Global Futures Forum 2013

'10 Years On: Art and Everyday Life in Iraq and Iran'

7th - 8th June 2013

The Mosaic Rooms, Tower House, 226 Cromwell Road, London SW5 0SW

In partnership with Winchester Centre for Global Futures in Art, Design & Media, Ibraaz presents a two-day public forum entitled '10 Years On: Art and Everyday Life in Iraq and Iran.' Panel discussions, keynote speeches and performances will explore issues about civil society, culture and everyday life in both countries.

Bringing together specialists and professionals in mass media, visual and performing arts, cultural and social studies and history, the forum will examine representations of Iraq and Iran. Specifically, the forum will offer diverse alternative accounts of life in Iraq and Iran today as seen through the prism of visual cultures. The event brings together artists, journalists, writers and practitioners from across the region including the Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal, BBC news journalist Rageh Omaar, Slavs and Tatars, Professor Jonathan Harris, Jananne Al-Ani, Adel Abidin, Dr. Anthony Downey, Rijin Sahakian, Dr. Kathy Battista, Reem Alasadi, Omar Kholeif, Jamal Penjweny, Shirley Elghanian, Noor Kadhim, Daniel McClean, The Freaks, Siba Aldabbagh, Shireen Walton, Daria Kirsanova, and many others.

On the afternoon of 8th June, Anthony Downey will host a panel discussion titled 'WHERE TO NOW: Everyday Culture in Iraq Today.' There will also be a lecture-performance by the artist collective Slavs and Tatars on the 7th June, followed by the launch of their new book Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi'ite Showbiz. The book, drawing on Slavs and Tatars' multi-disciplinary practice, traces unlikely points of convergence in Iran and Poland's economic, social, political, religious and cultural histories. Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi'ite Showbiz by Slavs and Tatars is published by Book Works and Sharjah Art Foundation in association with Raster, Warsaw as part of Book Works' Co-Series.

For decades, media from the western world have shown Iraq and Iran as threats to global peace. This conference aims to examine the politics and economics of representation and will ask: who gets to represent whom? How do individuals and communities represent themselves and with what means? Whose representations count, have currency, are circulated, and are validated as knowledge? And who, finally, benefits from the work of art?

Tickets for this event can be purchased online at www.soton.ac.uk/wrc/globalfuturesforum2013

For further information, please contact Dr Victoria Walters on V.M.Walters@soton.ac.uk