Sarmad

<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"
	
	>

<channel>
	<title>Sarmad</title>
	<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com</link>
	<description>Sarmad</description>
	<pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2026 06:14:43 +0000</pubDate>
	<generator>https://sarmadmagazine.com</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	
		
	<item>
		<title>WALK 1</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-1</link>

		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2024 14:47:08 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-1</guid>

		<description>

WALK 1 : Palestine

Date: Saturday, 25 May 2024
Time: 15:00-17:00
Location: 
Wijkpark Oude Westen (West-Kruiskade)Meeting point:The ring in the middle of park.


&#60;img width="1248" height="1744" width_o="1248" height_o="1744" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bfb74acd1d900050599cb49de9659222721eddc0f87226225338d7570fb1c5ba/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-15.08.10.png" data-mid="212918905" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bfb74acd1d900050599cb49de9659222721eddc0f87226225338d7570fb1c5ba/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-15.08.10.png" /&#62;
“Walk”, a new project at Sarmad, embraces, on the one hand, publishing and on other, collective walking meditation as a powerful healing practice in relation to social oppression.This project has arisen out of trauma, and seeks to explore the intersection of resisting and transforming oppression, in particular racial oppression, with non-Western modes of thinking and being.


After analysing and understanding our oppression, what do we do with all the pain and rage that we carry in our hearts?


&#60;img width="1251" height="1758" width_o="1251" height_o="1758" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" data-mid="212919681" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" /&#62;
We will read from the publication made for this walk.And then, we will walk in meditation to Museumpark.The publication has excerpts from two books:
- How to Walk, Thich Nhat Hanh- Healing Resistance, Kazu Haga

In this first walk, we will walk for Palestine.We will walk in meditation for all those who cannot walk anymore. We will especially walk for all the children, for all those for whom a new term is coined for the first time in Palestine: wounded child, no surviving family (WCNSF).We will walk in silence in Rotterdam, aware of our breathing and of our steps, feeling the curves of the earth under our feet.If you are an activist, join us.If you were involved in university encampments, join us.If you are still struggling with the trauma that police violence left you with, join us.If you feel a lot of pain in your heart, join us.The struggle needs you, you are the struggle, the struggle can only be as healthy as you are.🍉Please note:- Do not bring a heavy bag with you.

&#60;img width="1251" height="1762" width_o="1251" height_o="1762" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c5ff8dabe56e2ef35ac0bb07ed16cf26c5b7cc7d75c0622c911fa3737b0c3fe/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.23.23.png" data-mid="212919780" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c5ff8dabe56e2ef35ac0bb07ed16cf26c5b7cc7d75c0622c911fa3737b0c3fe/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.23.23.png" /&#62;

&#60;img width="1251" height="1759" width_o="1251" height_o="1759" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d5c3df59c2c47d1b135b4a875e679c5ea7d8db54a42bab05f0411d00e0a94c1/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.27.29.png" data-mid="212919960" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d5c3df59c2c47d1b135b4a875e679c5ea7d8db54a42bab05f0411d00e0a94c1/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.27.29.png" /&#62;
</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>WALK 2</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-2</link>

		<pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2026 05:08:33 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-2</guid>

		<description>

WALK 2 : Colonial Past of Zeeland

Date: 27 July 2024
Time: 11:00
Location: VierVaart, Groede, ZeelandThe project WALK aims at transforming and healing the pain, wounds and rage of facing oppression, in particular racial oppression, using collective walking meditation.


&#60;img width="1776" height="1184" width_o="1776" height_o="1184" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9760cbe67ac8d461fe4e68ebb8aa3045734bf3b70e793c2fe7bfe2e62a013077/597fa5bd-faa5-432b-86cc-66e60c66acc3.JPG" data-mid="248167059" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9760cbe67ac8d461fe4e68ebb8aa3045734bf3b70e793c2fe7bfe2e62a013077/597fa5bd-faa5-432b-86cc-66e60c66acc3.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77da32b33dc6efbb06e95411c6cf6f32e48a069724a276a074fddf0a811937f3/IMG_2012.jpg" data-mid="248167065" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/77da32b33dc6efbb06e95411c6cf6f32e48a069724a276a074fddf0a811937f3/IMG_2012.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a4046d542678437b5c7ee2f38c63d9d8196f6d4a3f22d04a240872c9808c5ca4/IMG_1994.jpg" data-mid="248167062" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a4046d542678437b5c7ee2f38c63d9d8196f6d4a3f22d04a240872c9808c5ca4/IMG_1994.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f1360b00d18caa31835a2ca725ae6324bfb3c3905e7f66f42d114fb368e1e071/IMG_1992.jpg" data-mid="248167061" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f1360b00d18caa31835a2ca725ae6324bfb3c3905e7f66f42d114fb368e1e071/IMG_1992.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5e8626b7375c20b38c68e26c39b51b8ad122e213ee1c9b55209ddf4fec421a75/IMG_5588.jpg" data-mid="248167066" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5e8626b7375c20b38c68e26c39b51b8ad122e213ee1c9b55209ddf4fec421a75/IMG_5588.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ac1ca745ba984c723c8e38c98f60e1bdb578d7204433ba19ac89a10e17a8eb9d/IMG_5593.jpg" data-mid="248167069" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ac1ca745ba984c723c8e38c98f60e1bdb578d7204433ba19ac89a10e17a8eb9d/IMG_5593.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7df95392ad9cc7e563fb25db9f7a26d290953e0a39102254b139daa92f7cdb8/IMG_5595.jpg" data-mid="248167071" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7df95392ad9cc7e563fb25db9f7a26d290953e0a39102254b139daa92f7cdb8/IMG_5595.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4861eb428cb983f733c91b3e7d1752bbefca778395cde4707c2e3e4d177c6807/IMG_5596.jpg" data-mid="248167072" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4861eb428cb983f733c91b3e7d1752bbefca778395cde4707c2e3e4d177c6807/IMG_5596.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/415b220bee1df554f0fc9cf668bf49fdf8eb8e89e64945e6a935a87f98ebad9e/IMG_5602.jpg" data-mid="248167075" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/415b220bee1df554f0fc9cf668bf49fdf8eb8e89e64945e6a935a87f98ebad9e/IMG_5602.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2223a0bb8743f96062d774b13cc60f8abcf92626e3c8e7b0e5028aa225d4b9c8/IMG_5599.jpg" data-mid="248167074" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2223a0bb8743f96062d774b13cc60f8abcf92626e3c8e7b0e5028aa225d4b9c8/IMG_5599.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a40fef20ad444be2a5ea02bac036fa5cf2f0eb3b87ee03a93fbe833646ad341c/IMG_5592.jpg" data-mid="248167068" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a40fef20ad444be2a5ea02bac036fa5cf2f0eb3b87ee03a93fbe833646ad341c/IMG_5592.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53645e68efdbc23241c7771e8ea41aa07c646e4855b982b44c65a7a073b705c2/IMG_5605.jpg" data-mid="248167077" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53645e68efdbc23241c7771e8ea41aa07c646e4855b982b44c65a7a073b705c2/IMG_5605.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5dcba550ce8bb5873ed70e182832b9754d25157eb2bd57bff24f6162914bb75a/IMG_5618.jpg" data-mid="248167080" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5dcba550ce8bb5873ed70e182832b9754d25157eb2bd57bff24f6162914bb75a/IMG_5618.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f727c7c859d380f5bff246e1b7bc8d8cb8b5759b7debc7c814f38d7d7f8a2bc/IMG_5603.jpg" data-mid="248167076" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f727c7c859d380f5bff246e1b7bc8d8cb8b5759b7debc7c814f38d7d7f8a2bc/IMG_5603.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e49e6420593425c95e7cac7c0089ec6007d2c76202bad0da99519e2154a633a6/IMG_1985.jpg" data-mid="248167060" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e49e6420593425c95e7cac7c0089ec6007d2c76202bad0da99519e2154a633a6/IMG_1985.jpg" /&#62;

