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19/5/2014

The Silent University

Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford

On the 14th of December, the 2013 Visible Award, in its second edition, was assigned to the project “The Silent University”, initiated by the artist Ahmet Ögüt in 2012. The jury took the form of a public event at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and was broadcasted internationally, in its entirety, through a live-stream.

“The Silent University is an autonomous knowledge exchange platform by and for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. It is led by a group of lecturers, consultants and research fellows. Each group is contributing to the programme in different ways, which include course development, specific research on key themes as well as personal reflections on what it means to be a refugee and asylum seeker.” The Silent University wants “to address and reactivate the knowledge of the participants and make the exchange process mutually beneficial by inventing alternative currencies, in place of money or free voluntary service. The Silent University’s aim 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 25.000 euros prize will be used to implement the existing branches of the University in London, Stockholm, and Paris, as well as to start up a fourth branch in Berlin.

After a whole day of presentations and debate around the ten shortlisted projects, the jurors and the audience in the room expressed their opinions through a vote to assess the 2013 Visible Award winner. The invited members of the jury, chaired by Charles Esche (Van Abbemuseum director and Sao Paulo Biennial chief curator), were Tania Bruguera (artist, New York), Jeanne Van Heeswijk (artist, Rotterdam), Koyo Kouho (curator, Artistic Director of Raw Material Company, Dakar), Nikos Papastergiadis (contemporary social-cultural studies professor, Sydney), and Michelangelo Pistoletto (artist, Artistic Director of Cittadellarte, Biella). A seventh member of the jury was represented by the audience, of about 40 people, that took part in the event, and voted to designate the winner from four finalists who were selected by the jury after an open debate with the public.

Award

The visible Award is an international production award of 25000 euros devoted to art work in the social sphere, that aims to produce and sustain socially engaged artistic practices in a global context.
The visible Award, part of the broader research project, aims to research, support and offer a discursive and productive platform to innovative artistic projects that are able to become visible also in fields other than the artistic ones. Art works that are actively engaging within the social sphere, understanding art as a tool to make visible other fields and issues within the traditional art system and thus sharing an awareness about artistic production as an active element and agency in contemporary society, and with critical and future oriented aspirations.

The visible Award is looking for artistic projects that, in a radical and pro-active way, are able to rethink our cities in their approach to urban and rural communities, put into question education models while reconsidering different ways of sharing knowledge, support alternative models of economic development and new ideas for the allocation of resources, rethink the access to information or the priority of ecological and environmental needs, as well as experimenting with participatory and democratic political models while starting these open-ended projects. These are just few examples about how artistic processes can create areas for reflection and mobilization, acting as a field for action within the public domain, in favor of a reading of participation in art that considers the social body as a potential power for bringing about responsible change and social transformation.

The visible Award not only takes up the discussions about the development of art in a responsible relationship with the complexities of social change, but it also offers artists real opportunities to produce, and thus the possibility to experiment and work on new visions that can have a significant impact on the shared imaginary and on reality itself. The award intends to break away from the conventions governing the production of public art in the form of monumental objects, in order to focus on a new form of commitment in art, and on the relationships between the production of art, science, and culture. In order to achieve this, it is essential to create new spaces and processes, rather than producing self-contained objects, and finding potential new areas for interaction, in which spectators can be considered as proactive subjects.

The visible Award, thus wishes to bring out those artistic processes that manage to expand their practices from the ordinary spaces for art and enter directly into the public realm in its various representations.

For each new edition of the Award the curators, Matteo Lucchetti and Judith Wielander, invite a renewed advisory board, made of 18 curators, artists, or collectives, that have showed in their research a specific interest in those artistic practices that find a correspondence with the goals of the Award.
Every adviser is asked to nominate 2 artists or collectives that are then invited to submit an artistic project that is in the early stages of its creation.
A prestigious international jury, composed by two representatives of the two foundations – Michelangelo Pistoletto (artist and artistic director of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto) and Andrea Zegna (head of the Fondazione Zegna’s Art Projects) – of 3/5 intellectuals coming from different fields of culture, and institutional representatives of the world of contemporary art is set up in order to assess the merits of the artistic projects. The jury gathers to examine and assess the shortlisted projects and and select the winner of the Visible Award.

