Join us for a conversation with artist Aziz Hazara as he shares the distinct and converging interests of his concurrent exhibitions at Mercer Union, Toronto; Experimenter, Kolkata; and ICA Milano; and the process of developing long-term dialogue with curators and collaborators Nasrin Himada, Hajra Haider Karrar, and Francesca Recchia.
Aziz Hazara (b. 1992, Wardak) lives and works in Kabul and Berlin. He works across different mediums, including video, installation, photography, sound, and sculpture, addressing dichotomies such as proximity and distance, migration and memory, life and death, reality and fiction, war and peace. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues including Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2022); Netwerk Aalst (2021); Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York (2020); 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art, Eupen (2020); Kunsthal Aarhus (2020); the Busan Biennale (2020); the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM), Marseille (2019); and Asia Culture Center, Kwangju (2017). He is currently an artist in residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, and a grantee of KfW Stiftung. He is the winner of the 6th edition of the Future Generation Art Prize 2021.
Nasrin Himada is a Palestinian writer and curator who currently holds the position of Associate Curator at Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston (ON).
Hajra Haider Karrar is an art curator and writer. Her projects have been featured at cultural institutions and biennales including Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2023); Lahore Biennale (2020); Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku (2019); Tate Research Centre: Asia, London (2018); Centre Pompidou Paris (2017); Manchester Art Gallery (2017); Moscow Biennale for Young Art (2014); and Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2014). Since 2021, she is a curator at SAVVY Contemporary: The Laboratory of Form-Ideas, Berlin.
Francesca Recchia is an independent researcher, educator and writer whose work is grounded in the values and principles of decolonial philosophy and radical pedagogy. She is interested in the geopolitical dimension of heritage and cultural processes in countries in conflict. Francesca has worked in different capacities in Palestine, Pakistan, India, Kashmir, Iraq and Afghanistan. Her latest assignment in Kabul was as Acting Director of the Afghan Institute for Arts and Architecture. She is the author of How long can the moon be caged? Voices of Indian political prisoners with Suchitra Vijayan (Pluto Press, 2023); The Little Book of Kabul with Lorenzo Tugnoli (2014); as well as Picnic in a Minefield and Devices for Political Action with a photo-essay by Leo Novel (Foxhead Books, 2014).
fORUM: Aziz Hazara in conversation is co-presented with Experimenter, Kolkata; and ICA Milano.
Bow Echo is made possible with Leading Support from TD Bank Group.
fORUM is Mercer Union’s ongoing series of talks, lectures, interviews, screenings, and performances.
