The December 2018 revolution in Sudan brought artistic, musical, and visual practices to the forefront of the public action scene. The arts played a crucial role in promoting the mass movement as a tool of peaceful resistance. A roundtable discussion featuring Sudanese artists and curators will explore the role of arts in the revolution and its aftermath, as well as the impact of the revolution on Sudan’s art scene. The conversation will be moderated by Katarzyna Grabska, a researcher at PRIO, and Azza Aziz A. Ahmed, a researcher, and will be conducted in English. The event will conclude with a concert.
The seminar is co-hosted by CEDEJ, the French Research Centre in Khartoum. It will take place at CEDEJ but can be attended online via Microsoft Teams. To join the meeting, click on the provided link. Those who are physically in Khartoum are invited to join CEDEJ for iftar at 17:30 before the start of the event.
Speakers:
Abdelmagid Afifi was involved in creating murals during the civilian uprising against the Islamist regime in 2019. He is known for his innovative and constantly evolving painting style, and believes that artists should always be researching and experimenting.
Reem AlJeally, an architect turned visual artist and aspiring curator, is passionate about using her talents to address social issues and drive social change. She founded The Muse multi studios in 2019 and Bait Alnisa in 2020 to promote and curate the work of Sudanese female artists.
Isam A. Hafiez is a visual artist and photographer whose work encompasses the different waves of Sudanese art, ranging from being a tool of resistance to a powerful aesthetic that reflects the realities of multiple worlds.
Moderators:
Katarzyna (Kasia) Grabska is a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and a feminist anthropologist. She is also a visiting professor at the Ethnology Institute at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Her research has centered on gender, generation, youth, displacement, refugees, return, identities, and access to rights for refugees in urban settings. Currently, her research focuses on socially engaged artistic practices in conflict and exile settings, which involves collaborations with artists.
Azza Ahmed A. Aziz is a social and medical anthropologist whose work examines the intersections between identity formations in forced migration contexts, situations of vulnerability and illness, and bodily expressions of these experiences. Her recent work explores gendered expressions surrounding the Sudanese revolution.