The Silent University in Oxford and London – Full programme

The event will focus on drawing together members of The Silent University in dialogue with artists, curators, and theoreticians who are working on projects that deal with migration issues in the legal framework of Western democracies. The Visible Award, which in its mission is looking for art that ‘leaves its own field and becomes visible as part of something else,’ is proud to accompany The Silent University in its encounter with the academic realm outside of the space of art.

The Silent University
The 2013 Visible Award Ceremony
OXFORD
20th of May, from 3 to 8 pm
At: Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University

Visible Award 2013 Ceremony

3.00 – 3.10 pm – Welcome speech by Dawn Chatty (Refugee Studies Centre)
3.10 – 3.15 pm – Video presentation on The Silent University
3.15 – 3.25 pm – Introduction to the day by Matteo Lucchetti and Judith Wielander (Visible)
3.25 – 3.35 pm – Video on the jury motivations from Van Abbemuseum open jury session
3.35 – 3.45 pm – Paolo Naldini from Pistoletto Foundation and Andrea Zegna from Fondazione Zegna present the Visible Award 2013 to Ahmet Öğüt
3.45 – 3.55 pm – Ahmet Öğüt acceptance speech

The Silent University in Oxford

4.00 – 4.15 pm – Lecture by Behnam Al-agzeer – Ten Types of Arabic Calligraphy (in Arabic)
4.15 – 4.30 pm – Lecture by Mulugeta Fikadu – Sexually Transmitted Diseases & the History of HIV
4.35 – 5.15 pm – Panel Discussion with Silent University consultants moderated by Professor Bridget Anderson, Deputy Director of COMPAS.
Migrant communities & networks, and social exclusion in the UK & Europe
5.15 – 5.30 pm – Coffee break

5.30 – 6.30 pm – Open Discussion with Silent University guests moderated by Ahmet Öğüt .
The role of artists and institutions in challenging popular narratives about migrants
6.30 – 7.30 pm – Visible Award 2013 Ceremony reception

Consultants and Contributors: Carlos Cruz, Uvindu Kurukulasuriya, Geraldine Takundwa, Miriam Binsztok, Karin Waringo
Guests: Aaron Cezar (Director, Delfina Foundation), Emily Fahlen (Coordinator, The Silent University Stockholm), Jonas Staal (New World Academy)

The Silent University
LONDON
21st of May, from 6 to 9:30 pm
At: The Showroom, London
RSVP: register here

The Silent University in London

6.00 – 6.15 – Welcome speech by Emily Pethick (The Showroom director) and Ahmet Öğüt (The Silent University initiator)
6.20 – 6.30 – presentation by Miguel Teixeira, Silent University lecturer (In Portuguese)
6.30 – 6.40 – presentation by Beatrice Kibolo, Silent University lecturer (In French)
6.40 – 6.50 – presentation by Brigitte Nongo, Silent University lecturer (In French)

7.00 – 8.00 – Panel Discussion with Silent University consultants moderated by Catherine Crooke (MSc Candidate, Refugee & Forced Migration Studies, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford)
Migrant communities & networks, and social exclusion in the UK & Europe
8.00 – 8.15 – Coffee break

8.15 – 9.30 – Open Discussion with Silent University guests moderated by Ahmet Öğüt
The role of artists and institutions in challenging popular narratives about migrants

Consultants and Contributors: Aafke Beukema toe Water, Candela Delgado-Marín, Ali Kaviani, Alina Müller, Emily Okito, Francesco Ponzo, Loveness Sibanda, Georgina Sleap, Yegeta Zega.
Guests: Lawrence Abu Hamdan (artist, London), Christine Eyene (independent curator, London).

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