Loghofète ou le prénom perdu

A creation by musician and singer Fred Nevché and researcher and urban planner Diala Lteif (University of Cambridge).

A mysterious first name tracing the thread of the Armenian exile, from Marseille to Beirut.

Fred Nevché's great-grandfather was a goldsmith. His name was Loghofète. His great-grandmother was named Satenik. On October 15, 1923, they both arrived in Marseille with their five children, Mariama, Haïk – Fred's grandfather –, Agop, Onnik and Garvis. After sanitary quarantine procedures, they were taken to Camp Oddo, where Armenian refugees were welcomed. Today, Fred can find no other trace of the name “Loghofète.” It even seems that no one other than his ancestor ever bore it.

At the same time, in Beirut, an Armenian family arrived at the port. Garabet, his wife Herminée and their children went through quarantine at the Lazaret before settling in the Karantina camp. Diala Lteif, a Lebanese urban-planning researcher at the University of Cambridge, found their descendants and gathered their stories.

A century later, the paths of these two families who fled the genocide will cross. Searching for his origins, Fred Nevché meets Diala Lteif in Beirut. Together, they trace the thread of these displaced lives. From this investigation, Fred Nevché imagines a stage work in which his voice, texts, music and photographs engage in dialogue with stories, archival images and videos. Between poetry and documentary material, Loghofète ou le prénom perdu gives voice to the wounds of Armenian exile and the vital passing on of family memories, where flashes of life triumph.