First Supper Symposium presents:

PROLOGUE 3: Art Activism - Feminism - Transcultural Movements 

A conversation about current activist and feminist perspectives in Scandinavia and the Middle East

With: Nefise Özkal Lorentzen (Turkey/Norway), Mohamed Soueid (Lebanon), Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mousavi (Iran), Manal AlDowayan (Saudi Arabia), Lamia Abi Azar/Zoukak Company (Lebanon), Javad Parsa (Iran/Norway), Amina Sahan (Norway/Iraq), Bruce W. Ferguson (US) and Tone Olaf Nielsen (Denmark)

Moderator: Marianne Bøe (Norway)

- How do artists that culturally identify themselves with the Middle Eastern regions communicate their understanding of activism and feminism, and how can these perspectives contribute to a new language within the Scandinavian transcultural context?

- Can artistic perspectives contribute to a sharper debate on cultural identity, immigration and integration in Scandinavia?

- By looking at the transcultural development in our society from an aesthetic perspective - can we acquire new knowledge and a more nuanced dialogue in the areas of gender issues, cultural identity and the relevance of art in social and political change? 

BOOK HERE: 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/prologue-3-middle-east-and-scandinavia-art-activism-feminism-tickets-38473282624

PROGRAMME:
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REGISTRATION: 09.30 

Introduction by moderator Marianne Bøe and FSS
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen - filmmaker, journalist, writer
Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mousavi, poets and activists
Audience / participant contribution 
Manal AlDowayan - visual artist
Bruce W. Ferguson - international art curator, writer & academic administrator
Audience / participant contribution

LUNCH BREAK: 13.30 

Tone Olaf Nielsen - independent curator, activist and educator
Javad Parsa, photo reporter 
Amina Sahan, visual artist and educator
Audience / participant contribution 
Lamia Abi Azar/Zoukak Company - performer and drama-therapist
Mohamed Soueid - filmmaker

SCREENING: 17.00 

Mohammed Soueid’s documentary Cinema Fouad, 41 min, 1993, Arabic with English subtitles
Audience / participant contribution 

PRESS RELEASE:
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First Supper Symposium is delighted to invite you to the third part of its symposium series on art, activism and feminism, investigating the relationship between contemporary art practices and politics. In this edition Nefise Özkal Lorentzen, Mohamed Soueid, Fatemeh Ekhtesari, Mehdi Mousavi, Manal AlDowayan, Lamia Abi Azar/Zoukak Company, Javad Parsa, Amina Sahan, Bruce W. Ferguson, Tone Olaf Nielsen and moderator Marianne Bøe will engage and activate the audience in unfolding the means by which art may become an agent for change in a world of political and socio-economic crisis.

In Prologue 3, we will investigate the merging of perspectives within Scandinavian and Middle Eastern cultures seen from their respective aesthetic expressions and practices. By giving the word to key figures from within the cultural field in the Middle East and Scandinavia, we aim to explore different combinations of gender, art and politics. We will actively challenge and problematize the Western conceptions of gender relations in the Middle East, particularly uprooting the established notions of the Middle Eastern women as passive and oppressed victims. Thus, the symposium aims to facilitate a critical discussion around the simplistic division between Western activism and feminism on the one side, and Middle Eastern or Muslim cultures on the other. The symposium will contribute to the realization that neither gender, religion or ethnicity on their own are crucial as to what kind of activism and feminism is being promoted, and, on the contrary, demonstrate the kind of variety and breadth that is to be found on the artistic, activist and feminist scene in the two regions today. By facilitating a platform for debate and new knowledge, FSS aims at contributing a new and nuanced language to the Scandinavian transcultural context, specifically targeting the current polemic debates about cultural identity, immigration and integration. 

WELCOME!

