Use Knife is a project by Iraqi vocalist and percussionist Saif Al-Qaissy, Belgian musicians Kwinten Mordijck and Stef Heeren, and multidisciplinary artist Youniss Ahamad – providing scenography and visuals during their show. Stemming from a residency the musicians partook in, Use Knife came together to probe the sonic and thematic overlaps and converges across Eastern and Western approaches to music and thought. The title of their lauded debut album, The Shedding of Skin (2022), refers to humanity’s survival instinct, particularly the impulse and, as is often the case, the necessity to leave war and disaster behind in order to seek new lives in new environments. They use analog and modular electronic machinery to invoke Arabic melodies and percussion, creating club-ready tracks that are potent with industrial energy, ragged post-punk distortion, and kinetic EBM pulses. Use Knife’s hallucinogenic, trance-inducing music ascends to new plains during their raw, pyrexic live shows. At Rewire, Use Knife perform new music from their anticipated forthcoming album État Coupable (2025) – which bridges culture and politics while merging each of the three band members’ skills in profoundly new ways –  with visuals from Ahamad.

The presentation of this work was made possible thanks to the support of Flemish Arts Centre de Brakke Grond, VierNulVier & STUK.