calendario eventi  :: 

X

25/11/2012

The Silent University

Tate Modern, London

The Silent University is an autonomous knowledge exchange platform initiated by artist Ahmet Ögüt in collaboration with Tate working with asylum seekers, refugees and migrants who, although from a professional background, cannot gainfully practice their profession due to the limitations of the asylum process. These limitations also apply to access to education, access to currency, and volunteering. The project stemmed from Ögüt’s year-long residency with Tate in partnership with Delfina Foundation.

The Silent University’s goal is to challenge the idea of silence as a passive state, and explore its powerful potential through performance, writing, and group reflection. These explorations attempt to make apparent the systemic failure and the loss of skills and knowledge experienced through the silencing process of people seeking asylum. The University aims to address and reactivate the knowledge of the participants, making the exchange process mutually beneficial by inventing alternative currencies, in place of money or free voluntary service.

Currently The Silent University includes Lecturers and Academic Consultants from a variety of backgrounds and with a diverse range of skills. The lecturers include Dr. Nazar Pola specialising in Health and Wellbeing, Benham Al-Agzeer on Arabic Calligraphy, Seida Ndoloma on entrepreneurship, and Geraldine Takundwa on immigration policy. Consultants include Dr Ali Kaviani, Carlos Cruz, and Francesco Ponzo.
Tate Modern will provide ongoing support to The Silent University beyond its inception, including the creation of a publication, temporary resource area, website and public events, while also encouraging collaborations with other institutions.
The Silent University will be inaugurated at Tate Modern with a series of events in November and December 2012. It is curated by Nora Razian (Curator Adult Programmes, Tate Modern) and Synthia Griffin (Curator Regeneration and Community Partnerships, Tate Modern).

26 November / 28 November / 3 December 2012
Performance and Discussion
18:30 – 20:00 at Tate Modern
Offering short courses on a range of topics including understanding health by Dr. Nazar Pola, Arabic calligraphy by Behnam Al-Agzeer, and business skills by Seida Ndoloma, the Silent University is a knowledge exchange platform initiated by artist Ahmet Ögüt in collaboration with asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in London. Join Silent University lecturers for a series of courses ‘in silence’ based on expertise and knowledge drawn from a wide international context. Each evening of courses will also include a panel discussion and Q&A with Silent University Faculty and visiting scholars including Dr. Ali Kaviani, Carlos Cruz, Francesco Ponzo unpicking a range of issues relevant to understanding contemporary forms of migration, including silence, power, access to knowledge, and citizenship.
Course content can be publicly accessed via the Silent University website. After registering and completing a Time and Skills Loan form, users will be given a password that will provide access to Silent University courses.

1 December 2012
Roundtable: Alternative to What?
11:00 – 16:00 at Tate Modern
The roundtable will be an opportunity for participants and the public to share practice and experience around organising and running so called ‘alternative platforms’, with participants representing both established and emerging initiatives. These will include artist-led initiatives, community-led initiatives, and institutionally driven platforms. Discussions throughout the day will focus around two panels. We have put together some preliminary questions that will guide these. Further questions will be outlined by each panel’s chair closer to the day. Speakers include Emily Pringle (Head of Learning Practice, Research and Policy at Tate), Sam Thorne (Associate Editor, Frieze), Janna Graham and Amal Khalaf (Centre for Possible Studies, Serpentine), Caleb Waldorf (The Public School Berlin), Penny Evans (Creative Director, University of Local Knowledge), Carlos Cruz (Learning Organizer, United Migrant Education Project), Pelin Tan (Assistant Professor, Kadir Has University, Istanbul), Ute Meta Bauer (the Dean of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art) and Ahmet Ögüt.

For more information please visit
www.thesilentuniversity.org or www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/silent-university In addition, Tate Modern will host a temporary resource room in November, as well as publish a specially commissioned publication:

7 November – 30 November 2012
Silent University Resource Room, Welcome Room, Level 0
Tate Modern
The resource room will include contributions in the form of essays, books, films & catalogues from a mixture of different international artists, practitioners, institutions and collectives that resonate with themes of the project. These include: alternative currencies, knowledge exchange platforms, artist led and institution led models of learning, migration & associated policy, silence and performance. These diverse resources will help consolidate and showcase the Silent University to a wider public visiting Tate Modern during the dates mentioned above.
The screening room will feature artists’ film and audio works that engage with the key themes of the project. There will be films and audio works by artist including Katarina Zdjelar, Antonio Vega Macotela, Nicoline van Harskamp, Berat Isik and Lawrence Abu Hamdan.

Resource room will move to Delfina Foundation between 1 December 1 until 14 December 2012

Publication
The publication will include essays by Silent University consultants as well as specially commissioned essays by Shami Chakrabarti Director of Liberty, Laura Marziale from The Migrant Resource Centre, and Marco Sachy among others. This will be available in the resource room.

Ahmet Ögüt received his BA from the Fine Arts Faculty of Hacettepe University, and his MFA from the Art and Design Faculty of Yildiz Technical University. Ögüt was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2007-2008. Recent solo exhibitions were held at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2012); SALT, Istanbul (2011); Fondazione Giuliani, Rome (2011); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2011); and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2010), among others. Recent group exhibitions: 7th Liverpool Biennial (2012); 12th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (2011); and 4th Moscow Biennial, Moscow (2011) among others. In 2009 Ahmet Öğüt co-represented Turkey with Banu Cennetoglu at 53rd Venice Biennale. Recent awards include the 2011 De Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs (Netherlands) and the 2010 Kunstpreis Europas Zukunft, Museum of Contemporary Art (Germany).

Delfina Foundation is an independent, non-profit foundation dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange and developing creative practice through residencies, partnerships and public programming, with a special focus on international collaborations with the greater Middle East & North Africa. To date, Delfina Foundation has hosted nearly 100 artists, curators and writers from 18 different countries. In 2013, Delfina Foundation will expand into an adjacent property in Catherine Place SW1, doubling the number of residencies as well as the size of its exhibition space.

Exploring ways of engaging with art is what learning at Tate is all about. Active, participative, enjoyable and challenging, the ambition of the Tate Learning team is to develop new contexts, resources and spaces to expand the experience – in the gallery, online, in partnership with others and with a local, national and international reach. Learning develops programmes of education, which aim to widen participation in the arts through education, events, professional development training, learning resources and interpretation linked to exhibitions. It caters for all audience sectors including families, young people, schools and colleges, and the community.

Image: Silent University Meeting at Tate Modern.Courtesy the artist

Press Contact:
Ana Vukadin, Sutton PR,
ana@suttonpr.com, +44 (0)207 183 3577
Bethany Bull, Tate Press Office
Bethany.bull@tate.org.uk, +44 (0)207 887 8730

Tate Modern
Bankside - London SE1 9TG

stampa

permanent link