Video Installation | Pakistan 2025

A filmic installation that explores Kasha, the labor of the hand, as a choreography of resistance, transmission, and care. The project aims to challenge the binary between “art” and “craft” by approaching artisanal practices as dynamic movement languages that speak across generations, geographies, and materialities.

In Choreographies of Craft, I treat the hand as an archive, as a carrier of memory and gesture where each cut, thread, line, or movement retains traces of inheritance and poetry.

A film by Michael Maurissens
Commissioned by the 2025 NCA Triennale, Lahore

Direction, Cinematography & Editing Michael Maurissens
Project Assistance Maryam “Mickey” Zia Khan, Rohma, Mahad, Fatima Zehra, Mahad Saddique
Featuring Dancer Aleeza Fatima , Dancer Manal Amer Khan, Dancer Farhan Sheikh, Dancer Inara Ikram, Dancer Timsal Ali , Dancer Masooma Fatima, Human Sculpture Ahmet Hasan, Harmonium Maker Nadeem Abbas, Harmonium Maker Ali Hamza, Painter Aleezah Qayyum , Potter Mehboob Alam, Potter Ibrahim Alam Mehboob , Sagar Veena Player Noor Zehra Kazim , Textile Professor Shabeer Sahab, Weaver Master Munawar Ali, Weaver Ali Hasnain, Weaver Ali Tayab Yousaf, Weaver Ali Hamza, Weaver Shehzad Ashraf, Weaver Akbar Ali, Weaver Asad Akbar, The dancers at The Colony
Artists and artisans from the city of Lahore

Music
Nils Frahm “Toilet Brushes” (from the album Spaces)
“Aaj Bazar Mein” poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, performed by Nayyara Noor

NCA Triennale Team Humna Kazi, Murtaza Zaidi

In Collaboration With National College of Arts, The Colony, Sanjan Nagar Institute of Philosophy & Arts