[URPE] [NYC] [Brechtevents1] Disappeared in America Exhibition Opening, Panel, Fundraiser Friday 8/5

Wed Aug 3 18:18:11 MDT 2005

  P L E A S E     F O R W A R D    W I D E L Y

The Brecht Forum
451 West St. (West Side Hwy betw Bank & Bethune 1-1/2 blocks north of W. 
11th)
NY, NY 10014

1,9,2,3 A,C to 14th st.
(212) 242- 4201
www.brechtforum.org
__________________________________________________________________________
In this email:
1.) 5pm 'Disappeared in America' Exhibition Opening --description + review
     (previously exhibited @ Queens Museum of Art)
2..) 7pm Panel Discussion: Arts and Activism in Age of Crisis
3.) 8pm Fundraiser for Detainees: Speakers (Family members of 
detainees), Multicultural Music Extravaganza
_________________________________________________________________________
Friday, August 5
5 PM-11PM

5 PM: DISAPPEARED IN AMERICA exhibition (VISIBLE Collective) 

Exhibiting from Aug 5-Aug 30

Since 9/11, thousands of Muslim immigrants were detained in a security 
dragnet. The majority of those detained were from the invisible 
underclass of cities like New York. They are the recent immigrants who 
drive our taxis, deliver our food, clean our restaurant tables, and sell 
fruit, coffee, and newspapers. The only time we see their faces are when 
we glance at the hack license in the taxi partition, or the ID card 
around the neck of a vendor.

Already invisible in our cities, after detention, they have become 
"ghost prisoners." In this, there are eerie parallels to past 
witch-hunts, including the 1919 detention of 10,000 immigrants after 
anarchists bombed the Attorney General's home; the 1941 internment of 
110,000 Japanese-Americans; the trial and execution of the Rosenbergs; 
and the HUAC Black-listing under Senator Joseph McCarthy. While our work 
started in the American context, we have expanded to look at Europe, in 
recognition that anti-immigrant xenophobia, coupled with Islamophobia (a 
more acceptable shorthand for "dark masses"), is not a new or uniquely 
American phenomenon.

VISIBLE, is a collective of Muslim and other Artist-Activists, that 
created the DISAPPEARED IN AMERICA project. DISAPPEARED is a 
walk-through installation that uses film, soundscape, images, 
installations and lectures to humanize the faces of post 9/11 
"disappeared" Muslims. It is also a traveling, multimedia lecture that 
has been shown in Stuttgart (with Walid Raad/Atlas Group), London (with 
Otolith Group), New York (Queens Museum of Art), Stockholm (Finnish 
Embassy), Helsinki (Kiasma Museum) and other cities.

The following review was written by Ben Davis while the installation was 
at the Queens Museum of Art:

The name of the group is Visible. Their installation is entitled 
"Disappeared in America." There is something powerful about the 
insistence of the theme of visibility in the words the group uses, as if 
urgently repeating a message. The installation appears as part of the 
Queens Museum of Art's current "Fatal Love" show, an exhibition that 
highlights the works of South Asian artists. "Disappeared in America," 
however, has a life all its own. Physically, it has a presence that 
dominates, the tension between its various multimedia 
components-including film presentations, soundscapes, and multimedia 
sculpture-building the sense of an urgent conversation that the viewer 
must participate in. Conceptually, it has a range that goes beyond the 
walls of the museum. The Visible collective that put the work together 
is an association of some fifteen artists, writers and thinkers, united 
around a common cause: raising awareness about the effects of the 
post-9/11 crack-down that has threatened the civil liberties of 
Muslim-Americans.

Visible's Naeem Mohaiemen explains that the seed of the project began 
with a film project on a Pakistani man detained after 9/11, screened at 
Rooftop Films' "Against Empire" festival. However, there was a sense of 
dissatisfaction with the results, both in terms of the audience 
reactions, and in terms of a sense of 'preaching to the choir.' "We were 
not able to convey all the complexities of the post 9/11 crackdown," 
Mohaiemen recounts. "So we wanted to expand into a film trilogy and 
multimedia installation, which would use photos, text, objects, sounds, 
etc. to sketch the contours of an entire community that is disappearing. 
We also wanted to place it in a very democratic museum space, which 
would get many people who would not otherwise ever come to a work of 
political art."

The artists knew that their efforts had to be not only humanizing, but 
to find ways to make their political message visceral and involving to a 
wider audience. For example, of the three video pieces in the show, 
"Patriot Story" is a poetic meditation, layering a voiceover of one 
detained man over stark, floating images of streetscapes. Another film 
piece entitled "Lingering: Twenty," on the other hand, takes an almost 
comic view of the situation, focusing on the surreal idea of people 
simply 'disappearing' from their lives."The problem here is 
multi-dimensional and so the representation of this spectrum of 
experiences had to be multifaceted," Sehban Zaidi explained.

This nuanced approach to their theme crystallizes in what is in many 
ways the centerpiece of "Disappeared in America," a sculptural work 
composed of two light boxes, covered in rice. As viewers interact with 
the piece, brushing aside the rice, they uncover two texts. One is the 
names of the disappeared. The other is made of various legal texts that 
have been used to detain them.This work nicely allegorizes what Visible 
hopes to accomplish with its work: to induce people to become involved 
in the quest to bring visibility to the hidden forces that affect 
Muslim-Americans.

More information is available at www.disappearedinamerica.org.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7 PM: PANEL DISCUSSION on Arts & Activism in Age of Crisis

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8 PM: FUNDRAISER:  America's Civil Liberties Crisis: Respond with Music 
and Solidarity!

FUNDRAISER FOR TWO TEENAGERS UNJUSTLY DETAINED &
accused of being a threat to national security
Tashnuba Hyder (Bangladesh): detained and deported with family
Adama Bah (Guinea): detained and eventually released, all charges dropped

Former detainee Adama Bah, NYT 7/25/05
Family and friends of Tashnuba & Adama talk about the case

Followed by a Multicultural Extravaganza including:
        Bengali musicians from the Bangladeshi Institute of performing Arts
        Guinean musicians (Ahmadou Bah & Others)
        Classical Musicians Including pianist tomoya kano
        Classical Indian Dance (Samita of KAASH)
        Spoken word artists, Others TBA; Film Clips

For more info iamourhaj at aol.com or call or 917 602 4450  All proceeds 
will be divided by the two families!

Emergency Families Fund / CAIR
c/o 9-11 relief program / Adem Carroll
166-26 89th Avenue
Jamaica, NY, 11432
Donations are tax exempt www.cair-ny.org

-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: file:///Macintosh%20HD/Temporary%20Items/nsmail.txt
URL: <http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/pipermail/urpe-announcements/attachments/20050803/23e97ba6/attachment.txt>