Exhibition: House of Wisdom Nottingham (27 September - 28 October 2018)

ARTISTS: Mohamed Abdelkarim, Burak Arıkan, Mahmoud Bakhshi, Yael Bartana, Mehtap Baydu, Kürşat Bayhan, Ruth Beale, Ekin Bernay, Burçak Bingöl, Nicky Broekhuysen, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Cansu Çakar, Ramesch Daha, Işıl Eğrikavuk, Didem Erk, Foundland Collective, Deniz Gül, Beril Gür, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, İstanbul Queer Art Collective (Tuna Erdem and Seda Ergül), Ali Kazma, Yazan Khalili, Göksu Kunak, Mona Kriegler, Fehras Publishing Practices, Elham Rokni, Natascha Sadr Haghighian & Ashkan Sepahvand, Sümer Sayın, Erinç Seymen, Bahia Shehab, Walid Siti, Ali Taptık, Erdem Taşdelen, Özge Topçu, Viron Erol Vert, Ali Yass, Eşref Yıldırım, Ala Younis

Curated by Collective Çukurcuma (Naz Cuguoğlu and Mine Kaplangı)

Public Programme Curator: Cüneyt Çakırlar

PREVIEW: Thursday 27 September, 5 pm – 7 pm
RSVP boningtongallery@ntu.ac.uk

DATES: Friday 28 September – Saturday 27 October
TIMES: Monday – Friday, 10 am – 5 pm, Saturday, 11 am – 3 pm

VENUES: Bonington Gallery Vitrines and Atrium at Nottingham Trent University's School of Art & Design, Bromley House Library, Five Leaves Bookshop and Primary.

“To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions-there we have none.” 
Virginia Woolf, How Should One Read a Book, 1925

Throughout history, libraries have been perceived as places where information on life and space are organised, read, and interpreted. Their political significance, however, has at times been underestimated. As in the example of the original House of Wisdom*, libraries are also known as centers of research, learning, and sharing. This concentration and exchange of knowledge makes them important symbols of political power and the formation of cultural identity. Based on the power of libraries, and Foucault’s notion of the archive as ‘the general system of the formation and transformation of statements’, the curators followed their archival urge and decided to build their own archive-library. To shed light on the increasing levels of censorship on information, knowledge and the current sociopolitical situation in and around Turkey, they invited artists and researchers to take part in the project. The House of Wisdom, ever-evolving library-exhibition aims to rethink the political nature of books, whose mere existence is under threat, and ultimately asks the question: ‘What could be the outcome of collectively rethinking the notion of the archive and knowledge production through art, particularly when issues such as censorship and suppression of information are involved?’


House of Wisdom is an open space, a gathering place. Visitors are invited to enter and discover the library-exhibition to read, discuss, collaborate, scheme, and exchange knowledge and ideas. And with its fourth location, the exhibition is expanding throughout the city of Nottingham. Inviting visitors to walk and discover the city with the exhibition map, House of Wisdom will utilise the Vitrines of Bonington Gallery and the Atrium of the Nottingham Trent University’s School of Art and Design. Artworks and books will also be placed in other venues like local bookshops (The Five Leaves Bookshop) an old primary school that has been transformed into an art space (Primary) and a historical library (Bromley House Library). By expanding the exhibition space from one room to various spaces around the city, House of Wisdom is hoping the build an invisible relation between being a visitor and being a wanderer. And this year the exhibition’s public program is curated by Dr. Cüneyt Çakırlar from Nottingham Trent University, who organised a series of events including performances, workshops, reading groups, talks and screenings.

More details about the exhibition's public programme will be announced shortly.

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*House of Wisdom (Bayt-al Hikma) was a library founded in the beginning of the 8th century in Baghdad, where thousands of books in various languages from different regions, on philosophy, art, science, and history were housed. Researchers from different regions came together to make research, and work on techniques of translation, writing, and discussion.

**House of Wisdom is a mobile and ever-evolving library/exhibition curated by Collective Çukurcuma. It was previously shown at Dzialdov (Berlin, 2017), IKSV Building (Public program of the 15th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, 2017) and Framer Framed (Amsterdam, 2017).