Walking Meditation (in Relation to the Colonial Past of Zeeland)

For this second “walk” of the project, a publication is made which looks at the long-lasting involvement of the province of Zealand in the colonial trade in general and the trans-Atlantic slave trade in particular.

We will walk in meditation together using the “walking guide” included in the publication.

All the hundreds of ships departing from Middleburg beginning their voyage of “triangular trade” passed through the water strait between Vlissingen and Breskens, visible from the beautiful Breskens beach.

The Walking Guide draws inspiration from the book “How to Walk” by Thich Nhat Hanh.

After reading and discussing the publication, we will perform a collective 40min walking meditation at VierVaart.


&#60;img width="1251" height="1758" width_o="1251" height_o="1758" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" data-mid="248166831" border="0" data-scale="65" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" /&#62;


&#60;img width="1251" height="1762" width_o="1251" height_o="1762" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c5ff8dabe56e2ef35ac0bb07ed16cf26c5b7cc7d75c0622c911fa3737b0c3fe/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.23.23.png" data-mid="248166832" border="0" data-scale="66" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c5ff8dabe56e2ef35ac0bb07ed16cf26c5b7cc7d75c0622c911fa3737b0c3fe/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.23.23.png" /&#62;

&#60;img width="1251" height="1759" width_o="1251" height_o="1759" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d5c3df59c2c47d1b135b4a875e679c5ea7d8db54a42bab05f0411d00e0a94c1/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.27.29.png" data-mid="248166833" border="0" data-scale="66" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d5c3df59c2c47d1b135b4a875e679c5ea7d8db54a42bab05f0411d00e0a94c1/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.27.29.png" /&#62;
</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>WALK 3</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-3</link>

		<pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2026 05:48:01 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-3</guid>

		<description>

WALK 3 : Colonial Legacy of Zeeland

Date: 22 September 2024
Time: 15:00
Location: Limestone Books, MaastrichtThe project WALK aims at transforming and healing the pain, wounds and rage of facing oppression, in particular racial oppression, using collective walking meditation.


&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1b47a70e3eaafb62ac82c27a976232f35fbc3bf0bddffe3b7575f97463ede70/DSC05810.JPG" data-mid="248167247" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c1b47a70e3eaafb62ac82c27a976232f35fbc3bf0bddffe3b7575f97463ede70/DSC05810.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a21bb4e93539a0540eebfaa0da51d4ee90c049917eadd37d200a02c30e3e25d7/DSC06008.JPG" data-mid="248167246" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a21bb4e93539a0540eebfaa0da51d4ee90c049917eadd37d200a02c30e3e25d7/DSC06008.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e49e6420593425c95e7cac7c0089ec6007d2c76202bad0da99519e2154a633a6/IMG_1985.jpg"&#62;
&#60;img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a103dcfca7ba910ae4e60f84351d9baeb970423b180d5b650a8802903d44fff3/DSC05899.JPG" data-mid="248167249" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a103dcfca7ba910ae4e60f84351d9baeb970423b180d5b650a8802903d44fff3/DSC05899.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4000" height="6000" width_o="4000" height_o="6000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/06cb868ff7420dfedf78d642b9e5af51f961681792efb70730183eefa06110d7/DSC05935.JPG" data-mid="248167250" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/06cb868ff7420dfedf78d642b9e5af51f961681792efb70730183eefa06110d7/DSC05935.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/40638ba07d09206b067a8db87ca51bac1a172b5e99aad56cc57ee432db93744f/DSC05999.JPG" data-mid="248167252" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/40638ba07d09206b067a8db87ca51bac1a172b5e99aad56cc57ee432db93744f/DSC05999.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7848ff43b1efdb2ae1eb2b500c874d92ba0ace7951d4bffd1f727383b9ed9b7c/DSC06061.JPG" data-mid="248167253" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7848ff43b1efdb2ae1eb2b500c874d92ba0ace7951d4bffd1f727383b9ed9b7c/DSC06061.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a1d083fde50f8efb15b5a5d96c95b93e6e1052f5991367105ee70eda2ccb0813/DSC06068.JPG" data-mid="248167271" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a1d083fde50f8efb15b5a5d96c95b93e6e1052f5991367105ee70eda2ccb0813/DSC06068.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/820a6d44833f899b35ebba03943cd9a99f8e04f922d18de191248076e620d09d/DSC06133.JPG" data-mid="248167274" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/820a6d44833f899b35ebba03943cd9a99f8e04f922d18de191248076e620d09d/DSC06133.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d2ad30804b0983c2ce6d72e4b86c7bd43fcd62f07d8c67ea35eb159411826f75/DSC06088.JPG" data-mid="248167272" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d2ad30804b0983c2ce6d72e4b86c7bd43fcd62f07d8c67ea35eb159411826f75/DSC06088.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d73cff628063bd40bfd1995a43224399fe3bfd9e617b9001b96839ac3dd6a09a/DSC06120.JPG" data-mid="248167273" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d73cff628063bd40bfd1995a43224399fe3bfd9e617b9001b96839ac3dd6a09a/DSC06120.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7dac00e5a1ac2195b631e658b6b4508df44bd04456ad4732dc3cddae60a7ccb6/DSC06170.JPG" data-mid="248167275" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7dac00e5a1ac2195b631e658b6b4508df44bd04456ad4732dc3cddae60a7ccb6/DSC06170.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7631f8940e66df18c74bed8959067a4bca73ed4fd013c83d6b785c02c22a4869/DSC05860.JPG" data-mid="248167248" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7631f8940e66df18c74bed8959067a4bca73ed4fd013c83d6b785c02c22a4869/DSC05860.JPG" /&#62;
&#60;img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e901d7d57440926d1db35fdc68fc5962b25a1fae81203c8a4d24d44ae03b4fb9/DSC05938.JPG" data-mid="248167251" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e901d7d57440926d1db35fdc68fc5962b25a1fae81203c8a4d24d44ae03b4fb9/DSC05938.JPG" /&#62;


