PECS22 PUBLIC PROGRAMS: SARA OUHADDOU WITH LILA NAZEMIAN

Protocinema presents a public program of artist talks, discussions, a film screening, and walkthroughs to accompany Now That We Have Established A Common Ground. The second event will be a conversation between the artist Sara Ouhaddou and curator Lila Nazemian, on the artist's works within the show and her ongoing research on the shared symbols of the Amazigh Moroccan and Jomon Japanese prehistoric civilization that were believed to have never been in contact. The event will be on Zoom, it will be recorded and available later on Protocinema channels.

Sara Ouhaddou’s practice is informed by the experience of growing up between different cultures. Her work addresses the various challenges facing artisan communities and investigates how art can be wielded as an instrument for economic, social, and cultural change. Ouhaddou often works together with craftsmen in Morocco, establishing a process of knowledge exchange. She confronts craftsmanship as well as her heritage with the codes of contemporary art in order to reveal the unknown and forgotten stories and realities of the communities she works with. The Arabic language is a significant theme in her work. She dissects the Arabic letters into abstract symbols, turning it into a language of its own, illegible to readers of Arabic but clearly reminiscent of Arabic. Just like the weavings in a Berber carpet can be deciphered, so do alphabets reveal the history of identities.

Lila Nazemian (she/her) is an independent curator and the Special Projects Curator at ArteEast in New York. Her research and curatorial practice are focused on reimagining approaches to early modern history from the SWANASA region in an effort to counter-narrative revisionism and collective amnesia. Recent curatorial projects include: "A Few In Many Places in New York," Protocinema, Governors Island New York, (2021); "I open my eyes and see myself under a tree laden with fruit that I cannot name," Center for Book Arts, New York (2020); "On Echoes of Invisible Hearts: Image Making and Popular Archiving in Times of Unrest," Station Beirut, (2019); "On Echoes of Invisible Hearts: Narratives of Yemeni Displacement," Poetry Project, Berlin (2018); and "Spheres of Influence," Mohsen Gallery, Tehran (2016). She received a B.A. in History from Scripps College, California; and an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from NYU, New York. She was a QAYYEM 2019 Curatorial Fellow, was among the inaugural participants of the 2018-2019 Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program in New York, and participated in ICI’s 2018 Curatorial Intensive in Bangkok.