FSS: Gidsken Braadlie, Lisa Pacini, Camilla Dahl and Hanan Benammar

Prologues 1, 2 & 3 are generously supported by KORO Public Art Norway, Arts Council Norway, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Fritt Ord and Generale Consulage o
Special thanks to Interkulturelt Museum for supporting and hosting P3 program.

PREVIOUS PROLOGUES:
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- Prologue 1: Art Activism - White Cube vs Public Space 
22.06.2016 at The Museum of Cultural History & KORO

with: Juan Puntes (US), Ted Kerr (US), Mikkel Bolt (DK), Zanele Muholi (SA), Llewellen Mnungi (SA), Kate Pendry (NO/UK), Pia Maria Roll (NO) and Marius von der Fehr (NO/ES)
Moderator: Boel Christensen-Scheel (NO)

- Prologue 2: Art and Media Activism - Strategies for Political Change
1-2.11.2016 at Tøyen Library

with: Eirik Myrhaug (NO), Yasser Almaamoun/Center for Political Beauty (SY/DE), Mike Bonanno/The Yes Men (US), National Apology (Marius von der Fehr & Pia Maria Roll), Brian Drolet/Deep Dish TV (US), Shannon Jackson (US), Tatiana Volkova, Pavlo Mitenko, Make/Media Impact Moscow (Mediaudar) (RU) and Ekaterina Sharova (RU/NO)
Moderator: Trine Krigsvoll Haagensen (NO)

ABOUT FIRST SUPPER SYMPOSIUM:
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The First Supper Symposium is a collaborative art project focusing on art activism, feminism and political issues. Current members Gidsken Braadlie, Lisa Pacini, Camilla Dahl and Hanan Benammar. 

In 2016/2017, we are organising three symposia on the subject of art activism. Our aim is to build a network and create a platform for artists and organisations that gives space and a voice to critical and alternative realities and expressions, in order to share experiences and sollutions. 
Our preferred method is to invite both well-established and emerging theoreticians to participate in discussions with art activists and artists in order to shed light on a range of current political issues, coming from an aestetical context.

PRACTICAL INFO AND CONTACT:
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Entrance free, registration required at this link: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/prologue-3-middle-east-and-scandinavia-art-activism-feminism-tickets-38473282624

Registration includes one day program, lunch and light refreshments.

For further information and press inquiries please contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We are, in 2016-17, staging three symposia investigating the term of art activism and the actions and strategies of art activists. Our preferred method is to invite both well-established and emerging theoreticians to participate in discussions with art activists and artists in order to shed light on political, social and economic urgent challenges. The titles are:

“Prologue 1: Art Activism – White Cube vs Public Space” 22nd June 2016

“Prologue 2: Art and Media Activism – Strategies for Political Change” 1st and 2nd November 2016.

“Prologue 3: Art Activism and Feminism in the Middle East” 21st and 22nd October 2017.

With Prologue 1, 2 and 3 First Supper Symposium aims to build an investigative platform where the structure should be experimental and process-oriented, and the outcome must remain open so that discussions can have a creative potential and make room for new ideas, strategies and forms of activism.

The Prologues will enable dialogue and discussion on several current issues surrounding art activism. They will examine how mass media and social media are used as a tool in the global dissemination of political activism; how feminist movements internationally can contribute to a new understanding of the term feminism inserted in a multicultural context. They will also look at how the choice of communication rooms can affect the effectiveness of the political message: White Cube vs Public Space.

For each Prologue we are inviting international art activists and theorists to talk about their work, which will be debated together with the participating audience. We will have a flat structure where lecturers, activists and the audience are sitting in a big circle, so that the threshold to participate in the discussion is lowered. Method of circular sitting therefore will focus on the democratic principle of equality and participation.

The space between autonomous art and political and social art is a diffuse area, as both the political effect and the aesthetic quality of art activism can often be questionable. In FSS we attempt to reflect upon the methods and contexts of art activism - the space where art may change politics and economies to aim at an ever expanding field of freedom of speech and economic sustainability.