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Mythological Migrations: The Artist as Curator - On Collaboration and Organization
22.05.2020 15:00

X-OP / Risk Change
Webinar Series

Abdullah Qureshi
MYTHOLOGICAL MIGRATIONS: THE ARTIST AS CURATOR - ON COLLABORATION AND ORGANIZATION

Friday, 22 May 2020 at 3 p. m. CET

On Friday, 22 May 2020 at 3 p. m. you are kindly invited to join us for webinar "Mythological Migrations: The Artist as Curator - On Collaboration and Organization" led by an artist and curator Abdullah Qureshi. The conversation will be live-streamed through the JITSI or ZOOM online platform. The link will be published here an hour prior to the event.**

"Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias", conceived and curated by Abdullah Qureshi, is a three-year artistic research project that examines formations of queer identity and resistance in Muslim migratory contexts. Drawing on Islamic mythological ideas through a Sufi framework, the project responds to an urgent need to recognize queer Muslim voices as a way of challenging rampant Islamophobia in Europe; and situated within spaces of exclusion and fetishization, such as the nightclub and the darkroom, investigates questions of how to expand Islam to include queer perspectives and how to expand queerness in the West to include non-secular perspectives.

This webinar presents an overview of the "Mythological Migrations" project, its artistic components, Chapter 1: The Nightclub and Chapter 2: The Darkroom – opening up a critical conversation on the role of the artist as curator, issues of creative collaboration and organization, and inter-community conflict.

More about the project:
https://www.abdullahqureshi.org/mythological-migrations

Referential Projects:
Desh Pardesh, SAVAC, Toronto: https://www.savac.net/collection/desh-pardesh/
Killjoy’s Kastle, by Allyson Mitchell and Diedre Logue: https://iceboxprojectspace.com/killjoys-kastle-2019/

Readings:
Filipovic, E. (2017) Introduction (When Exhibitions Become Form: On the History of the Artist as Curator). In E. Filipovic (Ed.), The Artist as Curator (pp. 7 – 14), Milan/London: Mousse Publishing / Koenig Books Ltd.
Tompkins, K. W. (2019). Reflections of a Real-Life Feminist Killjoy: Ball-Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer-Feminist Life. In A. Mitchell and C. McKinny (Eds.), Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monstors. And Other Lesbian Hauntings (pp. 143 – 158). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

ABDULLAH QURESHI is a Pakistani born artist, educator, and cultural producer. Within his practice, he is interested in using painting and collaborative methodologies to address personal histories, traumatic pasts, and childhood memories. Qureshi's work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Gallery of Art, Islamabad; Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore; Rossi & Rossi, London; Uqbar, Berlin; Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia; and SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco. He has held numerous positions at cultural and educational institutions including British Council and the National College of Arts, Lahore, and conducted lectures, paper readings, and artist talks around the world, including at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), Prague; Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki; PRAKSIS, Norway; NARS Foundation residency program and Residency Unlimited in New York, University of California, Irvine; Valand Academy, Gothenburg; Manchester Museum; and Fábrica de Arte Cubano, Havana. In 2017, Qureshi received the Art and International Cooperation fellowship at Zurich University of the Arts, and in 2018, a research fellowship at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research, Boston. In 2019, he joined the Center for Feminist Research, York University, Toronto as a visiting researcher, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate, supported by Kone Foundation, at Aalto University in Finland.

Mythological Migrations: Chapter 1: The Nightclub, curated by Abdullah Qureshi, commissioned by Publics for the Today Is Our Tomorrow festival, Club Kaiku, Helsinki, 2019. Photography courtesy: Aman Askarizad.

This webinar is the sixth in a series of lectures, conversations and workshops organized by X-OP Association for Contemporary Art as part of the project Risk Change (2016—2020). In the context of the current global situation, the series has been moved into the digital space and now takes place in the form of web-based seminars, or webinars. By the end of May, you will be able to listen and talk to (international) guests operating in various fields of culture, contemporary visual arts, film, architecture and education, whose practices are concerned with modern-day migrations, digital culture, infrastructure, politics and global relations of power, through a variety of original theoretical and practical approaches. The program will be regularly updated and events will be announced one week in advance.

For more information regarding the content of the event or link to the Jitsi conversation do not hesitate to contact X-OP Risk Change Webinar Series curator Živa Kleindienst (ziva@x-op.eu).

The Webinar Series is part of the Risk Change (2016–2020) which is co-financed by Creative Europe program of European Union, Ministry for Public Administration of Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Maribor and Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia.

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