Encounters is series of talks and symposiums organized in Palestine, Amman, Beirut, and London, under the umbrella of Qi2016. See the programme below:

ENCOUNTERS: RAMALLAH

Sunday, 9 October 2016

Venue: Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah 

09:00 - 09:30 | Registration 

09:30 - 10:00 | Welcome Note & Introduction:  Jack Persekian

10:00 - 12:00 | 'Sites of Return: On Re-growth, restlessness, re-construction'    

Introduction: Sahar Qawasmi & Beth Stryker

Chairperson: Rawan Sharaf                          

Speakers: Rheim Alkadhi, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Shela Sheikh

As a prelude to the opening of the Ramallah Municipality's exhibition Sites of Return, this program invites an encounter between artist Rheim Alkadhi, academic Shela Sheikh, and translator and researcher Irmgard Emmelhainz, reflecting across disciplines on  issues of return. With presentations by Rheim Alkadhi on borders, mobility, and perpetual migration; Shela Sheikh on artistic research, 'green imperialism' and reparations; and Irmgard Emmelhainz on communal being, and an ethical reconstruction of peoples. 

Organized by: Ramallah Municipality

12:00 - 13:00 | Lunch Break 

13:00 - 15:00 | 'Rhythm'n'Politics - The Mobility of Images'             

Chairperson:  Nat Muller                          

Speakers: Sven Augustijnen, Ayesha Hameed  (via Skype), Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Marcel Schwierin,  Nida Sinnokrot

Within the context of the Young Artist of the Year Award 2016, the A.M. Qattan Foundation and its guest curator Nat Muller present a combined screening and panel event: 'Rhythm'n'Politics' and 'The Mobility of Images'. 'Rhythm'n'Politic', curated by Marcel Schwierin, is the first in a series of three (The Politics of Rhythm, The Politics of Repetition, The Politics of Patterns). It explores the emancipatory potential of images through rhythm. The panel 'The Mobility of Images' will query how images 'travel' in times when borders, be they territorial or ideological, are ever more shrinking.   

Organized by: A.M. Qattan Foundation     

15:00 - 15:30 | Coffee Break 

15:30 - 17:30 | 'The Palestinian Museum in Context: The Role of  Museums Worldwide in the Early 21st Century.'     

Moderator: Jonathan Tubb

Speakers: Suay Aksoy, Reem Fadda, Mahmoud Hawari

Utilizing social change and advances in technology,  museums worldwide have been improving  programmes to enhance visitors' experience. Aware of  these changes, The Palestinian Museum will present  new perspectives on these issues.

Organized by: The Palestinian Museum                

Thursday, 13 October 2016

Venue: Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah

09:00 - 09:30 | Registration  

Welcome Note | Tina Sherwell 

09:30 - 11:00 | 'Returning and Everyday Politics'

Panel Chairperson:  Yazid Anani                          

Speakers: Asef Bayat, Adania Shibli, Salim Tamari

The claims, rights and resolving of 'Return' on a political level have been stagnant for decades, and only possible via either international and Israeli political channels, or through an abrupt revolution and change in the Middle East. In light of the persistence of this status quo, this panel investigates the notion of everyday politics as a key to agency and change within the shattered state of social development in Palestine, combined with the absence of a collective political project, a frail authoritarian regime, and religion as a creed to social and political culture. 'Return' is thus examined through the lens of everyday politics and different forms of creative agency and engagement with memory.

11:00 - 12:00 | Azra Akšamija in conversation with Benji Boyadgian

Organized by: International Academy of Art Palestine in collaboration with Birzeit University Museum & Zentrum Moderner Orient

12:00 - 13:00 | Lunch Break 

13:00 - 15:00 | 'Haunted Palestine'

Panel Chairperson: Lara Khaldi                           

Speakers: Hamza As'ad, Jumana Emil Abboud   & Issa Freij, Chiara De Cesari

This panel is motivated by artist Jumana Emil Abboud's practice and her engagement with Palestinian folklore, as well as the contemporary complexities around archive building in Palestine. The discussion will explore the history of research and knowledge production around Palestinian folklore  and how it returns in different forms during specific  historical moments. Chiara De Cesari will speak about the political history of Palestinian folklore and heritage in the Palestinian national imagination.  Jumana Emil Abboud and Issa Freij will be addressing the stories and the sites they came across while scouting for the locations of the haunted water wells described in Tawfiq Canaan's Haunted Springs and  Water Demons in Palestine (1922), and presented in  their new (and ongoing) video work Hide Your Water  from the Sun. Hamza As'ad will be foregrounding  a critique of Tawfiq Canaan's practice and his  contribution to an orientalist image of Palestine.

