Saturday 22nd February: 3pm-6pm
This event examines the Ottoman Empire’s scramble to participate in late 19th century interimperial competition and neo-Ottomanism and the lasting geopolitical impact of neo-Ottomanism across Asia and Africa.
This screening features a performance lecture co-curated by archivist Êvar Hussayni, focusing on Kurdish genealogies, colonial violence in archives and their relationship with the trajectory of Kurdish feminisms and Kurdish identity.
The event will open with a presentation on neo-Ottomanism and its influence on modern geopolitics, raising the “Turkish question” - what it is to be Turkish if not anti-Kurdish, anti-Armenian, anti-Assyrian, anti-black and anti-Roma?
Êvar Hussayni has exhibited her work locally in the UK as well as globally including at Warehouse421 in UAE, Art Basel Hong Kong, East of West in New Mexico USA, La Friche in Marseille, and The V&A. Êvar has given artist talks and lectures on alternative archival systems or practices and the psychological impact of the archive in many educational institutions including UCL, Northwestern University, NYU, Goldsmiths College, Regents University, Central Saint Martins and LSE. She has hosted and participated in workshops and events at iniva, Reference Point, Design Museum, P21 Gallery, The Mosaic Rooms and has been invited to participate in or moderate panel talks and round tables by TAPE Collective, Mou7i6 x Decolonial Hacker, Warehouse 421, AZEEMA Mag, Camden Arts Centre, London Short Film Festival and more.
The Old Mountain Assembly is a body assembled for the purpose of connecting speculative practices from the Balkans and Beyond. It was initiated at School of Kindness in Sofia, Bulgaria in the Summer of 2022 and currently organised in London by Bayr(y)am Bayr(y)amali, Jelena Visković and Angelina Radaković. The assembly’s aim is to collect practices and artefacts informing a transnational/decolonial perspective across time and borders, while interrogating trans/nationalist narratives and speculating on potential counter-cultures in the region and its diasporas. We do not see the Balkans and beyond as a ‘periphery’ and devoid of agency, but as an integral part of futuring world-making/politics.