What do we do with the pain, hurt and trauma of racial oppression? What about the rage and grief that we carry in our hearts as a result of being exposed to systemic racism as well as microaggressions on a daily basis? 
As the third iteration of the project WALK at Sarmad, this workshop relates the practice of walking meditation to resisting, transforming and healing racial oppression.

A publication is made for this particular workshop, which presents ideas about how to walk (in meditation) and also explores the colonial connections of the city of Maastricht as well as Limburg as a province with significant support for the far-right.

We begin with reading and engaging with the publication, then we open a discussion with the audience, go on a 40-min collective walking meditation and come back to sharing and discussion.
&#60;img width="1251" height="1758" width_o="1251" height_o="1758" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" data-mid="248167152" border="0" data-scale="65" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" /&#62;

&#60;img width="1251" height="1762" width_o="1251" height_o="1762" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c5ff8dabe56e2ef35ac0bb07ed16cf26c5b7cc7d75c0622c911fa3737b0c3fe/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.23.23.png" data-mid="248167153" border="0" data-scale="66" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c5ff8dabe56e2ef35ac0bb07ed16cf26c5b7cc7d75c0622c911fa3737b0c3fe/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.23.23.png" /&#62;

&#60;img width="1251" height="1759" width_o="1251" height_o="1759" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d5c3df59c2c47d1b135b4a875e679c5ea7d8db54a42bab05f0411d00e0a94c1/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.27.29.png" data-mid="248167154" border="0" data-scale="66" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d5c3df59c2c47d1b135b4a875e679c5ea7d8db54a42bab05f0411d00e0a94c1/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.27.29.png" /&#62;
</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>WALK 4</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-4</link>

		<pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2026 06:14:43 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/WALK-4</guid>

		<description>

WALK 4 : Keti Koti

Date: 28 June 2025
Time: 16:00
Location: Daily Practice, RotterdamThe project WALK aims at transforming and healing the pain, wounds and rage offacing oppression, in particular racial oppression, using collective walking meditation.


&#60;img width="1156" height="1462" width_o="1156" height_o="1462" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b57ead4cb2d54e9c309e36eaaf2d1fa592e43d5eaf37482394554dc4a20ff8b/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-14.47.47.png" data-mid="248167944" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b57ead4cb2d54e9c309e36eaaf2d1fa592e43d5eaf37482394554dc4a20ff8b/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-14.47.47.png" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/83ac1b851dd576a99cef7c8d7b7567fd29223d77cb5d9a6acffb84731d9396e1/IMG_7313.jpg" data-mid="248167928" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/83ac1b851dd576a99cef7c8d7b7567fd29223d77cb5d9a6acffb84731d9396e1/IMG_7313.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f20f61028fc151ff105100f1fda2a804da23610e2dad3cb033c0ad7c93968c6b/IMG_7337.jpg" data-mid="248167933" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f20f61028fc151ff105100f1fda2a804da23610e2dad3cb033c0ad7c93968c6b/IMG_7337.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fc0daf6775750910c3b6c1ce620cf4100227544f59c36cf32c4636b2a9ab5e5c/IMG_7310.jpg" data-mid="248167927" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fc0daf6775750910c3b6c1ce620cf4100227544f59c36cf32c4636b2a9ab5e5c/IMG_7310.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/087a9e171c2f4062d117b70a8534b4fa83c7d96ea1533213a1212c381df8ab87/IMG_7320.jpg" data-mid="248167929" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/087a9e171c2f4062d117b70a8534b4fa83c7d96ea1533213a1212c381df8ab87/IMG_7320.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a19f4bb56f78fbf76441db12c1793624798abda800c16e346733d8faa1885df0/IMG_7326.jpg" data-mid="248167930" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a19f4bb56f78fbf76441db12c1793624798abda800c16e346733d8faa1885df0/IMG_7326.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3dac80549627c89bd14d77f8c52ae25079d6bd5cea37bb6baa51aad566834a03/IMG_7329.jpg" data-mid="248167931" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3dac80549627c89bd14d77f8c52ae25079d6bd5cea37bb6baa51aad566834a03/IMG_7329.jpg" /&#62;
&#60;img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f1ebce961d34bd41623f35ce112e21a32add421b1bc92cd7e3b8440d7614b059/IMG_7332.jpg" data-mid="248167932" border="0"  src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f1ebce961d34bd41623f35ce112e21a32add421b1bc92cd7e3b8440d7614b059/IMG_7332.jpg" /&#62;

Walking Meditation, in Relation to Rotterdam's Legacy of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

For the occasion of Keti Koti (but a couple of days earlier), we are holding the 4th session of the project WALK at Daily Practice, run by Suzanne Weenik.Join us especially if:- You feel wounded by racism.- This expanding war is draining you.- You carry too much pain in your heart.We will gather at Daily Practice and read and discuss two publications made for this session and then go for a collective 40-min walking meditation outside.First publication:Is a research on the ships that left the port of Rotterdam for a trans-Atlantic slave trade voyage, from the 17th to the 19th century, transporting in total more than 30,000 captives from Africa to the Americas (especially Suriname) as “slaves”.Second publication:Is a “walking guide”, which discusses and gives instructions for the (intergenerational) healing practice of walking meditation.WALK is a project that combines resisting and healing racial oppression, with non-Western modes of thinking and being, in particular the practice of walking meditation.
&#60;img width="1251" height="1758" width_o="1251" height_o="1758" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" data-mid="248167497" border="0" data-scale="65" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b87a9d5554dffc46d57b7063e57d554f8d27227c829fe577a83613fc0917df64/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-13.20.49.png" /&#62;


</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>A(n idealized) portrait of the art worker crumbling</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/A-n-idealized-portrait-of-the-art-worker-crumbling</link>

		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:55:40 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/A-n-idealized-portrait-of-the-art-worker-crumbling</guid>

		<description>A(n idealized) portrait of the art worker crumbling by Alina Lupu&#38;nbsp;︎︎︎
15 Aug 2021


Welcome!
In this position, your role is to plot (alongside equally driven young - emphasis on young! - professionals) an evolving proposition about the future of art, and the role of the artist in society. You must be committed to the development of the next generation of artists and to innovating.

