Chambre d'échos turns Villa Bernasconi into a poetic labyrinth. Launched at the 2022 Avignon Festival, this international collective platform, created by and starring female poets, continues to showcase contemporary Arabic poetry in venues all over the world. Each room of the pink house echoes with the voices of four performers from Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Gaza. Soukaina Habiballah, Carol Sansour, Hend Jouda and Rasha Omran voice the world from a female perspective, face to face with their grandmothers (Dodo ya Momo do), their mothers (In the Season of Apricots), war (Gaza, Oh My Joy), and solitude (The Woman Who Lived in the House Before Me).

In addition to these readings, the audience is invited to enjoy a musical interlude by Neda Joukar, who plays the târ, a traditional Persian string instrument. An experienced musician, Joukar has honed her skills with the likes of Houshang Zarif and Dariush Pirniakan, eminent Iranian music teachers. She obtained her BA in Iranian Music at the University of the Arts in Tehran and is currently pursuing an MA in Ethnomusicology at the University of Geneva. Joukar has performed many concerts in Iran and Switzerland and has been a member of the Geneva University of the Arts’ oriental ensemble since October 2021.