Hanan Hadžajlić: VOICES

As a coda to Requiem Ex Machina (2022/2023), VOICES expands the theme of Children of Abraham into a drill/trap-based form for live voice, tape, and video.

 

VOICES (2025–ongoing) is, currently, a two-part piece written for Johanna Vargas, exploring themes of betrayal, rage, identity, freedom, and witnessing through Abrahamic religious narratives. Filmed in ruins and natural landscapes, primarily outside Europe.

 

I–Children of Abraham (2025) traces a pattern of betrayal through biblical accounts (Satan’s rebellion, Cain and Abel, Abraham’s divided lineage, Judas), connecting these narratives to cycles of violence across history but also psychological aspects of betrayal. The main character addresses evil as if speaking to the other side of »itself«–acknowledging shared capability and intelligence, but divergent choices rooted in ethics, morality, and humanity.

The piece also refers to the rulings of the Hague Tribunal recognizing genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, connecting it with ongoing demands for international justice in states where genocide is openly happening today. The central theme: while »power« governs institutions, borders, and systems of control, it cannot erase embodied memory and spiritual continuity–the power of free people across the world.

II–My Name is Eve (2026) is thematically multilayered piece, talking about inner conflicts and anger issues. At first, it examines questions of inherited versus chosen identity, questioning the condition of »being proud« based on birthplace or similar kind of symbolic belonging, starting Johanna’s part with: »but what did you personally do about it«.

 

Eve is portrayed as a symbol of female power, intelligence, intuition, and territoriality–the archetype of »problematic woman«. In a way, she demonstrates a Cassandra complex in relation to the world: possessing knowledge and foresight that others refuse to acknowledge. At the same time, she shows pride, arrogance, and uses the same means as those she’s fighting against, including »the snake« she talks about, exposing the problem of internalized violence among women themselves: rivalry, hierarchy, competition.

While judging »the other«, Eve is addressing fear, which is in the tape highlighted by the melody of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, as a quotation recontextualized in Balkan/Arab musical style, resonating with migrations toward Europe. Near the end, a street greeting in Bosnian is spoken with Arabic accent.

 

Composition/production, lyrics, backing vocals, and the flute part are realized by Hanan Hadžajlić. The Arabic chorus is written and recorded by Mohamed Aziz. The video is co-authored by Hadžajlić and Aziz.