Hamja will be resident in Bangladesh
30th Nov - 31st Jan

Our premises are located in Uttara Sector 4: Other Asias will be resident there in 1st December - 31st January 2010. We are looking for artists, filmmakers, activists, theatre practioners, researchers based in Bangladesh. We will be developing an Independent contemporary art project space in Uttara. Please contact us for further information or to get involved.

Residency (Bangladesh):
17th January - 24th January 2010

Hamja Ahsan director and curator will be in residency at Porapara Artists Space in Chittagong (Bangladesh) Introducing new forms of curatorial practice to South Asia.

For more information:
www.porapara.com

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ENTER 09
WATERMANS ARTS CENTRE
19th October - 1st December

Hamja has been selected for ENTER 09 award a showcase of the best South Asian Arts & Media graduate at WATERMANS ARTS CENTRE
REDO PAKISTAN will be here 19th October - 1st December
FREE NEWSPAPERS TO BE GIVEN AWAY DAILY with a new video essay

http://www.watermans.org.uk/exhibitions/enter_09___south_asian_graduate_new_media_exhibition/

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Other Asias: Current 2 - Redo Pakistan

Image part of a series of commisioned posters from Shafiq Dadd. Copyright remains with the artist.

Other Asias and Deptford X 2009 are proud to bring London the second part of the international group show Current 2 - Redo Pakistan. Redo Pakistan was originally conceived and curated by Fatima Hussain and is co-curated by Hamja Ahsan.

Pakistan was founded by Mohammed Ali Jinnah in 1947 who served as its first Governor-General. Over the decades it has been founded again and again geographically, politically and intellectually by temporary Governments, unstable rulers, natural hazards, and political super powers.

What if Pakistan was to be restored, stabilized today by social envisioners? What would a Pakistan, reconstructed in 2009, the year after the unstable rule, look like?

What if instead of the super powers renovating the third world nations, one country was left in the hands of social envisioners? How would they fantasize remodelling the land, geographically, politically, intellectually? Redo Pakistan presents artist proposed designs, plans and ideas eradicating threats to the nation, and providing hope for a re-imagined utopia the people of Pakistan have long been waiting for.

About the Show

The first part of the show and an accompanying symposium was held in Karachi at the Shanakht Festival and was supported by the Karachi Arts Council. It began with much hope and fanfare on 8th April 2009. By sunset, more than a thousand Karachiites had visited the event. No one could have predicted that this calm social gathering would be disrupted. Several political activists of the dominant political party in Pakistan took offence to a work of art exhibited by another group in the same gallery as Redo Pakistan. They threatened to beat the organizers up if they did not hand over the artist responsible for this “sacrilegious” piece. The gallery was ransacked and many of the exhibits were also badly damaged. Many Karachiites who had come for a peaceful and entertaining night out were scared away. The next day, the artists and organisers took toll of the damage, packed up their exhibits and headed home after the Sindh Government refused to provide security guarantees to the Shanakht Festival organizers.

Our experience with the show and the current situation of the country led us to think of more urgent ways of getting across the idea of reforming the nation at Alhamra Arts Council, Lahore. It was impossible to think that people would even consider coming to the gallery to spend time with the works so carefully put together by the Envisioners. We decided to curate the show in the form of a newspaper and alter the role of the artist as a newspaper vendor. The handing out of the newspaper to the audience took place in the gallery and outside. The show was much more accessible to the nation than it was ever before. It was received well by the public. The symposium in the gallery space highlighted this new role of the artist as the vendor, being the most urgent and contemporary keeping in mind the scenario of the country.

The London leg of Redo Pakistan is part of FLUX and Deptford X 2009 and expands upon the issues explored in Karachi through a series of film screenings, exhibitions and performance events. Jinnah the 1998 film about Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, will be screened at Departure Art Centre as a prologue to the events. At the Old Police Station a mobile newspaper stall will be set up giving out copies of the Redo Pakistan newspaper, a quarterly publication, each issue of which focuses on ideas to re-imagine a specific aspect of Pakistan. There will also be poetry readings from the writings of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who was the first Asian poet to win the Lenin Peace Prize (Russia’s equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize) in 1963. The Project Space on Deptford High Street will host storytelling and performance events related to Urdu short story writer Saadat Hassan Manto. For the Closing event the focus will be on Allama Muhammad Iqbal whose views on Islamic government opposed the more secular views on government held by Jinnah.