You must be energetic, collaborative, caring (think, someone’s mom), open-minded (since you’ll be required to work overtime), creative (at this point words just lose meaning, don’t they?) and have a deep knowledge of the field in which you work (and if you have that you’ll realize that your best bet at making an income will never truly be through your artistic practice, it’s better if you get accustomed to the idea early in your career). 
You will be given the responsibility and freedom to inspire and maintain an innovative output. You won’t be given guidance on how to do that at any point throughout your practice, but that builds character. It means you’ll need to roll up your sleeves plenty of times and stretch your working time to the point where you’ll question ever stepping into this field altogether.

Worry not though!
All of your peers will also be artists with a strong position in the (international) field. Notice how I slipped international in there between brackets? What this means is that they will come from other countries, they will study within a country in the global North. They will build up a practice locally, but with every show they will be a part of, even if their output won’t be tangential to their upbringing in their country of origin, that very country of origin will be listed in their bio, next to their name, to stand for openness and international outreach. You’ll be hard-pressed to find an institution or exhibition space that won’t instrumentalize someone’s original background for clout. Nevertheless, this is fine, since you’ll have to bring some critical edge to the table and you can comment on this variation of exoticizing in your work.
 
Work through it. 
You’ll be pushed to examine, undermine and leave the cultural comfort zone of assumptions, conventions, and privileges. Oh, but don’t talk about class! Or it’s fine if you do if you’re pointing your criticism downwards, to the downtrodden, just don’t point your criticism up. The King of the Netherlands comes for a visit? Iron your best frock and/or practice your curtsy. You don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot professionally after all of this struggle, do you? 
What you need to do is to, for example, use your critical faculties as a way to discover unknown and hidden connections, absurdities, and free space. Call these the paradoxes of capitalism, I suppose! Like how the freedom of the arts is seen as an absolute end goal, yet the encroaching spread of private funding is threatening said freedom, but you’re asked to not raise questions. 

Like how you have to be a critically acclaimed artist by 27 to access housing and a studio, since there’s an age limit placed on these resources, most likely by those that benefited from squatted buildings in the 80’s to build their practices and now they’ve turned landlords and committee members and are actively sabotaging a new generation of talent. 

What the hell is talent anyway?
Like the fact that you have to be under 35, or under 40 or 28 to apply to certain prizes, yet said prizes don’t have any issues setting themes in tune with the times, among which the idea of telling you to slow down, be mindful, take your time, and be sustainable in your practice. 

Art could then be considered as a critical and meaningful way to play with the perception of knowledge, conventions, and social codes. It requires imagination, intuition, humor, and a keen eye for presentation. Only it’s not some of these things. And it can’t be if the ones that have access to it squeeze into an ever more narrow mold. 

D &#38;amp; I.

The art field values a diverse and inclusive composition of itself. It considers that working in a diverse field makes us more effective, innovative and the work more enjoyable. It doesn’t do much to actually and actively promote diversity and inclusion though, except mentioning it in all institutional brochures and budget plans since the local government recently got woke to the fact that the art field is not at all representative of the composition of the country as a whole. 

They’ll want you to be well organized, strategically smart, a social sponge with a good sense of humor, and an outspoken mind matching their vibe. And to have a critical view of current social issues and other shifting paradigms confronting the contemporary world. 

You should be enthusiastic about questioning established norms and behaviours through art and design and be an advocate of critical new skills. You should be critical, but not too much - critical enough to have a good sense of humour at parties. 

Don’t get bitter!

The ability to work collaboratively is a must. But you’ll find quite some issues in being taught to work collaboratively when the format of education you’ve been put through treasures individuals, with individual studios, with individual problems, in individual living quarters they can’t afford, while individually complaining about their condition and doing jack shit about the collective. 
At the end of the day though all you can count on is: Showing up. Shutting up. Making space. Criticizing and being criticized. It is the discomfort that sits on top of one’s belly after an evening meal and reading the precarious 12-hour contract the dream job offered, which doesn’t pay the rent in a city where only baby boomers, their children &#38;amp; some expats can afford mansions and the rest sit in tiny houses with paper-thin walls.

At times you’ll find yourself being overly white, western, urban, lower class, male-female, precociously precarious, a 12-hour-shifter, no-pension-planner, dreaming of sunnier days, of flowers in the sidewalks, laughing all the way to the bank, taking the subway, containing your feelings, starting to believe you’re in love, each reflection in a window reflecting back your bright face.

Then again employers trade on the persistent myth that when we do something we love, that labour no longer counts as work. 

Imagine, in this case, what it must feel like to be your own boss! 

You’ll realize you’re well embedded and that you operate in a vibrant local and regional biotope of academic, engineering, arts &#38;amp; music, research institutions, and initiatives. That you interface with a growing international network of like-minded institutions and groups and are in a continuous process of strengthening and deepening the research dimension, challenging the boundaries of both the arts and the sciences.
You’ll let out a gentle sigh, and then a scream. 

At the end of it all, if all else fails, remember that it's a process. 

The alternative.
Existing outside the confines of this field, with an awareness of its limitations, understanding its lingo, but refusing to engage, might be the only true form of resistance. 

You’ll look at yourself with some form of honesty or another and wonder, throughout your practice:&#38;nbsp;
What are the opportunities you have refused? 
What are the institutions you have boycotted? 
What are the types of labour that are vital to your artistic practice, but that you generally leave off of your CV? 
What type of work that you’re doing remains unacknowledged? 
Where do your ethics lie? 
What or rather who has rejected you? “We’re sorry to inform you…”
What or rather who can you reject in turn? 

