Please join artist, musician, and writer Hassan Khan for an online public program as part of the DARC Studio Visit series, moderated by curator Fatma Hendawy, where they discuss some of the artist’s recent work and related themes in his practice more broadly.
This event is co-presented in community partnership with Images Festival.
Why are a short video, a music track, a sculpture, a film and a survey exhibition all titled “Blind Ambition”? What parallels can be drawn between the phantasms of state power, contemporary essentialism and the current obsession with Artificial Intelligence? How are stuffed creatures related to the police function? Is the production of forms also a way of emptying them? Where does the contemporary grotesque find its power and how does it harvest political capital? And how do these ideas manifest themselves in works, exhibition design, forms of music production, and personal obsessions? In this hour-long session the artist will develop a series of propositions in relation to a selection of recent works in a variety of formats. The talk will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Hassan Khan is an artist, musician and writer. Recent solo exhibitions include: Blind Ambition at the Centre Pompidou (2022); The Keys to the Kingdom (2019) at the Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Host at the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (2018). Concert appearances include: MAXXI L’Aquila, Aquila; The Louvre Auditorium, Paris; Ruhrtriennale, Essen; Intonal Festival, Malmö; Guggenheim, New York; Maerz Musik, Berlin; DCAF, Cairo; and Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. Khan’s publications include an extensive anthology of his writings, An Anthology of Published and Unpublished Writings (2019), a novella, Twelve Clues (2016), a collection of short fiction, The Agreement (2011), amongst others. He has released two albums of original music, Superstructure EP with The Vinyl Factory, and tabla dubb with 100Copies. Khan is the winner of the Silver Lion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and a Professor of Fine Arts at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt. He lives and works between Cairo and Berlin.
Fatma Hendawy is an Egyptian-born curator based in Toronto. Hendawy holds an MFA in curatorial studies from the MVS Curatorial program, University of Toronto. She worked with many artists around the globe, including emerging and established artists such as Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Hiwa K, and Uriel Orlow. She participated in curatorial workshops (including Tate Intensive 2017), residencies (ProHelvetia and ZKU/Berlin) and curated several exhibitions in Egypt, UK, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Canada. Since 2008, Hendawy held different positions at the New Library of Alexandria, including Head of Permanent Exhibitions (2010-12). Recently she was the Assistant Curator at the AGYU, Toronto (2021-22). Hendawy’s curatorial practice focuses on investigating censored archives, questioning inaccessible histories, and navigating militarized spaces. Hendawy’s thesis exhibition (Overt: Militarization as Ideology) explored the deep entanglements of militarized ideologies and technologies, and how they manifest differently in both the western hemisphere and the Middle East.
*Image: Computer Generated Elementfrom 2013 (2019) and 2013 Curtain Remix (2021) used in various ways as an emblem and for promotional purposes for the exhibition Hassan Khan: Blind Ambition Curated by Marcella Lista and running at the Centre Pompidou from February 23 – April 25 2022. Courtesy of Hassan Khan.