Programme:
Prologue: 18th September 2009
The Jinnah Papers
Film: Jinnah
Short films and small publication to be given away for free
(with contributions from Sadia Mir, Rehana Zahan etc.)
Departure, 649 Commercial Road, London
Train/ Tube: Limehouse DLR/ Overground Limehouse then 1 minute walk

Dates: 25th September – 4th October 2009.
Venues:
• Temporary Contemporary
   Old Police Station
   114-116 Amersham Vale,
   New Cross SE14 6LG
• The Project Space
   121-123 Deptford High Street
   SE8 4NS

PROLOGUE
18th September 2009
Departure Art Centre
Jinnah (Film Screening)

OPENING
25th Sept 2009:
Old Police Station (25th, 26th September)
Event on Faiz A. Faiz/ Mobile Newspaper Vendor Stall
Project Space (25th sept-4th Oct)
Mock pressroom/ Newspaper Stall
26th Sept 2009:
Project Space and Deptford High Street
Performance Event on Saadat Hassan Manto

CLOSING
4th October 2009
Project Space
Event on Allama M. Iqbal

FORTHCOMING ART PROJECTS

AUGUST 7th
LATE AT TATE
Hamja will be curating a series of talks, sound art and interverventions with MA CWCP
Co-Curated with Max Reinhardt
Tate Britain
6.30pm -9.30pm

AUGUST 7th - 9th
A Cup of Tea Solves Everything (On Tour)
Curated by Hamja Ahsan and Steph Newell
Forfey Festival, Northern Ireland
http://www.forfeyfestival.co.uk

SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2009
DEPTFORD X
Hamja Ahsan has been selected to take part in Deptford X
September 25th - October 4th
http://www.deptfordx.org/

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RECENT PROJECTS

JUNE 4th
PROJECT BIENNALE
Book Launch at Venice Biennale
http://projectbiennale.wordpress.com/
Symposium at Sheffield SIAD Gallery
June 10th-11th
http://criticalnetwork.co.uk/event.php?id=346

JUNE 9th-10th
REDO PAKISTAN
Newspaper launched
Alhamra Centre, Lahore
Film Screening: 9th and 10th June 2009.
Performance event: 'Art Vendors' 9th June 2009. Designed by Mobeen Ejaz
Symposium: Film Screening and Performance event will be followed by a Symposium on 'Redo Pakistan'. 9th June 2009 6-8pm

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PAST EVENTS

Group art exhibition curated by Hamja Ahsan (www.hamjaahsan.com) and Steph Newell

20th February – 14th March

A diverse range of artists were invited to interpret the statement "A Cup of Tea Solves Everything" in this exciting multi-media exhibition. Tea as time, tea as etiquette, tea as mathematics, tea as war, tea as peace, tea as Empire and more…

Artists include: Lorna Robertson /Raksha Patel /Emma Scarpa /Mathilda Holmqvist /Vanessa Louise Jones /Sonalle /Carol Mancke /Sonia Paco-Rocchia /Gabo /Joanna Kerr /Adnan Mirza /Wendy Couchman /Melissa Stott /Kathy Taylor /Tea Appreciation Society /Helena Wee /Mirei Yazama /Rekha Sameer /Sue Lawes /Paul Taylor /Shafique LeFreaque /Ed Huxley /Fatima Hussein

EVENTS, WORKSHOPS & FILM PROGRAMME

Friday - February 20th - Opening Night:
6pm-9pm
Free Tea for all and welcome tour.
Film Screening: The River (1951) Dir: Jean Renoir
Set in Bengal during the colonial era. Features 38 tea encounters. The key influence that launched Satyajit Ray's foray into cinema.
Described by Martin Scorsese as "the most beautiful film ever made in colour." Starts 7pm.

Saturday – March 7th
10.30am – 12.30pm
2pm - 4pm
Qualified Art Therapist Sue Briffa leads 2 art therapy workshops around the exhibition. Materials provided.

Saturday – February 28th
2pm onwards
Tea and Politics, the collaboration of artists Missy Mitchell-Hynd and Naimh Moor, question society's relationship to politics through the creation of events. Influenced by the culture of coffee houses of the 17th century, they invite you to come and discuss the political events of the day over a relaxing cup of tea.

Friday – March 13th
7pm - 9pm
A night of short films, plays, animations, performance, songs, discussion and more… around the world of tea.

All events are FREE. No booking required. First come, first serve basis

Venue: DEPARTURE, 649 Commercial Road, Limehouse, London E14 7LW

Travel directions: 1 minute walk from Limehouse DLR & National Rail/ Buses: 15, 115, 135
Opening hours: Tues – Fri 11am - 9pm, Saturday 10am - 5pm

For more details: www.otherasias.com / acupofteaart@gmail.com / Mobile Steph: 07841872101

'Perhaps, I'm afraid of losing 'Asia' all at once, if I speak of it. Or perhaps speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.' Calvino I. (1972)

We too are talking about this city as we may borrow it from Calvino, but through these imagined scenarios, we are all exhausting the city we would most like to speak about. We found ourselves talking about these bizarre, mysterious, invisible cities that nobody has ever seen. And yet, we could not avoid the feeling that by talking about these imaginary places, we are describing in bits the place we all really think of.

