Thesis Chapters by Ahmed Al-Nawas
Elävä aineeton kulttuuriperintö. Hankkeen loppuraportti, May 22, 2015
Artikkeli käsittelee kriittisesti Unescon aineettoman kulttuuriperinnön suojelua koskevan yleisso... more Artikkeli käsittelee kriittisesti Unescon aineettoman kulttuuriperinnön suojelua koskevan yleissopimuksen toimeenpanoa ja siiheen liittyvät haasteet, odotukset ja mahdollisuudet.
Artikkeli on osaa Museoviraston ja Kulttuuripoliittisen tutkimuksen edistämissäätiö Cuporen 'Elävä aineeton kulttuuriperintö' - verkkojulkaisua. Julkaisu on toimittanut Anna Kanerva ja Rita Mitchell.
Books by Ahmed Al-Nawas
Fake Star , 2021
In March 1899, a fireball flew over Helsinki, and for a while it was thought that the end of the ... more In March 1899, a fireball flew over Helsinki, and for a while it was thought that the end of the world had come. The meteorite hit the ice in Bjurböle Bay in Porvoo. The newspapers wrote that the meteorite was a message sent from the civilised West, portending liberation of the country from Russian rule. The interpretation was based on the ancient Swedish word for beaver, bjur (bobr in Russian). Speculation was fuelled by the name of the site of impact, Bjurböle (Bobrikovo in Russian), and it was inferred that the nearby villa of the Russian Governor-General Bobrikov must have been the intended target of the meteorite.
Once the meteorite was lifted from the bottom of the sea, a plaster copy was made of it, which was presented at the crucial appearance in the country’s history, the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. The copy was placed on display in the heart of the Finnish Pavilion, surrounded by achievements of Finnish art, industry, education and science. The idea was to convince the rest of the world that Finland was indeed one of the civilised nations of the West.
The book is an outcome of an artistic investigation into the relation of the copy and original in the context of construction of the nation in Finland and the colonialist logic of the World Fairs. It is a story, aimed at children and adults alike that narrates the encounter of King Oscar II of Sweden and the Russian representative at the pavilion of Finland, Prince Tenisheff.
Part children book, part exhibition catalogue Fake Star is conceived and written by Ahmed Al-Nawas and Minna Henriksson, with illustrations and design work by Ott Kagovere.
Author: Ahmed Al-Nawas, Minna Henriksson, Ott Kagovere (illustration)
Publisher: RAB-RAB PRESS
Language: English
Pages: 58
Size: 21.2 x 27.9 cm
Weight: 518 g
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 9789526938943
Order book in Motto Press
This thesis is an attempt to re-think and re-shape the Finnish art scene. Using the theoretical f... more This thesis is an attempt to re-think and re-shape the Finnish art scene. Using the theoretical framework of decoloniality, postcolonialism and feminism we ask: How/is it possible to decolonise the art space? This question is immediately followed by others: Would it be enough to just have a more ‘representative’ scene or does it involve a more radical process of transformation? And how does one relate this to broader society? Is decolonisation even relevant in Finnish society? We use auto/ ethnography as our methodology to analyse and interrogate our own involvement in the gallery/collective Third Space – a context that tries to subvert and transgress dualistic categories. Despite our contradictions and ambiguities we attempt to create a political/artistic space of negotiation and commoning rather than exclusion. Situating ourselves as co-founders and part of the artistic/curatorial collective, we will look at the critique leveled at us specifically. Writing together is an extension of our praxis at Third Space.
Genesis: A Battle of Values, 2023
Genesis – A Battle of Values provides an in-depth background to an exhibition by artist-curator A... more Genesis – A Battle of Values provides an in-depth background to an exhibition by artist-curator Ahmed Al-Nawas and visual artist Minna Henriksson, held at the Serlachius Museum Gustaf in Mänttä in 2023. Al-Nawas and Henriksson have been collaborating since 2015. In their practice, they engage in a critical reappraisal of history, politicizing it through art, often with crafts as a focal element in their work.
The artists’ self-authored essay introduces the exhibition’s core theme of alternative history reading, offering a different perspective on the origin of Mänttä’s paper industry than the one manifested by the very architecture of the Serlachius Museum Gustaf. In their version of the Serlachius company’s history, the factory and town of Mänttä are not the grand achievement of one man but born as a collective process. Not only the industrial elite but also the workers play an instrumental role in the company’s genesis by joining forces, unionizing, and taking to the barricades to fight for their rights.
