Doors: 17:30
Seated event
The conversation will be held in Norwegian.
Practical info: Allow extra time for use of wardrobe; large bags, food and drink cannot be taken into the exhibition area.
The ticket gives access to all exhibitions.
"We have long focused on including young people with a multicultural background in the museum institutions, but we have overlooked the elderly. This is a unique chance to invite the first generation that came to Norway to explore contemporary art.”
- Ifrah Osman
How do different cultural perspectives and different languages affect how we interpret works of art? What role does dialogue play in encounters with art? What happens when we open up to a richer multilingualism in the Norwegian art institutions? In this conversation, we will delve deeper into these questions with Bassel Hatoum and Mehwish Dar. The conversation will be moderated by Ifrah Osman.
For the fourth edition of SOLO OSLO, Ifrah Osman has developed a dissemination project about the role of language in the face of art, which explores what happens when people are allowed to use their own mother tongue in conversations and reflections on artworks and exhibitions.
Osman has arranged a series of tours at MUNCH, where the aim has been to bring together parents with a multicultural background, who have adult children who are interested in or work in the field of art and culture. The tours are divided into three language groups, Urdu, Persian and Somali, with the participants' mother tongue used throughout the project. The tours are developed and held by interpreters, which creates a fertile environment for mutual reflection and dialogue. An important aspect of Osman's dissemination project is to make visible how the different languages highlight and deepen different meanings and nuances, and how this opens up more ways to talk about art.
Ifrah Osman is the mediator for the fourth edition of SOLO OSLO. Osman has a deep interest in exploring the interaction between people and art. She wants to develop methods that make art more accessible to a wider audience. Her approach involves addressing contentious topics through dialogue and including different groups in these processes.
Mehwish Dar has been one of the translators for all the guided tours in Urdu. She works as a digital strategist at Greenpeace Norway and is an active climate advocate. Additionally, she serves on the board of the Madina Institute, a small yet significant mosque, and leads a poetry club in collaboration with the activist-curated library, Assata. With a Pakistani cultural background, Dar was born and raised in Norway, and she is fluent in multiple languages, including Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Norwegian, and English.
Bassel Hatoum has an interdisciplinary background in social sciences and Middle East- studies, Arabic language and literature from Beirut and London. For several years, he has worked with issues related to human rights, equality, and discrimination. He is curator at Fotogalleriet for “Claiming space” and at Masahat for Arab Culture in Exile. Bassel is an experienced communicator and is passionate about accessibility in language and mediation.
Photo: Still from film documentation of Osman’s project. Spindel Film (c) MUNCH.