Can you, at the end of the day, refuse? 
Only by the time you realize that you could refuse, it might be honestly too late. You’ll have to sift through the discourse, cringe, grin and bear it and work on carving out an alternative to it – do whatever you’ve got to do to stay in it and stay sane. 


Endnotes:
In trying to figure out what a contemporary art worker’s profile would be, I 	took a step backward and compiled their profile out of job openings for 	positions within the field of art and design, indirectly attributed in the text, 	since it's by looking at what others think you should be, that you figure out 	where you might fit - and then decide to collaborate or run for dear life. 

	
The full list of references are:&#38;nbsp;
- Job openings ArtEZ: 	https://www.artez.nl/dit-is-artez/werken-bij-artez/vacatures
- Amal Alhaag - A scream is never a dispossessed footnote, sonsbeek 21-24 	catalogue
- Onomatopee - Catalyst of public engagement: 	https://www.onomatopee.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Catalyst-of-	public-engagement.pdf
- Job Opportunity Lecturer Photography, Transformation Design - 	https://www.wdka.nl/news-events/job-opportunity-lecturer-photography-	transformation-design
- There is Nothing New Under the Sun, Kata Geibl, 2019&#38;nbsp;
- This is a Work of Fiction, Alina Lupu, 2019- Docenten ArtScience Interfaculty - https://www.kabk.nl/nieuws/vacature-	docenten-artscience-interfaculty- Art Goss’s Curriculum Veto initiative - coming soon!

</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>Alina Lupu</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/Alina-Lupu</link>

		<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jul 2021 10:43:30 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/Alina-Lupu</guid>

		<description>︎︎︎
About AlinaAlina Lupu is a Romanian-born and bred, Dutch-based post-conceptual artist and writer. The focus of her practice is on precarious living and working conditions for art workers and laborers in general. In September 2020, she joined the program committee of Kunsthuis Syb in Beesterzwaag and she is a recent board member of Platform BK, where she strives to improve the position of (international) art workers and to stimulate the public debate on the role of visual art in society.&#38;nbsp;</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>Made in Bangladesh, Manufacturing Hyper-real Identities</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/Made-in-Bangladesh-Manufacturing-Hyper-real-Identities</link>

		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Sep 2021 14:32:45 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/Made-in-Bangladesh-Manufacturing-Hyper-real-Identities</guid>

		<description>
Made in Bangladesh: manufacturing hyper-real identitiesby Shadman Shahid ︎︎︎22 Sep 2021
see the image this essay is dealing with on ad.nl

A girl stands topless in front of a white blank wall. She stands tall and proud, looking unabashedly towards the camera. The camera is placed slightly below her eye level, presenting her with an air of importance and she demands respect. Her luscious black hair makes her seem exotic and untethered, like someone who rides wild horses or even better someone who would ride you like a horse. Right in the centre of the image are her bare, firm, round, ample breasts and the words “Made in Bangladesh” branded over her. Her small pleasing nipples peek through the letters, not entirely visible, teasing. From her breasts, her arms lead the viewer’s attention to a pair of jeans. She holds open the jeans, with the purpose of showing the bareness even more blatantly and boldly.


This is a superficial reading of a photograph that was used in an ad campaign by American Apparel. This is what we, the viewers, see at its surface, that’s what is visible to us at first glance. But once we have a closer look, understand the context and look beyond the rectangular frame, we see that the image goes beyond the blatant objectification of a human body. We see the undeniable markings of neocolonial tendencies of appropriating and recreating hyper-real identities.

A beacon for women empowerment 
Let us begin at the source: American Apparel is a clothing company that was founded in 1989. They enticed the spotlight to shine on to them by creating an image for themselves of a company that practiced fair labor conditions and by presenting themselves as a beacon for women empowerment in our time. They were known for their provocative advertising often lauded for challenging old traditions and belief systems. In 2014 the founder and then CEO of the company, a Canadian white man named Dov Charney, was sued by multiple women, including his employees, for sexual harassment. In spite of the very real accounts of the victims made public, American Apparel as a company kept backing the Man. Finally, he was fired after it became apparent that it was impossible to make the outpour of the horror stories vanish with sly PR tactics. This reluctance to take immediate action makes it apparent that no matter what American Apparel might want us to think their values are, they are not the harbingers of women’s empowerment they think themselves to be.


The photograph changes once we have this information. The mind starts to wonder what the conditions were during the shoot? What was going through the mind of the model? What interactions did she have with the photographer and the artistic director? And now, do I sense the unease in her eyes? Does the body look slightly uncomfortable? Are her hands grabbing the pants tensely? I am not sure if we all will see the same thing but would the photograph not change completely once we think of all these issues?

Liberated; not Bangladeshi and not American either
Below the photograph there is a text. Again, at first glance seems to be innocent, describing the person we are looking at. The text is as important as the photograph itself and without it the final image is incomplete. Without the text, the American Apparel image can be read as yet another pseudo-voyeuristic and somewhat pornographic attempt at appropriating and objectifying an oriental female body, reminiscent of the postcards from Algeria over a century ago that Malek Alloula writes about in the Colonial Harem. With the text, the intentions and consequences become even more pronounced.


The heading of the text introduces the audience to the model’s name, which is neither typical Bangladeshi nor American. Rather an appropriated version of a Bangladeshi or perhaps Arabic name. Maks is easier to pronounce than Maksuda, I guess.


Then the text begins by telling us that first and foremost, she is an American Apparel employee. That is her leading identity and from here on she embodies the company’s ideology. This anthropomorphizes the company while at the same time, objectifies the human, not an uncommon strategy for advertisers to use. The Marlboro man comes to mind as an example.


The text then goes on to deploy orientalist and civilizational discourse to tell the story of Maks. She was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh but because of a “crucial life-changing decision” taken by her parents she migrated to the United States and was raised there. Thank god for that, because now she can reestablish the myth of the American dream. She initially followed her parents’ religion, and therefore a conventional Islamic tradition, but in high school she somehow achieved enlightenment and forwent her old, backward ways of thinking. She is now fully liberated, unwilling to call herself American or Bangladeshi and unwilling to fit herself into a conventional narrative set by others. She has successfully escaped from Islam and backward, uncivilized Bangladesh with its repressive social mores and “Islamic traditions”. 

