Join us for a special talk by Professor Ella Shohat, New York University, as she offers a genealogical reading of Orientalist visual culture and examine the ambiguous place of Muslim and Jewish communities, as imagined together and later separately, in the West. Shohat traces contemporary depictions of the Arab / Jewish divide back to 19th century representations, providing a historical lens to consider critical representations by contemporary artists.

This event is programmed in collaboration with Chisenhale Gallery on the occasion of their exhibition of Jumana Manna’s newly commissioned feature-length film, A magical substance flows into me (2015), which is presented alongside an installation of sculptures. Manna explores the different musical traditions of myriad communities living in and around Jerusalem, drawing on her research on the German-Jewish ethnomusicologist Robert Lachmann (1892-1939) and his work in Palestine. The film traces links between physically, culturally and linguistically separated communities, whilst allowing for ideas of representation of authenticity and heritage to emerge.

Ella Shohat is Professor of Cultural Studies at the Culture & Representation track at NYU. Her books include: Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices; Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation; Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age amongst others. She co-edited a number of special issues for the journal Social Text, including Edward Said: A Memorial Issue, Palestine in a Transnational Context, and 911-A Public Emergency? while her writing has been translated into over 10 languages.

FREE, RSVP HERE