Annika Waenerberg’s article is a dialogue between art history and environmental history, shedding light on the complex relationship between national artistic ideals and industrial and economic realities in the contradictory landscapes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
VUODEN 1962 NUORISOFESTIVAALIN MUISTITYÖRYHMÄN MUISTIKUVIA, 2016
Helsinki 1962: Recollections of The World Festival of Youth & Students for Peace and Friendship i... more Helsinki 1962: Recollections of The World Festival of Youth & Students for Peace and Friendship is a radio play produced by the workgroup Memoryworkers– visual artist Minna Henriksson, theorist and activist Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur and curator Ahmed Al-Nawas. The radio play was broadcast on Radio Helsinki 14–18.12.2015. Language of the work is mostly Finnish.
The radio play in reportage form re-visits the venues for the 1962 youth festival in Helsinki, using archival documents, autobiographies and music preformed as at the festival. It uncovers Helsinki’s forgotten and silenced history, and explore the story nowadays told about the cold war. To promote marginal viewpoints, the workgroup invited quest journalists: Koko Hubara, Aino Korvensyrjä, Milena Solomun and writer Hassan Blasim to contribute in the making of the play.
In the summer of 1962, an exceptional event was held in Helsinki, the World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship, in which some 14,000 young people representing 137 countries or nationalities took part.
This was one of the biggest international events in Finnish history, and brought to the city an unprecedented array of visitors from around the world. This included representatives of newly independent colonies and some who would later become famous, such as Angela Davis and Alice Walker, along with the jazz pioneers Bill Dixon and Archie Shepp. The great hero of the arms race between the super powers, Yuri Gagarin, also arrived in Helsinki for the occasion.
The Festival theme of peace and friendship was not to everyone’s taste. An international socialist youth festival being held in the capital of a neutral country worried the USA and CIA in particular. And so a large counter-festival was staged in Helsinki, funded by the CIA.
The Finnish mainstream media boycotted the youth festival and most of the political parties actively opposed it. One thing that particularly attracted international attention was the anti-festival, racist youth disturbances, which the police quelled with horses, batons and tear gas. Both the festival and the anti-communist counter-festival used culture, art and music as weapons of political combat. American salon-jazz artists and abstract paintings from New York’s Museum of Modern Art were flown to Helsinki.
Established history interprets the 1960s in terms of a confrontation between East and West. Al-Nawas, Henriksson and Johnston-Arthur take a fresh look at the situation and trace some forgotten aspects of the 1962 youth festival.
The workgroup started from a critical analysis of the festival that bypasses traditional oppositions between East and West or festival and anti-festival. They see parallels between the events in Helsinki in 1962 and the present:
On arriving in Helsinki, festival visitors met with opposition to their presence. This took various forms, ranging from silent boycotts to booing and jeering in the streets, to orchestrated anti-festival activities, and even scuffles. According to the Finnish security-police report, one reason for the rioting, apart from anti-communism, was “the style of dress and behaviour alien to the Nordic mentality of people from elsewhere”.
The work raises the questions: Is Helsinki more broad-minded today? Are people here capable of recognizing an exceptionally worthy cultural programme, even if its context is unappealing?
Festival 1962 is part of the Remembering Silences season curated by Ahmed Al-Nawas, and was commissioned in 2015 by Checkpoint Helsinki. This publication was edited by Aino Korvensyrjä and designed by Selina Väliheikki. Radio play sound actors: Hassan Maikal, Bahar Tokat and Kristian Pienimäki and the invited gust journalist.
Papers by Ahmed Al-Nawas
A View of the Conditions of Arabic Literature in the Nordic Region, 2017
“Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, and Baghdad reads” is an old Arab saying, which has been widely ... more “Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, and Baghdad reads” is an old Arab saying, which has been widely used in the past to illustrate the transnational circle of knowledge production in the Arabic-speaking world. After decades of ongoing disasters, i.e. civil wars, dictatorships, economic and political inequalities and mass migration, the triangular Cairo-Beirut-Baghdad network has become outdated. Today, an Arabic book of poetry could be written in Tampere, published in Milano and translated into several languages, awarded with the PEN Prize in London, and censored in Jordan and most of the Gulf States. In their search for social and economic justice and prosperity, many Arabic speakers have found refuge in Nordic countries. It is from such circumstances that Arabic literature has been written and published in the Nordic region and crossed multiple genres for the last three decades.
The initial task for this report was to map Arabic-Nordic authors, publishers and literature platforms that operate in the Nordic region. The interest of this report in Arabic-Nordic literature lies in its transnational nature, and in the significant rise of Arabic speakers in Nordic countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
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Thesis Chapters by Ahmed Al-Nawas
Artikkeli on osaa Museoviraston ja Kulttuuripoliittisen tutkimuksen edistämissäätiö Cuporen 'Elävä aineeton kulttuuriperintö' - verkkojulkaisua. Julkaisu on toimittanut Anna Kanerva ja Rita Mitchell.
Books by Ahmed Al-Nawas
Once the meteorite was lifted from the bottom of the sea, a plaster copy was made of it, which was presented at the crucial appearance in the country’s history, the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. The copy was placed on display in the heart of the Finnish Pavilion, surrounded by achievements of Finnish art, industry, education and science. The idea was to convince the rest of the world that Finland was indeed one of the civilised nations of the West.