Those Muslim others

And there was a narrative already in place by the media and the hyper-real identity of the Muslim was already vividly shaped, so why not capitalise on that as well. There are countless academic texts written since the Iranian revolution on the negative representations of Muslims by the western media and the portrayal of Islam as a backward religion of violence. Saifuddin Ahmed and Jörg Matthes talk about it in great details in their writing “Media representation of Muslims and Islam from 2000 to 2015: A meta-analysis”. So, a mere mention of the word “Islam” triggers the deep anxieties in viewers which they have been nurtured with for decades by the western media.


But at the same time the text reminds us of the “American” identity and puts it in a superior position and the traditional Islamic culture is judged as backward. It shows how American Apparel defeats the backward ideology of the invisible enemy, rescues the oppressed woman and emancipates her by allowing her to take off all her clothes. In the process it upholds true American values of individuality, equality and freedom. Patriotic sentiments in the American viewers activated. America, Fuck yeah! Freedom is the only way. But freedom for whom and at what cost? 

Exploiting the exploitation of workers

Why the branding on the flesh of this newly liberated brown body? “Made in Bangladesh'', what is the purpose of this? As acclaimed Bangladeshi-American feminist scholar Dr. Dina Sidiqque points out “The absent referent here is the Bangladeshi garment worker, whose conditions of work are veiled or covered up, and who represent the opposite of the secular feminist reality now inhabited by Maks. The absent presence of the Bangladeshi garment worker (underaged, malnourished and hyper-exploited) is essential for the “social message” embedded in the American Apparel campaign. It signals presumed conditions of horror in Bangladeshi sweatshops.”


The image was made after one year of the Rana Plaza disaster. The Rana Plaza disaster was a structural failure that occurred on 24 April 2013 in Bangladesh, where an eight-story commercial building collapsed. The search for the dead ended on 13 May 2013 with a death toll of 1,134. Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued from the building. It is considered the deadliest structural failure accident in modern human history and the deadliest garment-factory disaster in history. 


The advertisement was a direct response to that incident. The factory collapse made visible the working conditions of the Bangladeshi garment workers to the western world. As the building housed several factories that produced garments for the western world, western consumers immediately started to question the ethical values of the fashion industry. Questions were raised on the exploitative nature of the fashion industry in general. American Apparel went a step further and exploited the exploitation of the workers. 

The everyday girl
The campaign does not stop there, as it was clearly the advertisement’s intention to be controversial and being successful at that, the campaign was run in news outlets and magazines being attacked and defended by numerous writers. It made sure that the advertisement had a long life in the attention cycle. In an interview with Fashionista, the artistic director of the advertisement campaign mentioned that American Apparel values a “healthy body image”, not dowsing the women in their pictures with make-up, not retouching them in Photoshop, etc. They value the everyday girl and don’t find supermodels cool. This too, however, is not as innocent and chivalrous as it first appears to be, rather it is an ironic strategy and completely unoriginal which the process creates an identity of the stereotypical everyday girl. This method of advertising or propaganda has already existed for decades.


 Edward Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. By blending Freud’s theories of the unconscious with Gustave Le Bon's researches into crowd psychology and Wilfred Trotter's theories of herd instinct, Edward Barneys started to develop the initial concepts of public relations or in other words a non-violent, subtle, acceptable method of manipulating the crowd. One of his very first clients was the American Tobacco Company. In 1928 George Washington Hill, president of American Tobacco Company, was faced with an unsolvable conundrum. While men smoked with the utmost freedom with a delusional sense of pride and manliness, women who smoked were considered whores and prostitutes at best and even prison sentences were handed out to them to punish this kind of immoral behavior. 


The 1920s were a time of intense movements demanding equality for women. Edward Bernays exploited that collective state of mind to convince women how smoking cigarettes would lend them a worthwhile victory in the fight for equality. So, he set out to do exactly that with an ad campaign known to us now as Torches of freedom. He decided that the women hired for the project had to be convincing and appealing enough to influence the masses, yet not too good looking or ‘model-y’. In other words, the everyday girl. So, at the height of the Easter Parade, a young woman named Bertha Hunt, who was Bernays’ assistant at that time, stepped out into the crowded fifth avenue and created a scandal by lighting a Lucky Strike cigarette. And the rest was history. Cigarettes became torches of freedom, and centuries of work done by feminists and activists was appropriated by consumerism, the beginnings of neo-liberal exploitation of freedom movements. The Made in Bangladesh advertisement is just one example in a long line of such exploitations.

Guilty? Let me absolve you of all responsibilityThe text concludes by mentioning that the sole item of clothing that she is wearing in the picture is in fact made by American Apparel who manufacture only in America and who pay their skilled workers properly. They also have healthcare. The image ends with American Apparel written in bold letters, the last thing the audience will see before turning away from the image. This is a play on the guilt of the western viewer and offers them absolution from that guilt. The guilt of having privileged lives as the majority of the world suffers, the guilt of having to satisfy their needs of the latest fashion trends by exploiting thousands of men, women, and children, some of them even dying while making clothing. The road to absolution is simple and easy. Buy American Apparel. 


 So, what does the image of the provocative, unveiled, branded, “not-American-but-not-Bangladeshi”, liberated, self-actualized, exotic-looking, everyday girl born in Bangladesh but raised in America, achieve in the end? 


Its primary goal, like any other advertisement, may be to trigger the libido in the viewer and the reptilian brain in us so that we become less logical and our psychological defenses get somewhat compromised and therefore we become more prone to manipulation. But ultimately it does more than that. Through a neoliberal twist to old narratives of orientalism and the western savior, it manages to manufacture, propagate and reestablish identities of: Bangladeshis, the oppressed woman, the free woman, the everyday woman, the “American woman”, the American dream, the followers of Islam, the invisible garment worker, the benevolent buyer, the absolved westerner all at once. All of which are hyper-real in nature.


