MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Title: Constituting the Ummah - مأ

This presentation investigates the constitution of the collective body of Muslims and how they are addressed from within and without, as affected by the development of global capitalism from the classical period. There are 1.8 Billion Muslims, 25% of the world’s population. What is the form of identity that constitutes this diverse and dispersed community? As an artist, he proposes artworks as linguistic and aesthetic protocols that probe the contemporary formulation of Muslims and Islam worldwide. What are the modes of identification at the heart of this community? Raised a Muslim by Pakistani parents in the US in a mosque built on Ottoman archetypes, he draws on personal experience in his writing and artwork. This paper serves as a pedestal to the artworks developed specifically for the upcoming exhibition MONOCULTURE – A Recent History at M HKA.

Bio: Haseeb Ahmed is a research-based artist residing in Brussels. He produces objects, site-specific installations and films, and also writes for various publications. Often working collaboratively, Ahmed integrates methodologies from the hard sciences into his art production. In particular, he works with the wind and sometimes against it. His long-term collaboration with von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) in Brussels yielded The Wind Egg Trilogy. The project blends art and aeronautics, myth and technology, to create new narratives for the present. It was exhibited at the VKI, Harlan Levey Projects and M HKA. He has taught at the Zurich University of the Arts, Royal Academy of the Arts in the Hague, and Sint Lucas Antwerp School of Art and Design. Ahmed received his PhD. in practice-based art at the University of Antwerp and Sint Lucas Antwerp School of Art and Design and his Masters from the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ahmed has been a resident at La Becque Foundation, the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, and the Skowhegan among others. His work has exhibited internationally including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Gothenburg International Biennial of Contemporary Art, and De Appel in Amsterdam.