The book is an outcome of an artistic investigation into the relation of the copy and original in the context of construction of the nation in Finland and the colonialist logic of the World Fairs. It is a story, aimed at children and adults alike that narrates the encounter of King Oscar II of Sweden and the Russian representative at the pavilion of Finland, Prince Tenisheff.
Part children book, part exhibition catalogue Fake Star is conceived and written by Ahmed Al-Nawas and Minna Henriksson, with illustrations and design work by Ott Kagovere.
Author: Ahmed Al-Nawas, Minna Henriksson, Ott Kagovere (illustration)
Publisher: RAB-RAB PRESS
Language: English
Pages: 58
Size: 21.2 x 27.9 cm
Weight: 518 g
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 9789526938943
Order book in Motto Press
The artists’ self-authored essay introduces the exhibition’s core theme of alternative history reading, offering a different perspective on the origin of Mänttä’s paper industry than the one manifested by the very architecture of the Serlachius Museum Gustaf. In their version of the Serlachius company’s history, the factory and town of Mänttä are not the grand achievement of one man but born as a collective process. Not only the industrial elite but also the workers play an instrumental role in the company’s genesis by joining forces, unionizing, and taking to the barricades to fight for their rights.
Annika Waenerberg’s article is a dialogue between art history and environmental history, shedding light on the complex relationship between national artistic ideals and industrial and economic realities in the contradictory landscapes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The radio play in reportage form re-visits the venues for the 1962 youth festival in Helsinki, using archival documents, autobiographies and music preformed as at the festival. It uncovers Helsinki’s forgotten and silenced history, and explore the story nowadays told about the cold war. To promote marginal viewpoints, the workgroup invited quest journalists: Koko Hubara, Aino Korvensyrjä, Milena Solomun and writer Hassan Blasim to contribute in the making of the play.
In the summer of 1962, an exceptional event was held in Helsinki, the World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship, in which some 14,000 young people representing 137 countries or nationalities took part.
This was one of the biggest international events in Finnish history, and brought to the city an unprecedented array of visitors from around the world. This included representatives of newly independent colonies and some who would later become famous, such as Angela Davis and Alice Walker, along with the jazz pioneers Bill Dixon and Archie Shepp. The great hero of the arms race between the super powers, Yuri Gagarin, also arrived in Helsinki for the occasion.
The Festival theme of peace and friendship was not to everyone’s taste. An international socialist youth festival being held in the capital of a neutral country worried the USA and CIA in particular. And so a large counter-festival was staged in Helsinki, funded by the CIA.
The Finnish mainstream media boycotted the youth festival and most of the political parties actively opposed it. One thing that particularly attracted international attention was the anti-festival, racist youth disturbances, which the police quelled with horses, batons and tear gas. Both the festival and the anti-communist counter-festival used culture, art and music as weapons of political combat. American salon-jazz artists and abstract paintings from New York’s Museum of Modern Art were flown to Helsinki.
Established history interprets the 1960s in terms of a confrontation between East and West. Al-Nawas, Henriksson and Johnston-Arthur take a fresh look at the situation and trace some forgotten aspects of the 1962 youth festival.
The workgroup started from a critical analysis of the festival that bypasses traditional oppositions between East and West or festival and anti-festival. They see parallels between the events in Helsinki in 1962 and the present:
On arriving in Helsinki, festival visitors met with opposition to their presence. This took various forms, ranging from silent boycotts to booing and jeering in the streets, to orchestrated anti-festival activities, and even scuffles. According to the Finnish security-police report, one reason for the rioting, apart from anti-communism, was “the style of dress and behaviour alien to the Nordic mentality of people from elsewhere”.
The work raises the questions: Is Helsinki more broad-minded today? Are people here capable of recognizing an exceptionally worthy cultural programme, even if its context is unappealing?
Festival 1962 is part of the Remembering Silences season curated by Ahmed Al-Nawas, and was commissioned in 2015 by Checkpoint Helsinki. This publication was edited by Aino Korvensyrjä and designed by Selina Väliheikki. Radio play sound actors: Hassan Maikal, Bahar Tokat and Kristian Pienimäki and the invited gust journalist.
Papers by Ahmed Al-Nawas
The initial task for this report was to map Arabic-Nordic authors, publishers and literature platforms that operate in the Nordic region. The interest of this report in Arabic-Nordic literature lies in its transnational nature, and in the significant rise of Arabic speakers in Nordic countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Artikkeli on osaa Museoviraston ja Kulttuuripoliittisen tutkimuksen edistämissäätiö Cuporen 'Elävä aineeton kulttuuriperintö' - verkkojulkaisua. Julkaisu on toimittanut Anna Kanerva ja Rita Mitchell.
