Fehras Publishing Practices: “Hader Halal” (With Regard to Presence)

OSUN's Center for Human Rights and the Arts and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School present a webinar with Sami Rustom and Kenan Darwich of Fehras Publishing Practices, who will share their research into the history and presence of publishing and its entanglement in the sociopolitical and cultural sphere in the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Arab diaspora.

Engaging various methods and modes of production, the Fehras collective focuses on the relationship between publishing and knowledge production. Their practice is concerned with the role of translation as a tool facing cultural domination in its traditional and modern forms, as well as a tool for creating solidarity and deconstructing colonial power. The collective’s investigations and queer interventions into narratives take place at public libraries, book markets, and in private and institutional collections.

Since 2022, Rustom and Darwich have been running Fehras Publishing Practices and collaborating in their projects with cultural workers from their community. Fehras investigates a wide range of cultural and geographical landscapes in order to explore historical representations, the notion of the past in the present, and using archives for producing knowledge. Fehras initiates installations, films, publications and lectures aiming to extend the notion of publishing. Recent exhibitions include Documenta 15, The Mosaic Rooms, Haus der Statistik, Ural Industrial Biennial, Crac Occitanie, MMAG, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Sharjah Biennial, and Kunsthal Aarhus.

Register to join online