- Alloula, Malek, et al. (1986) “The Colonial Harem”, NED - New edition ed., vol. 21, University of Minnesota Press, 1986.- Ahmed, Saifuddin &#38;amp; Matthes, Jörg. (2016), “Media representation of Muslims and Islam from 2000 to 2015: A meta-analysis”, International Communication Gazette, vol: 79 issue: 3, pp. 219-244.
-https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/03/08/american-apparel-ceo-dov-charney-accused-of-forcing-teen-to-be-sex-slave
- Siddiqi, Dina M. “Solidarity, Sexuality, and Saving Muslim Women in Neoliberal Times”, Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3/4, 2014, pp. 292–306.
- Bernays, Edward. “Propaganda”, Ig Publishing, 2004.
- https://fashionista.com/2014/03/american-apparel-made-in-bangladesh-campaign

</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>Shadman Shahid</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/Shadman-Shahid</link>

		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Sep 2021 14:33:58 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/Shadman-Shahid</guid>

		<description>︎︎︎
About ShadmanShadman Shahid is a photographer and educator born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His work deals with the precarity of the corporeal and the spiritual human conditions in contemporary society. His photographic methodology walks the line between documentary and fiction and usually, in his work, the content drives the aesthetics. He relies heavily on magic realism as a storytelling method. His photographic works have brought him a few accolades including World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Masterclass, BJP ones to watch in 2016, Burn emerging photographer of the year in 2018 and Winner of Bird in Flight prize 2019. He is currently based in the Netherlands, as the head of the Department of Photography &#38;amp; Society (MA) at the Royal Academy of Art in Hague. He is currently represented by East Wing Gallery.&#38;nbsp;</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>Striking Normativity: The Art of Being Surprised</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/Striking-Normativity-The-Art-of-Being-Surprised</link>

		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Jan 2022 17:07:07 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/Striking-Normativity-The-Art-of-Being-Surprised</guid>

		<description>


Striking
Normativity: The Art of Being Surprisedby Diana Al-Halabi ︎︎︎31 Jan 2022


“I started out like all
of us start out, a coward, afraid. It is not to say I am not afraid now, it is
to say that whether
I am afraid or not, I count less, I value myself more than I value my terrors.
It does not mean I don’t have them, once I take that position I can look at
them and see what it is they teach me”


Audre Lorde.


An artist who once fought the institution for Palestine, once fought for her
right to education, for her right to visas and freedom of movement and – with
all due humbleness – was told “you are courageous, you lead by example”, has recently gone through a breakup. And the voice she is fighting in
her head, is that which keeps telling her: “How will you make it alone? You are
just a woman”. Yes, as non-normative as an
artist such as myself could seem to her family members, her peers, and herself,
the internalized voice of patriarchal construct – if paid attention to– could be the battlefield of daily life, and not many
would dare to declare that the war is happening, and that the war is televised
in disguise.&#38;nbsp; 


Why
disguise? I came to art and writing refusing to compromise, refusing anything
that is less than the “truth”, as well as refusing pretentious art. And when I
was told by a writer I admire, “all art is pretentious”, I kept fighting this
notion, saying mine is not. Up until I was invited to write this essay on
normativity. I realized that I have lost a good portion of pretentiousness with
my breakup, the dose that makes you think highly, assertively
and confidently enough of yourself to write. It was
in a moment of sterile confrontation with my screen that I recalled how my
whole graduation project was a feminist one that spoke of how I was deceived by
the patriarchal gaze to think I am smaller than the world.


We
often confuse pretentiousness with inauthenticity, but I came to forget that as
a woman – which I discovered, sociopolitically, that I am one back in 2017– I had
to wear a good chunk of pretentiousness on top of my vulnerability to
outlive the craziness of everything that I was
told to be “normal”. Normal, if I come to define it, is that which contributes
to normativity by making girls wish to be boys
instead of wishing to abolish patriarchy, just as I did when I was a child. This is the definition of norma/l/tivity.


I
pretend to be strong, I pretend that I can, I pretend to admit confidently that
I don’t know. And even in this essay I will pretend that my voice will be
heard, I will pretend that I have something you must read, I will pretend that
I can reference as if I have read the whole book, but believe me, I didn’t, and
I won’t. Because as Nina Wakeford (my former
MFA tutor) once told me in a studio visit, this is how
artists read, they will get what stimulates them out of a book and go to their
own creative work. Therefore, I will write like an artist, and everything I
cite in this essay, is the only thing I know, and I know nothing beyond it.
That is the pretentious truth I insist to tell you here.


&#38;nbsp;


Now
let’s talk about normativity.


In
David lynch’s film Inlands Empire, a woman narrates the tale of a
little boy who “opened the door, and saw the world, […]”. A sentence that
stopped me and made me think, where does the world start? Does the world exist
in our houses? When we open the door? Or is it everything we see as we leave
the walls of our houses? Do we see the world every time we go to the
supermarket? Or does it start as we land in another country? And if it starts
as we land in that other country, does it mean that the world we see there goes
unnoticed by the people already living in
it?


The
incomprehensible difference in the perception of the world inside a hospital for instance and a world outside of it,
whether you are a visitor, a patient, or a doctor, is one example of thinking
of worlds that coexist simultaneously in space and time. A world on a cancer
patients floor is utterly different from that of a birth giving floor. And
while we navigate through those worlds, as truth seekers, we are left with a
multiplicity of lenses to look at the “worlds” which contain us and the “other”
by and large.


But the
worlds we are trying to address here aren’t as simple as the example that I
just laid out, a world of many worlds, meaning a world ruled by
differences, which in a great number of times are detested , fought, or simply pushed
down and silenced by whoever got power, and succeeds to misuse it. 


The
major (meaning those who are ruling, marginalizing, and oppressing) and the
minor (meaning those who are ruled, marginalized, and oppressed) play an
important role in this dance of differences which is ultimately a vertical one. While democracy intends to play the role of
opening the space for each voice to rise,
whether it is right or wrong, it ought to keep one condition intact for it to
serve its value: the acknowledging and agreeing that
differences exist, which would become the only common point of departure for a
discussion to arise.


Nonetheless,
institutions – and here allow me to speak of some of the art institutions
specifically from my personal experience – tend to claim the democratic right
to freedom of speech, a decolonial curriculum and a critique on normativity,
while they instrumentalize those claims in order to be accepted under the new
normative standards of the art world, which is supposedly to serve
justice. 


But what the art
world’s institutions often miss about normativity and its critique, is that by
being the container and the contained at once, art can’t function by itself
without it being the vessel that upholds and seeks truth and justice in all
worlds in- and outside of itself.


Therefore,
the mission of art is perhaps to keep self-critiquing to the extent of deconstruction, in order not to give birth to double-faced norms as a
result of a lack of
integrity and a lack of surprise. Once an
intellectual named Adel Nassar, told me: the time we stop being surprised at
injustice would be the time that injustice wins.


