Ramallah?
Ruanne: I don’t think they get it [laughs].
Boikutt: There’s no direct censorship, but it exists in some ways.
Ruanne: Over the last three years you can’t film in Palestine. You used to just have to worry about the Israelis, now you have to worry about the Palestinian security as well. It’s really interesting to see because all the revolutions are happening in the Arab world and the Palestine that we’re seeing is the other side.
Basel: The formation of a police state.
Boikutt: The difference is that all the Arab countries around Palestine are basically post-colonial
situations, whereas Palestine is still colonised. There’s an illusion of independence and freedom.

Have your experiences performing around the world helped you develop as a group?
Boikutt: It’s been really inspiring meeting like-minded people.
Basel: We decided with Tashweesh that we’re not going to do Middle East or Palestinian-themed shows.

So you don’t want to be pigeonholed?
Ruanne: Yeah, the work is political by itself. We don’t need to go to a show that’s also a rally.
Basel: ‘Cause you get us and then a bellydancer.
Ruanne: Recently we’ve been much happier with the shows.
Basel: Because they’re centred around our work. It makes a huge difference because that’s where you grow. That’s where you get real feedback from people who are actually there for your work rather than just supporting you because of where you’re from.