House of Wisdom Nottingham is produced and organised by Queer Art Projects and made possible by Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants with the support of Nottingham Trent University, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Bromley House Library, Primary and Five Leaves Bookshop.
http://www.boningtongallery.co.uk/exhibitions/bonington-vitrines-8-house-of-wisdom

Image credit: ALI TAPTIK, "Atlas" from the "Meridians" series, 2011 [on display in House of Wisdom]
Image credit: MONA KRIEGLER, Pain and Memory, digital still, 2012 – 13 [on display in HoW]

House of Wisdom: Cross-Cultural Mobility and Post-Gallery Curatorial Practice

House of Wisdom: Cross-cultural Mobility and Post-gallery Curatorial Practice
Panel Discussion, Friday 29 June, 6pm-8pm, Primary Nottingham (link for details)

Reflections on archive, censorship, cultural dissidence and geopolitics in contemporary arts, followed by a Q&A. [Video Documentation]

House of Wisdom is an on-going research and a mobile, ever-evolving library/exhibition curated by Collective Çukurcuma (Naz Cuguoğlu & Mine Kaplangı) in 2017. Inspired by the library of the same name founded in Baghdad at the beginning of the 8th century, the House of Wisdom exhibition is investigating the political relevance of books and libraries. By creating an open space and a gathering place in different cities around the world, House of Wisdom has invited its visitors to enter the library-exhibition to read, discuss, collaborate, scheme, and exchange knowledge and ideas. The library/exhibition was first held in Dzialdov, Berlin, in May 2017, then travelled to Istanbul as part of the 15th Istanbul Biennial’s public programme and to Framer Framed, Amsterdam, in November 2017. The show will travel to Nottingham this Autumn, hosted by Bonington Gallery.

Event Organiser, Chair and Respondent: Dr Cüneyt Çakırlar (Nottingham Trent University)

Speakers“Curating House of Wisdom”, Mine Kaplangı (Collective Çukurcuma, Istanbul)
“The Unknown Story of an Infamous Library”, Işıl Eğrikavuk (Berlin)
“Just in Bookcase”, Tuna Erdem & Seda Ergül (Istanbul Queer Art Collective, London)

In her talk on “Curating House of Wisdom”, Mine Kaplangı will speak about the exhibition’s next route to Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, and how the current research and production process is shaping in collaboration with Nottingham Contemporary and UNESCO City of Literature.

In her talk “The Unknown Story of an Infamous Library”, the artist Işıl Eğrikavuk will speak about her contribution to House of Wisdom, namely Infamous Library, which is a project she realised in several stages between the years 2006 and 2014. Unfolding in performative, narrative and mock-documentary platforms, Eğrikavuk’s work deals with fiction, history, politics and humour. Eğrikavuk is the winner of Turkey’s first contemporary art prize, Full Art Prize in 2012. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions, residencies, and her work has been published in both local and international journals. She currently lives in Berlin and is a faculty member at Universität der Künste (UdK), Department of Media.

The founding members of Istanbul Queer Art Collective Tuna Erdem & Seda Ergül will talk about their work “Just in Bookcase”, which was created especially for the House of Wisdom exhibition. “Just in Bookcase” is about the im/mobility of books/libraries, immigrants/refugees, the dead weight of books and the fleeting stories of living libraries, accumulation/collection, dismantling/dispersion and travelling/fleeing with emotional/excess baggage. In 2017, Erdem and Ergül moved to London and founded Queer Art Projects Ltd. to produce art events including performances, conferences, exhibitions, talks and parties. They currently host Turkish Delight, a monthly queer performance night at The Glory, London.