Organized by:  Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center

15:00 - 15:30 | Coffee Break

15:30 - 17:30  | 'Stuck in 2nd Gear: Encountering the 1990s' 

Welcome Note:  Riwaq

An open floor discussion, introduced and chaired by Dr. Salim Tamari

The 1990s was a special time and space in Palestine.  It was an era of dreams of autonomy that would not materialize. It is a space which has been either shrinking or fragmented. It is also a generation, whose grandmothers lived the Nakba and whose mothers witnessed the Naksa, and they themselves lived the First Intifada, and have contributed, in one way or another, to the nation/state building processes as we live it today. In spite of the shortcomings and failures of that era, young Palestinians who were born a little before and after the 1990s did not share these processes, paradigms or speculations.  Instead, they were born into it to embody and embrace. This is applicable to paradigms related to heritage, education, medical care, culture, security, homeland, justice, the right of return, autonomy... 

As the 1990s is now almost a generation away from the here and now, are we able to pause and reflect on paradigms, approaches and processes related to our practices in our respective fields? This encounter is about encountering/workshopping ourselves and our institutions in a reflexive manner, and opening  legitimate and just intergenerational debates about  the past, present and future.

Organized by:  RIWAQ - Center for Architectural Conservation

ENCOUNTERS: JERUSALEM

Friday, 14 October 2016

Venues: Palestinian Child Center & Al Ma'mal Foundation, Jerusalem

13:30 | Registration

14:00 - 16:00 | 'Sacred Sites'   

Venue: Palestinian Child Center, Shu'fat refugee camp      

Speakers: This panel features an exchange in cinematic language between the Karrabing Film Collective from north Australia and Ramallah film group Subversive Cinema, as well as others.

The first Jerusalem 'Encounter' features an exchange in cinematic language between the Karrabing Film Collective from north Australia, and the Subversive Film collective. Karrabing Film Collective is a group of Aboriginal Australian filmmakers whose work has rapidly risen to national and international prominence through their innovative cinema style of 'improvisational realism'. In this mode, the group collectively scripts and improvises characters based upon their own lives. For Karrabing, production is a strategy in action; a tool to analyse contemporary settler colonialism, and through these depictions to challenge its grip. Karrabing productions often hone in upon the conflictual legal and eco-social category of the 'sacred site' in Australia, which is used to control property, lands and peoples. Subversive Film is a cinema research and production initiative that aims to cast new light upon historic film works related to Palestine and the region, to engender support for film preservation, and to investigate archival practices and effects. Subversive Film was formed in 2011 by Mohanad Yaqubi, Reem Shilleh and Nick Denes and is based in Ramallah and London. The event will mark Karrabing's first international journey with their film.

Organized by: Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art

16:00 - 16:30 | Coffee Break 

18:00 - 20:30 Tent Embassy: Enduring Nations

Venue: Al Ma'mal Foundation

The Tent Embassy takes place as an activation of Richard Bell's Aboriginal Tent Embassy, hosted on the rooftop of Al Ma'mal as part of the Jerusalem Show VIII: 'Before and After Origins'. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a forty-year-old protest that galvanizes the land rights and sovereignty movements in Australia through the powerful image of an embassy facing Parliament House in Canberra. In Jerusalem the event will host an evening of art and dialogue (in Arabic and English) on the relations between the sovereign cultural projects of Palestine, the Golan Heights, Aboriginal Australia and South Africa, among others.

