MARHABA TO THE FUTURE

“MARHABA TO THE FUTURE”

Mounir Ayache, Independent Artist

Wednesday, March 29th, 6:30pm EDT

Silsila Spring 2023 Program

By envisioning alternate futures, Ayache proposes an image of the Arab world radically different from those circulated in the West. His sci-fi approach weaves together family histories, fictionalised re-appropriations of experiences and Arab identities. These traits situate Ayache within the unofficial movement of Arabfuturism, which derives its name from the Afrofuturism movement in the 90s. Both Afro and Arabfuturism are characterised by a turn to fiction that allows us to imagine vastly different realities.  
 
Ayache will discuss the progress of his research at the Villa Medici in Rome where he is currently in residence: he is developing a fictional project in which Hassan al Wazzan (known as Leo the African) travels into the future in 2500.

Mounir Ayache (b. 1991, FR/MA) studied at the National Superior School of Fine Arts in Paris. His technological creations cast an unfamiliar light on the political and social realities of the Arab world. Ayache knowingly deploys the tropes of “oriental sci-fi” in order to parody the way Western fictions represent “Others” and “Foreigners”. In addition to drawing on the codes of the sci-fi genre, his use of technology blurs the boundaries between contemporary art and entertainment.
 

Date: Wednesday, March 29th
Time: 6:30-8:30pm
Location: Online and In Person Room 222, 20 Cooper Square,NY,10003

This event will be held in person at NYU in room 222, 20 Cooper Square, NY 10003. In accordance with university regulations, visitors must show a valid government-issued photo ID (children under 18 can provide non-government identification).

Please use the following link to rsvp as an in-person attendee:
https://forms.gle/9iEUgoNqY66Ht7VJ8

This event will also take place as a live Webinar at 6:30pm EDT (New York time). To register as an attendee, please use the following link:
https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6-XRukm9QW6MbtdII4qYlQ

Only registered attendees will be able to join this event.

Silsila: Center for Material Histories is an NYU center dedicated to material histories of the Islamicate world. Each semester we hold a thematic series of lectures and workshops, which are open to the public. Details of the Center can be found at: 

http://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/research-centers/silsila.html

Meredith Martin wins David H. Pinkney book prize

Congratulations to Professor Martin!

David H. Pinkney Prize 

Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss, The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Galley 

Slavery in Louis XIV’s France (Getty Research Institute, 2022). 

Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss’s The Sun King at Sea is a remarkable collaboration between a social historian and art historian. It touches on the important themes of galley slavery and Louis XIV’s ambitions of ruling the Mediterranean. Turkish slaves were purchased by the state or procured as captives. Although there were offers to buy back the slaves, the French refused to hand over able-bodied ones until the disintegration of the system. As background, we penetrate Marseille’s commerce and France’s conflicted relations with the Ottoman Empire, and we relive the experience of the galley workforce in all its brutality and how they survived by setting up stalls where they sold what small products they could garner. Most important is the authors’ recovery of drawings and artistic depictions that have been neglected or misconstrued that show the presence of Turkish slaves within celebrations of Louis XIV’s might. They literally restore them to view. This is accompanied by depictions of the appalling treatment of Protestants who were condemned to the galleys after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and which stimulated critiques abroad of the Sun King. The work stresses the importance of the galley fleet to Louis XIV and his ministers, although by the end of the seventeenth century, its usage begins to wane, and representing its slaves becomes problematic. The presence of Turkish slaves is therefore an episode in French naval history that would be foresworn and forgotten. It has now been brilliantly restored. 

Curator Led Tours by Professor Miriam Basilio

Managing Water in Your Future

Understanding the Past to Develop the Future: Why a New Water Awareness  is Urgent for New York

Panel Discussion: Fighting Fascism

IRAAS/Art History Talk

“To Restore and Reframe: James Van Der Zee’s Engagement with Photography after the Harlem Renaissance Era” Emilie Boone–Assistant Professor of African American/African Diaspora Arts- Art History; New York University March 22, 2023 6:30pm estLocation: Rm 612 Schermerhorn HallColumbia University, New York Registration is required https://bit.ly/3Sm3s7N Lecture Description Often mentioned as an afterthought to exceptional Harlem Renaissance studio portraits, the body of work considered within this lecture illustrates the expansive scope of photographic production that characterizes James Van Der Zee’s long career. During the 1940s and 1950s, Van Der Zee invited his clients to bring or send him photographs, made by others, for the purpose of reprinting, resizing, or adding enhancements to the surface. In turn, he collaborated – not with a sitter, but with a client and a photograph by another photographer already in existence. These photographs reveal aspects of Van Der Zee’s photographic practice that remain unfamiliar to canonical histories of photography, namely, because they trouble the veracity of each photograph’s pedigree. They also offer an ideal opportunity to consider the limitations of Van Der Zee’s iconicity and the hierarchies of value fundamental to art history Speaker Bio Emilie Boone is an Assistant Professor of African American/African Diaspora Arts in the Department of Art History at New York University. Her research and teaching focus on the art and visual culture of the African Diaspora. The book A Nimble Arc: James Van Der Zee and Photography is forthcoming in 2023 from Duke University Press.Emilie Boone Presented in co-sponsorship byInstitute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS) – Columbia Universityand The Department of Art History & Archaeology – Columbia Universit https://afamstudies.columbia.edu/events/restore-and-reframe-james-van-der-zees-engagement-photography-after-harlem-renaissance-era

Legacy Russell to Give Robert Rosenblum Lecture

STARS AND SYMMETRY: THE NAME OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD IN ARCHITECTURAL INSCRIPTIONS

“STARS AND SYMMETRY: THE NAME OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD IN ARCHITECTURAL INSCRIPTIONS”

 Bernard O’Kane, The American University in Cairo  

Wednesday, March 8th, 12:30pm EST
Silsila Spring 2023 Program

Yazd, Friday Mosque, detail of mihrab

This talk examines the architectural representations of the name of the Prophet Muhammad, and in particular a frequently occurring variety in which the name is repeated in star and polylobed shapes. These have a surprising number of overlapping resonances, from intercession, light and the roseate qualities associated with the Prophet to, where hexagrams are concerned, connections with the apotropaic qualities of the prophet Solomon, and his wisdom. 

Bernard O’Kane is Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the American University in Cairo, where he has been teaching since 1980. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of eleven books, among the most recent being Studies in Persian Architecture (2021)and Mosques: the 100 Most Iconic Islamic Houses of Worship (2019).

Date: Wednesday, March 8th
  Time: 12:30pm-2:30pm
 Location: Online and In Person Room 222, 20 Cooper Square, NY, 10003 

This event will take place as a live webinar at 12:30pm EST (New York time). To register as an online attendee, please use the following link.

XU BING Lecture Series

To register to attend either lecture (or both), either in person or remotely click here.