This lecture performance features the two members of Alphabet Collection (AC) Mohammad Salemy and Patrick Schabus will weave histories together to present a general theory about the rise of Islamism. In this lecture performance they will illustrate the role of right wing, liberal and leftist intellectuals from the postwar period until the present time, in confusing the popular and emancipatory aspects of political Islam with its more reactionary tendencies. The two artists will present contradicting but parallel presentations, and show how Islamism, in contrast with its image, is never reactionary, local or nativist and always modern, international and global. They show how the emergence of Islamism cannot be separated from its philosophical and geopolitical exchanges with Europe and ideological legacies of communism, fascism and liberalism.

Mohammad Salemy is an independent Vancouver/Berlin-based artist, critic and curator. His writings have been published in e-flux, Flash Art, Third Rail, and Brooklyn Rail, Ocula and Spike. He is co-founder of The New Centre for Research and Practice.

Patrick Schabus is an independent Berlin based artist, filmmaker and curator. Schabus’ writings have been published in engagée, Malmoe, and artmagazine.cc.

This event is part of the public programme accompanying the exhibition When Legacies Become Debts, curated by Azar Mahmoudian.

FREE