Speakers : This panel features an evening of art and dialogue on the relations between the sovereign cultural projects of Palestine, Golan Heights, Aboriginal Australia and South Africa, among others. It is an activation by Richard Bell's Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

For bus arrangements please contact us on info@almamalfoundation.org or (0) 2 628 3457 for more information

ENCOUNTERS: BETHLEHEM

Saturday 15 October 2016

Venues: Campus in Camps, Al Finiq garden, Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem

18:00 | Registration

18:20 | Welcome Note: Muhammad Khalil Al Lahham

18:30 - 20:30 | 'Detour I: Dheisheh Refugee Camp'   

Speakers: Isshaq Al-Barbary, Aysar Al-Saifi,  Ayat Al-Turshan, Murad Odeh

For many, refugee camps are only considered as sites of social marginalization and humanitarian intervention. Refugees are, to an extent, perceived by the international community and its organizations as passive subjects and victims, helplessly waiting for assistance. Consequently one of the pressing challenges the camps face today is that many within this community have come to internalize such a discourse, in contradiction with a community that has sought self-determination and autonomy. 'Detour I' aims to challenge such perceptions by de-touring and re-experiencing the camp and by focusing on  aspects of these spaces that have been strengthened,  such as collective sites established by the community  themselves. This in turn provides the opportunity to represent and experience the camp in a different way, away from the idea of passivity and poverty and, rather, giving the camp its own prerogative for its historic achievements        

Organized by: Dar Al-Kalima University College of Arts  & Culture in collaboration with Campus in Camps,  Al-Finiq Center, and the Popular Committee of  Southern Refugee Camp.

ENCOUNTERS: BEIRUT

Tuesday, 11 October 2016

Venue:  Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture, America St., Clemenceau.

18:30-20:30 | 'Sea of Stories: Voyages of the Palestinian Archives'

Speakers:  Ahmad Barclay & Hana Sleiman

Organized by: Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture

The story of the archives of the Palestinian national movement reveals a narrative of exile and fragmentation that reflects the Palestinian experience itself. Building on archival and ethnographic research, this project will reconstruct the journeys of these archives across the Mediterranean, connecting locations including Beirut, Haifa, Algeria, Cyprus and Italy. The project explores how much of these archives has been lost, why the remaining fragments are yet to be repatriated, and the ramifications of an archival absence on Palestinian narratives of past, present and future.                          

ENCOUNTERS: AMMAN

Saturday, 22 October 2016

Venue:  Darat al Funun-The Khalid Shoman Foundation, 13 Nadeem  al Mallah St, Jabal Al Weibdeh

18:30-20:30 

Panel: Yazan Khalili in conversation with artists Hani Alqam, Jehad al Ameri, Mo'awia Bajis, Raed Ibrahim, Saba Innab, Mohammad Shaqdih and Adnan Yahya.

Ramallah-based artist and curator Yazan Khalili will cross the borders of separation to join those in exile for a talk on Saturday 22 October 2016 together with  all the participating artists exhibiting at Darat al  Funun as part of Qalandiya International's This Sea is Mine.

Organized by:  Darat al Funun-The Khalid Shoman Foundation

ENCOUNTERS: LONDON

Saturday, 29 October 2016

Venue: The Mosaic Rooms, A.M. Qattan Foundation, 226 Cromwell Road, SW5 0SW

14:00-17:00 Panel: 'This Sea is Mine'

Welcome note : Nasser Golzari, Yara Sharif and Manuel Hassassian

This one-day symposium will bring together a diverse group of architects, artists, filmmakers and professionals to discuss the theme of the This Sea is Mine. The event includes a series of short presentations by the artists and creators of Qalandiya International London, who will share their work and ideas about 'Moments of Possibilities: Air, Land and Sea'. The symposium will question the role of artists and professionals within the complex political and economic structures that exist in Palestine, exploring whether alternatives can be offered, especially a new geography emerging from the sea, which might help to mend the fractures. Notions of 'home', waiting,  'return', absent narratives, nation states and other subjects raised by the exhibits will also be explored.                           

Chairpersons: Nasser Golzari and Yara Sharif                          

Presenters:  Pecha Kucha presentations by: Bisan Abu Eisheh, Matthew Beaumont, Sarah Beddington, Andreas Christodoulou, Nassos Hadjipapas, Judy Price, Naoko Takahashi, Claire Humphreys. 

Roundtable Discussion Panel: with Salem Al-Qudwa, Yazid Anani, At Home in London and Gaza, Anthony Downey, Matt Gaskin, Nasser Golzari, Harriet Harris,  Manuel Hassassian, Robert Mull, Yara Sharif, Michael Sorkin, Yahya Zaloom (Yazid Anani and Michael Sorkin will be participating  via video link from Ramallah and New York)

Organized by:  Palestine Regeneration Team (PART) in collaboration with The Mosaic Rooms