OPEN ENCOUNTERS
The heat in Lahore, Abdullah Qureshi (2021)
10.3–23.04.2022
Opening hours 12pm - 7pm
Through painting, filmmaking, and cultural production, Toronto-based artist Abdullah Qureshi deals with personal and collective histories, traumatic pasts, and sexuality. Drawing on the autobiography, as well as curatorial and collaborative approaches, Qureshi's recent work examines formations of queer identity and resistance in Muslim migratory contexts.
The show takes both the artist's work and on-going research as a starting point for a visual dialogue with other artists, theorists and cultural producers that are invited to participate with their works. In a rather personal 1:1 setting, Abdullah will meet old and recent companions that he met on his way from Pakistan via Europe to Canada and discuss engaged collaborations, representation and collective memories. Artistic practice as a conversation around urgent social discourses and cultural phenomena.
Works by Abdullah Qureshi with contributions by Tasnim Bagdadi, Natasha Jozi, Sara Khan, Syowia Kyambi, Gloria Zein
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EVENTS
Meeting Kaspale
11.03. / 6 PM
Abdullah Qureshi x Syowia Kyambi
With Syowia Kyambi Abdullah is discussing biographical histories and artistic developments in context of the politics of the time as well as its legacy today. What is remembered, what is archived, and how do we see the world anew, questions Kyambi who is visually interrogating our histories, the representation of identity and the nuances in our relationships to each other and the world we live in.
Blacking out the Canon
17.3. / 6PM
Abdullah Qureshi x Tasnim Baghdadi
When Tasnim Baghdadi is "blacking out the canon" she questions hegemonial modes of thinking and canonic knowledge productions in art history, philosophy and religion. Her artistic practice subverts western modernisms through a re-appropriation of abstraction. In her conversation with Abdullah, both theorists will discuss disruptions of colonial continuities through knowledge as well as find out about the invisible, forgotten, folded and yet hidden aspects of artistic truth.
Identity of Sculptures
13.03. / 5.30 PM
Abdullah Qureshi x Gloria Zein
Abdullah and Gloria Zein met eleven years back while studying Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. They both share a generous approach to scale and color allowing the artworks a spontanous, almost performative, character. Through a dialogue about texture, density and structure, both their artworks press pause on personal developments and suggest a new - temporary - form of reality.
Politics of The Human Touch
13.03. / 4 PM
Abdullah Qureshi x Natasha Jozi
The body as an important canvas for physical trauma and external projections, plays a central role in Natasha Jozi's work. With political and social movements such as MeToo and Black Lives Matter, where the human body is navigating, redefining and fighting to protect the boundaries and sanctity of its space, her performance also explores the politics of the human touch.
On Magical Realism
19.3. / 6PM
Abdullah Qureshi x Sara Khan
Just ilke Abdullah, Sara Khan was raised in Lahore (even though born in Birmingham) and adds a female gaze on the patriachal system in Pakistan - and beyond. In that formal, painterly conversation, they find beauty in mythology, visual symbolism and magical realism.
Photos by Raisa Galofre and Daniele Ansidei