Join a discussion to mark the publication of Anamorphosis, Praneet Soi’s new book co-published by Book Works and The Mosaic Rooms. In this event, Soi brings together practitioners and thinkers involved in education, art and dialogues around social change, who he met with over the course of his time in the West Bank. These dialogues have influenced Soi’s practice, and the work made during his visit and also resulted in ongoing collaborations.

Educationalist Munir Fasheh will articulate his concept of the mujaawarah, which proposes that literacy and knowledge reside in the material knowledge within individuals and community. Curator Yazid Anani will unpack the problematics of representations of the West Bank. Reem Fadda, Director of the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation will reflect on her curatorial experiences in the Emirates and of the shows she created such as the 6th Marrakech Biennale (2016) and Tahya Al Quds at the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit (2017). Works from the book are currently on display at the Van Abbe Museum, and the museum’s director, Charles Esche, will talk about steering the museum’s trajectory to explore narratives around decolonization and reimagining political narratives. Soi, together with the book’s graphic designer Michael Kelly from Fraser Muggeridge Studio will discuss the crafting, the visual language and the structure of the book and the problem solving that the collaboration ignited.

Their reflections will be followed by a dialogue between the participants, and the audience, moderated by Angelina Radakovic, curator of The Mosaic Rooms.

The book Anamorphosis is an epilogue to Soi’s journey across the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel. The trip precedes and forms the basis for Praneet Soi’s exhibition Anamorphosis. Notes from Palestine, Winter in the Kashmir Valley (The Mosaic Rooms, 2019), his first solo exhibition in London. His aim was to experience the region through the prism of the landscape. En route, Soi visited farms, workshops and factories, in order to engage with productivity, entrepreneurship, and minutia of everyday life for people in Palestine. Soon after his return to his Amsterdam studio, in August 2019, India formally annexed Kashmir, prompting reflections on links between the two nations and their internal struggles. This event reinforced the need to include within the fold of the exhibition an installation consisting of work he has been creating with craftsmen in Kashmir since 2012. This material informs the collages that were created within the publication.

You can pre-order your copy here.

Soi’s works are currently on show in Positions 6. Body Work at Van Abbe Museum ­– the works Centurion and Anamorphosis: Notes from Palestine bring together his research into the different types of labour, architecture and industrial heritage found in Eindhoven and Palestine.

About the speakers

Praneet Soi was born 1971, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Following studies in India and the USA, Soi moved to the Netherlands in 2002, and divides his time between Amsterdam and Kolkata. His work is internationally recognised for his explorations of socio-political nuances and media representations. His practice incorporates traditional methods of miniature painting and sculpture, as well as time-based media such as video and sound. Recent solo exhibitions include Third Factory-From Kashmir to Lisbon via Caldas, at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (2018), Notes on Labour at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2017), and Srinagar at the Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2016).

Yazid Anani is Director of the Public Programme of the A.M. Qattan Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in urban planning and design from the Technical University of Dortmund and has worked as an assistant professor at the Architecture Department at Birzeit University. He chaired the Academic Council of the International Art Academy Palestine 2010 – 2012. He is part of several collectives and projects such as Ramallah Syndrome and Decolonizing Architecture. Anani took part in several art projects and published on architectural design, art education and public spaces. He curated and co-curated several projects such as projects such as 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th editions of Cities Exhibition and other exhibition in Qalandiya International.

Charles Esche is Director of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and Professor of Contemporary Art and Curating at Central Saint Martins, UAL, London. He teaches on the Exhibition Studies MRes course at CSM, and at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. He is chair of CASCO. In 2012, he received the 2012 Princess Margriet Award and in 2014 the CCS Bard College Prize for Curatorial Excellence. Outwith the museum, he (co-)curated international exhibitions, including Power and Other Things (2017), Art Turns, Word Turns (2017), Jakarta Biennale (2015); 31st Sao Paulo Bienal (2014), U3 Triennale, Ljubljana (2011), RIWAQ Biennale, Palestine (2007 & 2009; Istanbul Biennale (2005) and Gwangju Biennale (2002).

Reem Fadda is a curator and art historian. From 2010 to 2016, Fadda worked at the Guggenheim Museum as Associate Curator, Middle Eastern Art, Abu Dhabi Project. From 2005 to 2007, Fadda was Director of the Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art and served as Academic Director for the International Academy of Art Palestine. She has curated numerous international exhibitions and biennials, including Jerusalem Lives (Tahya Al Quds), The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit (2017); Not New Now and the 6th Marrakech Biennale (2016).

Munir Fasheh is a Palestinian learning theorist and practitioner based in Ramallah. He taught mathematics and physics at Birzeit University and founded the Tamer Institute for Community Education during the first Intifada as a centre for developing learning environments outside of schooling in Palestine. He also founded the Arab Education Forum (AEF) at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies in 1997 and directed it for ten years.

Michael Kelly is a senior designer at Fraser Muggeridge Studio, specialising in artists’ books and exhibition catalogues, and which prioritises artists’ and writers’ content over the imposition of a signature style. In 2019, Kelly won the Tokyo Type Directors Club TDC Grand Prize for his experimental Latin typeface, ‘Virtual Reality’.

This event is presented in partnership with Book Works.

The publication is co-produced with Book Works which receives National Portfolio funding from Arts Council England. The project has been generously funded by The Mosaic Rooms, A.M. Qattan Foundation with support from Mondriaan Fund, The London Community Foundation and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts, and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, London.

Image: Detail Anamorphosis (2020). Courtesy of Praneet Soi