THE GOLDEN MUSEUM OF CRISIS | 31ST OCTOBER, CENTRAL ELÉTRICA
31st OCTOBER 2026, 6PM | Residency show, Central Elétrica
5th NOVEMBER 2026, 7PM – 10:30PM | Workshop, Central Elétrica
Welcome to The Golden Museum of Crisis:
an imaginary museum built in the shadow of crises—past, present, and yet to come.
Following the Great Mediterranean Flood, an abandoned American aircraft carrier drifts through a submerged landscape. On its deck, a museum emerges—a safe haven for six performers who inhabit this imaginary, stage-built museum. They carry, manipulate, test, and activate its collection. Their bodies generate movement and music, gradually transforming the exhibition into a ritual space.
At the heart of the museum lies the idea that overcoming a crisis requires a reorganization of our emotions. Art becomes one of the tools through which this transformation can take place: a way to confront catastrophe, to grieve what has been lost, and, simultaneously, to create new possibilities for the future.
Here, every object must be tested by a body. Each test turns into a ceremony.
Each ceremony requires an offering.
Objects become instruments.
Movement becomes ritual.
The museum becomes a temple.
Objects are tested.
Bodies are sacrificed.
Movement becomes ritual.
The museum becomes a temple.
Objects are tested.
Bodies are sacrificed.
Engaging with ancient rituals in which sacrifice was used to restore balance and avert catastrophe, the performers devise their own ceremonies to confront the crisis.
YOUNESS ATBANE
An artist originally from Morocco, he currently lives and works between Casablanca and Berlin. His artistic practice is rooted in a critical engagement with the field of art, its various agents, and its geopolitics.
He began his training through various programs, gaining artistic experience in performance and the visual arts across France, Morocco, Belgium, and Spain. In 2008, he participated in the EX E.R.CE08 master’s program in performing arts at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier. In 2010, he completed a master’s degree in Art—specializing in Literature and Museology—at the University of Nice. His practice unfolds across three areas: live performance as a space for reflection; the creation of installations as an outgrowth of the performative act; and photography and drawing, which serve as an archive. These three areas are interconnected and interdependent. The exploratory nature of his work brings together performative and narrative practices, possessing both discursive and formal qualities.
He has presented his installations and performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome; as part of a collateral event at the Venice Biennale (2011); at the Arab World Institute in Paris; the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat; the Ostrale Biennale in Dresden; and, more recently, at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco and MASS MoCA in Massachusetts.
His work has also been recognized by the British Museum and the MuCEM in Marseille, and he was the recipient of the ZKB (Zürcher Kantonalbank) ArtPrize in Zurich.
OBJECT FOR A BODY / BODY AS OBJECT [Workshop]
In everyday life, objects are generally defined through language and their function; we classify them as tools, furniture, communication devices, or consumer goods. However, this functional clarity contrasts with their presence in dreams, where objects appear unstable, symbolic, and often irrational. This project investigates the tension between these two states: the rational world of utility and classification, and the opaque, fluid world of dreams.
Through collective, performative experimentation, participants will explore objects beyond their conventional meanings. By manipulating, repeating, displacing, and recontextualizing them, we seek to dissolve their fixed identities. Much like what happens when we repeat a word until it loses its meaning, the objects in this laboratory transform into “things” detached from their original purpose—opening space for new associations driven by intuition, memory, and imagination.
The workshop is structured as a laboratory of transformation, where language, movement, and imagery interact freely, unconstrained by the need to serve predefined meanings. Participants will explore how new forms of representation emerge when objects cease to be functional entities and begin to act as agents of speculative possibility.
The workshop will be conducted in English and is open to anyone interested, regardless of their background or experience.
We recommend wearing comfortable clothing and footwear!