As a part of pause-in times of conflict maraa is organising The creative face of Kabul- a talk by Francesca Recchia.
The talk intends to explore the potential of creative practices as modes of survival and engagement with politics within a socio-political reality that is in a state of violent flux.
About the talk:
In a country destroyed by decades of succeeding wars, creativity can become a tool for survival, a strategy of political subversion and a means to preserve and protect the past. The voices of artists and cultural practitioners from different backgrounds are combined to depict a portrait of the city of Kabul, which emerges through the contradictions of war economy, political upheaval, physical destruction and hidden spaces of resistance. The artistic practices of Rahim Walizada and Aman Mojadidi and the multi-faceted activity of the Turquoise Mountain are the main focus of the article. They become the lenses through which we explore the relation between conservation/conservatism and innovation, tradition and modernity, the quest for beauty and the destruction of war, the idea of statehood and that of heritage.
About the speaker:
Francesca Recchia currently consults with maraa on the Arts Programme: Spaces for Diverse Publics. She is also an independent researcher and lecturer, who has worked in several different countries: Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Pakistan, Palestine among others. She is mainly interested in the relations between social and creative practices, cultural identities and transformation of places. Her work focuses on the geo-political dimension of cultural processes and mainly deals with the connections between power, space design and social conflicts. Her approach is constructed on a strong interdisciplinary ground intersecting the fields of Social, Postcolonial, Visual and Urban Studies. She has been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College of London, holds a PhD in Cultural Studies at the Oriental Institute in Naples and a MA in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her publications include ‘Within the Circle of Fear. Field notes from Iraqi Kurdistan’ in Sarai Reader 08: Fear; ‘Memory and Place. Perspectives from Iraqi Kurdistan’ in Third Text Asia and ‘Radical Territories of Affection” in Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization.
To read more about pause-in times of conflict click here
Venue: Page Turners
Time: 5:00 – 7:30 PM
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