Leeds City Museum, 6th March

Beyond Borders is a symposium that will coincide with the opening of the Between Kismet and Karma: South Asian Women Artists Respond to Conflict exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery, 6th March – 8th May.

The symposium and exhibition are part of the wider Between Kismet and Karma programme, which explores how women artists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka respond to conflict as it operates within different but interconnecting sites: Bodies / Cities; Borders / Nation; Artist / Artisan / Activist. This pioneering and multifaceted programme has been conceived through a curatorial partnership between Shisha, the international agency for contemporary South Asian crafts and visual arts, and the University of Leeds, and enabled by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellowship. Taking place nationwide between February and May 2010, it includes the symposium, the exhibition, an artist residency series and film festival.

The symposium, Beyond Borders, will bring together academics, art critics, activists and South Asian artists to debate the themes and concerns that guide the exhibition’s curatorial agenda. Panels will explore the following topics:
• The South Asian woman artist as creative producer and activist, responding to multiple sites of conflict: the city, the nation and the body
• Diasporic South Asian audiences and cultural flows in multiple localities
• The potential of the arts as a means of fostering global and local partnerships across educational, creative and cultural sectors
• The implications of such strategic partnerships for emergent Knowledge Exchange and Impact agendas within the HEI landscape

Selected speakers and panellists from South Asia, USA and the UK include: cutting-edge documentary filmmaker, Paromita Vohra (Bombay); cultural/arts advocate and researcher, Irna Qureshi (Bradford); acclaimed writer Aamer Hussein (London); leading and experimental artists Tayeba Begum Lipi (Dhaka), Naiza H. Khan (Karachi) and Priya Sen (New Delhi); Dr Marta Bolognani, University of Bristol and Professor Kim Knott, Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds.

Tickets* (inclusive of lunch):
£40 organisations
£20 individuals
£15 discounted rate (students, unemployed, disabled and senior citizens)

*An additional transaction fee may be charged depending on payment method

Delegates will be invited to a special view of the Between Kismet and Karma exhibition on Saturday 6 March from 5–6pm at Leeds Art Gallery.

For booking enquiries and payments please contact Pippa Kenyon-Leigh, Project Coordinator at Shisha:
Email: pippa@shisha.net
Tel: 0161 838 5253

For further information regarding the Between Kismet and Karma programme please visit www.shisha.net for details.