Asia, being not a geographical landmark or a continent in this particular instance, is seen more as a place, the other, a eutopos, memory, or even a longing… but in a way as Calvino puts it '…you could wander through it in thought, become lost, stop and enjoy the cool air, or run off.' Calvino, I. (1971).

21 - 25 November 2008

The show presents 14 young international artists exploring the theme of Asia in formation through video, photography, performance and traditional media.

Nolias Gallery
(at the Thomas a Becket)
320 Old Kent Road
Southwark
London SE1 5UE
www.NoliasGallery.com

Private view: Friday, 21st November 2008, 6-10pm (live performance 8pm)
Open: Saturday - Tuesday: 12pm-8pm
Closing: Tuesday, 25th November 2008, 6-10pm (live performances 8pm)

Other Asias film screening
Friday, 28th November: 7pm
(In separate venue)
DEPARTURE,
649 Commercial Road,
London E14 7LW
Nearest Station: Limehouse DLR and National Rail

All events are free. No booking required.

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Hamja Ahsan Solo Show at DEPARTURE

Family Time

Exhibition duration: 22nd August – 12th September 2008.

Hamja Ahsan presents his debut solo exhibition at the Departure since graduating from Central Saint Martins this year. Entitled ‘Family Time’ the show is curated around the theme of experiencing time through the family body. Originating from a Bengali, Islamic migrant background, Ahsan explores how other cultural systems have different modes of indexing time – work/ leisure, rural/urban time, religious/secular time, waiting, decay and ageing. A number of works grow out of Ahsan’s experiences of visiting his brother in prison – who is being unjustly held indefinitely on recent draconian anti-terrorist legislation ‘The US Extradition treaty’. These works examine how passing time within a total institution can reflect on the construction of the ‘everyday’ life of the metropolis.

Ahsan’s practice encompasses the entire span of media: drawing, sound art, painting, appropriated text work, photography, performance, video, curation and critical writing.

DEPARTURE
649 Commercial Road
E14 7LW
1 minute walk from Limehouse DLR.
Opening hours: Tues-Fri (11am-9pm)
Sat (10am-5pm)

Launch Event

Film Screening: The Clay Bird (2002)

Friday, 22nd August, 7pm

A beautiful, evocative film about a boy’s coming of age during the Liberation war of Bangladesh. In this setting a small family must come to grips with its culture, its faith, and the brutal political changes entering its small-town world. The film was shot almost entirely with non-professionals in local settings often using local sounds. The cinematography attempted to capture the seasons in rustic appeal and the festivals and holidays of Bangladesh. The film was choosen to tie in with themes and settings of my exhibition, much of which is shot in rural and urban Bengal.

Winner of the International Critics Prize at Cannes Film Festival, 2002.

Duration: 90 minutes

Film screening begins at 7pm

Offical Website
http://ctmasud.web.aplus.net/about/

Short film/Video art event curated by Hamja Ahsan

UNTIL THE END OF TIME…

12 September
5pm-7pm

Free, no bookings taken. Just turn up on the day.
Travel Info: DEPARTURE venue is 1 minute walk from Limehouse DLR. 649 Commercial Road, London E14 7LW

Itinerary….

Beautiful short films on Bangladeshi life by master cinematographer Masud Chowdhury Pitu – The Bull Fight and The Spectacular Naf (shot on the Burma-Bangladesh border)

MOAZZAM BEGG interviews GARETH PIERCE
(Ex-Guantanamo Bay surviror and human rights activist)
about artwork made in prison and feelings of motherhood.
Gareth Pierce is the legal representative of Hamja brother’s Talha currently held unjustly indefinitely on “anti-terrorist” leglisation. She is famous for her courageous representation on behalf of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four and the Guantanamo Bay survivors. She was played by Emma Thompson in Neil Jordan’s film In the Name of the Father This was produced for the occasion of the Captivated prisoners art held at Islam expo and Together Gallery this year.

Features short film by SUNARA BEGUM
Ara’s Sojoun - featuring choreography.
http://www.sunarabegum.com

Video art by RIFFAT AHMED - star of Channel 4’s Debutantes
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Riffat%20+Ahmed/87200.html

Also…
Installation by MARIANNA PULFORD and RUGINA MUKID
made during a long-term residency
http://www.mariannapulford.com

and

VERY LAST CHANCE TO SEE ‘Family Time’ – the debut solo exhibition of Hamja Ahsan.
http://www.hamjaahsan.com
It must be taken down the following day….