In Revisiting
normativity with Deleuze, Rosi
Braidotti and Patricia Pesters encapsulate Deleuze’s monistic ontology with the
following: “This could also be described as a metamethodological shift or an
ongoing experiment with evaluative judgements that cultivate affirmative and
creative modes of becoming.” It is modes of becoming that art institutions
should seek in order not only to be ahead of the so-called
normative that we know, but also the normative that is becoming.


Neutrality
as a norm


Art institutions that consider themselves to be apolitical follow a method
of “neither one nor the other”, a use of negation that renders the neutral to be
innocent. However,
they perpetually fail this innocence, as
they distance themselves from the fact that censorship is the dominant virtue
they abide by. Censorship in so called ‘neutral institutions’ or ‘apolitical ones’ becomes the paradoxical act of taking a
position to decide who is “the one” and who is “the other”, instead of being under the so-called “neutral” frame of “neither
the one nor the other”. In other words neutrality never existed and would never
exist without it being tied to censorship, which becomes the “either, or” rather than
the “neither, nor”. Therefore, I can
confidently state here, that in such institutions there
was never neutrality in the first place. 


It is
fundamental to take into account the process that has been done in the last
decades in art institutions, which shaped them to represent inclusivity, less
male dominance and racial division. But this process is not an accomplished
task that took place in the past so to speak, it is and it must be an ongoing
process. In other words, to acknowledge the change and the efforts done in the
past – predominantly by non-white cultural practitioners– is not to accept that
tokenizing and instrumentalizing inclusivity – predominantly done by white
opportunists in position of power– of the present should go unnoticed. The
mission of acting upon a virtue of integrity and justice wouldn’t be a given
norm as long as institutions are still afraid to speak about Palestine and
present colonial powers for the sake of their own funding. 


Cornel
West in a talk titled What It Means to Be Human? stated that “The education at its highest level is about
fusing the formation of our critical thinking that’s linked to the maturation
of compassionate and courageous people, now we raise a question: is courage a
dominant virtue in our universities? Hell no! It is about smartness, it’s about status, and too often arrogance and
condescension. Courage is tied to fortitude, and fortitude is tied to certain
humility […]” 


In the
light of the virtue of courage in Universities, in May 2021, students of the
Dutch art academy Piet Zwart Institute (myself among them) hung a banner in solidarity with Palestinian people, against the
catastrophic atrocities they face under the Israeli settler-colonial state for
7 decades.
The Hogeschool Rotterdam removed their
banner under the claim that “no political speech is allowed on the campus
building”. When students refused such an approach, they stated that a decolonial curriculum in theory must be a decolonial
one in practice. 


It is
needless to state how crucial it is for professors, managers, and deans of art
universities, to educate themselves beyond surface levels when it comes to
anticolonial matters. 


When he
ordered the banner to be taken down, the dean of WDKA and PZI, Mr. Jeroen Chabot stated that his preference of showing
solidarity with Palestine manifests in rather subtle ways than hanging a banner
or issuing a statement (in other words: freedom of speech). And that was by
sending students on excursions to Ramallah. A statement that defines being at
the surface beyond comprehension. And I wonder if I should explain here in this
essay the definition of an Apartheid, as I had to explain to him in that
meeting. It was enough to state that I am a Lebanese student in his university
to prove that his method of solidarity is a false equation by default. The
white innocent way of solidarity failed to acknowledge that, as a Lebanese student, I won’t be able to make it to
Ramallah through Tel Aviv.


In 1971
Nikki Giovanni in conversation with James Baldwin, asks “why should a writer be
free to write what they want to write, while say a teacher isn’t free to teach
what they want to teach?” Baldwin answers “a teacher who isn’t free to teach
what they want is not a teacher […] and to teach –
in the
conditions which black people of America
find themselves– &#38;nbsp;is a revolutionary act”.


With
this spirit, tutors of diverse backgrounds and precarious contracts
in WDKA came forward together with some students from PZI to put an Alternative
Working Assembly. As a response to the closed meetings the dean had suggested
to solve the banner issue, the AWA took an alternative road into this
discussion, in which meetings around anticolonial matters and institutional
demands were addressed in a public assembly. 


Through
this Alternative Working Assembly (AWA) we have been working against
bureaucracy, against its vertical architecture, and against time slaughter. The
corridors of bureaucracy are by design a massive labyrinth for demands to get
lost, normative bureaucracy becomes the dominant architecture that pushes down
any intention of change. In the building of bureaucracy (the institution by
default), we all live in the aisles of nonplace, where demands are buried under
the guise of time, transmission, and process.


 To
think of normativity, one must first stop, and then, think. I solely believe
that normativity is everything that happens outside of the act of “stopping and
thinking”. In an interview of Hannah Arendt in 1964 with Joachim Fest, she
states that to carry on without “stopping and thinking”, is to be restless
under this bureaucratic Machina which cancels the person and causes the sense
of responsibility to evaporate.


Contrary
to how that bureaucratic Machina operates, demands that collectively were set in the AWA are to be
publicly announced around February 2022 in another public assembly. 


The
unpaid labor that tutors and students put into this assembly goes beyond the
institution and its crooked bureaucratic vertical system. A grassroots model of
resistance was born in May 2021, and as it works itself into demands against
the institution, it is as well a model to be directed towards all systems of
power. 


 In the
pursuit of a
collective sense of responsibility and
ongoing transformation of the normative, the question remains, how do we draw
an enabling potential for change from that which constrains us? What questions must you ask yourself, if you are a student
or an employee in a museum, or a cultural practitioner in order to revolt? And
what questions must you ask yourself as a professor, a dean, a museum director,
in order to reform?


</description>
		
	</item>
		
		
	<item>
		<title>Diana Al Halabi</title>
				
		<link>https://sarmadmagazine.com/Diana-Al-Halabi</link>

		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Jan 2022 17:07:49 +0000</pubDate>

		<dc:creator>Sarmad</dc:creator>

		<guid isPermaLink="true">https://sarmadmagazine.com/Diana-Al-Halabi</guid>

		<description>︎︎︎
About Diana
Diana Al-Halabi Born in Lebanon, 1990, Diana is now a Rotterdam-based Artist. She pursues an interdisciplinary practice, with a focus on moving image, text, and painting. Her autoethnographic research-based projects are at the core of her practice. Departing from the personal to the political, and through an intersectional feminist lens, Al-Halabi explores notions such as the patriarchal gaze, cognitive anthropometry, top-down structures of power, and freedom of movement.
︎ ︎ 


</description>
		
	</item>
		
	</channel>
</rss>