House of Wisdom’s Contributing Artists: Mohamed Abdelkarim, Burak Arıkan, Mahmoud Bakhshi, Yael Bartana, Mehtap Baydu, Kürşat Bayhan, Ekin Bernay, Burçak Bingöl, Nicky Broekhuysen, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Cansu Çakar, Ramesch Daha, Işıl Eğrikavuk, Didem Erk, Foundland Collective, Deniz Gül, Beril Gür, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, İstanbul Queer Art Collective (Tuna Erdem and Seda Ergül), Ali Kazma, Yazan Khalili, Göksu Kunak, Mona Kriegler, Fehras Publishing Practices, Elham Rokni, Natascha Sadr Haghighian & Ashkan Sepahvand, Sümer Sayın, Erinç Seymen, Bahia Shehab, Walid Siti, Ali Taptık, Erdem Taşdelen, Özge Topçu, Viron Erol Vert, Ali Yass, Eşref Yıldırım, Ala Younis

In The Pink

The FT Weekend Editor tells NTU media students that ‘fake news’ has created a new hunger for the real thing. Catherine Adams of the Media and Film Cultures research group reports.

The pink pages of the Financial times are no longer the preserve of stern men in bowler hats on the London commute. Described once as ‘dry and dusty’ by David Cameron, the FT now does Facebook Lives, animated trailers and even a festival. ‘Disruption’ is the key to keeping readers, according to the 51 year old editor of FT Weekend, Alec Russell. And that applies to the content too: ‘Surprise me, punch me in the throat, pull up my conscience’ one 30-something subscriber advised him. The FT still claims to be read by the agenda-setters. ‘The brains’ behind Trump, Steve Bannon, was snapped on an escalator on the Tube recently with FT Weekend under his arm.

                          “ It’s the golden age of long-form, deep journalism”

The NTU Centre for Inequality, Culture and Difference presents

Dr Colin Alexander (Media), speaking on 'Avoidable Starvation: Understanding the Bengal Famine of 1943'. 2.00 – 3.00 p.m.  in MAE008, 26th May 2018

The Bengal Famine of 1943 was the tragic culmination of a number of decisions made by the British in the South Asian theatre of war. A highly complex scenario, the famine led to between two and four million deaths from health issues associated with malnourishment between 1942 and 1944, with countless more dying prematurely in later years from susceptibilities related to their previous exposure to the conditions. the famine was, however, completely avoidable. The paper begins by providing some theoretical understanding for why famines occur, it then examines some of the main factors that induced the famine conditions in Bengal during the early 1940s.

The Inequality, Culture and Difference research seminar series presents: Imperialism at Sea: the spatial login of empire aboard the nineteenth-century colonial steamship Dr Jonathan Stafford Wednesday 15th November, 1-2pm, MAE101 – all welcome!

ABSTRACT: In 1842, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, or P&O, inaugurated the first regular steamship service to India and the Far East via Egypt. Using texts produced by the passengers who undertook the voyage East on what became known as the Overland Route, this paper will explore the colonial steamer as a distinctive cultural sphere, considering the spatial and social practices which developed aboard ship while in transit. Scrutinising the colonial steamship affords the opportunity to investigate a space which was neither imperial centre nor periphery, but which in acting as a link between the two, set up a transient microcosm. These ships can be seen as exemplary environments of nineteenth-century imperialism, both negotiating global space and also simultaneously refiguring imperial social practices in their own space.

The Inequality, Culture and Difference research seminar series presents… Holby City saved my life! Or, what happens when you show two older women falling in love on Tuesday night television. Dr Georgina Turner, University of Liverpool 11 December 1-2pm, MAE101 – all welcome!

Abstract: This paper looks at viewers’ responses to the romance between two older women on the BBC medical drama Holby City. In the context of a continuing lack of representation of (older) women-loving women, viewers of all ages describe a transformative experience, with an emphasis on positive mental health outcomes – yet older women also orient to something implicitly problematic about this being the case. This is premised, I suggest, in the foregrounding of youth and adolescence in academic and public discussions of sexual self-realisation and the role of the media. The findings of the research trouble these prevailing assumptions and demonstrate the need to take account of the experiences of older viewers, and of network television even in the queer(er) digital market.

Dr Georgina Turner is a Lecturer in Media at the University of  Liverpool, with research interests in critical approaches to media discourse, the discursive construction of (collective) identity, gender and sexuality, and innovative research  methods.