Once the meteorite was lifted from the bottom of the sea, a plaster copy was made of it, which was presented at the crucial appearance in the country’s history, the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. The copy was placed on display in the heart of the Finnish Pavilion, surrounded by achievements of Finnish art, industry, education and science. The idea was to convince the rest of the world that Finland was indeed one of the civilised nations of the West.
The book is an outcome of an artistic investigation into the relation of the copy and original in the context of construction of the nation in Finland and the colonialist logic of the World Fairs. It is a story, aimed at children and adults alike that narrates the encounter of King Oscar II of Sweden and the Russian representative at the pavilion of Finland, Prince Tenisheff.
Part children book, part exhibition catalogue Fake Star is conceived and written by Ahmed Al-Nawas and Minna Henriksson, with illustrations and design work by Ott Kagovere.
Author: Ahmed Al-Nawas, Minna Henriksson, Ott Kagovere (illustration)
Publisher: RAB-RAB PRESS
Language: English
Pages: 58
Size: 21.2 x 27.9 cm
Weight: 518 g
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 9789526938943
Order book in Motto Press
The artists’ self-authored essay introduces the exhibition’s core theme of alternative history reading, offering a different perspective on the origin of Mänttä’s paper industry than the one manifested by the very architecture of the Serlachius Museum Gustaf. In their version of the Serlachius company’s history, the factory and town of Mänttä are not the grand achievement of one man but born as a collective process. Not only the industrial elite but also the workers play an instrumental role in the company’s genesis by joining forces, unionizing, and taking to the barricades to fight for their rights.
Annika Waenerberg’s article is a dialogue between art history and environmental history, shedding light on the complex relationship between national artistic ideals and industrial and economic realities in the contradictory landscapes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The radio play in reportage form re-visits the venues for the 1962 youth festival in Helsinki, using archival documents, autobiographies and music preformed as at the festival. It uncovers Helsinki’s forgotten and silenced history, and explore the story nowadays told about the cold war. To promote marginal viewpoints, the workgroup invited quest journalists: Koko Hubara, Aino Korvensyrjä, Milena Solomun and writer Hassan Blasim to contribute in the making of the play.
In the summer of 1962, an exceptional event was held in Helsinki, the World Festival of Youth and Students for Peace and Friendship, in which some 14,000 young people representing 137 countries or nationalities took part.
This was one of the biggest international events in Finnish history, and brought to the city an unprecedented array of visitors from around the world. This included representatives of newly independent colonies and some who would later become famous, such as Angela Davis and Alice Walker, along with the jazz pioneers Bill Dixon and Archie Shepp. The great hero of the arms race between the super powers, Yuri Gagarin, also arrived in Helsinki for the occasion.
The Festival theme of peace and friendship was not to everyone’s taste. An international socialist youth festival being held in the capital of a neutral country worried the USA and CIA in particular. And so a large counter-festival was staged in Helsinki, funded by the CIA.
The Finnish mainstream media boycotted the youth festival and most of the political parties actively opposed it. One thing that particularly attracted international attention was the anti-festival, racist youth disturbances, which the police quelled with horses, batons and tear gas. Both the festival and the anti-communist counter-festival used culture, art and music as weapons of political combat. American salon-jazz artists and abstract paintings from New York’s Museum of Modern Art were flown to Helsinki.
Established history interprets the 1960s in terms of a confrontation between East and West. Al-Nawas, Henriksson and Johnston-Arthur take a fresh look at the situation and trace some forgotten aspects of the 1962 youth festival.
The workgroup started from a critical analysis of the festival that bypasses traditional oppositions between East and West or festival and anti-festival. They see parallels between the events in Helsinki in 1962 and the present:
On arriving in Helsinki, festival visitors met with opposition to their presence. This took various forms, ranging from silent boycotts to booing and jeering in the streets, to orchestrated anti-festival activities, and even scuffles. According to the Finnish security-police report, one reason for the rioting, apart from anti-communism, was “the style of dress and behaviour alien to the Nordic mentality of people from elsewhere”.
The work raises the questions: Is Helsinki more broad-minded today? Are people here capable of recognizing an exceptionally worthy cultural programme, even if its context is unappealing?
Festival 1962 is part of the Remembering Silences season curated by Ahmed Al-Nawas, and was commissioned in 2015 by Checkpoint Helsinki. This publication was edited by Aino Korvensyrjä and designed by Selina Väliheikki. Radio play sound actors: Hassan Maikal, Bahar Tokat and Kristian Pienimäki and the invited gust journalist.
The initial task for this report was to map Arabic-Nordic authors, publishers and literature platforms that operate in the Nordic region. The interest of this report in Arabic-Nordic literature lies in its transnational nature, and in the significant rise of Arabic speakers in Nordic countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.