ABHIVYAKTI: release and readings
15 March 13.00–15.30
The readings start at 13.30 

Skånes konstförening invites you to the release of the latest issue of ABHIVYAKTI, edited by Melanie Kitti and Iman Mohammed. This edition brings together voices in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Readings by:
Merima Dizdarević
Somaya El Sousi
Andrzej Tichý
Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld
Priya Bains
Sanna Helena Berger
Ali Alonzo
Ahsan Naseer

in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Arabic and English


“Homesickness, that was the theme this issue of ABHIVYAKTI took its starting point from. The feelings, images and thoughts this word would evoke for the contributors. In times of violence and war, the experience of homesickness intensifies, becoming abysmal. During the sketching phase of the issue the word transformed and became disjointed. And while this text was written, Gaza – the biggest city in Palestine, but by comparison about ¼ of Öland in size – has been nearly razed to the ground. Data retrieved from the UN satellite center on December 1st last year shows that 69 percent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged. Thinking about homesickness, about 426 000 of these structures were homes, corresponding to 92 percent of all homes in the region. 

The responsible are the Israeli government along with every country who has contributed to this destruction. Looking at images or videoclips from Gaza means looking at ruins for as far as the eye can see. They are images and clips of murdered and mutilated people, starving and traumatized people. Babies. Children. Teenagers. Babies. Children. Teenagers.

More than 47 000 people have been murdered, but the dark numbers are vast. 

IDF and illegal settlers perform daily attacks on the Westbank, Ramallah and Jerusalem, in other words, Palestinians are murdered and harmed there as well. 

A report from Amnesty International scrutinizes the arbitrary attacks committed by Israel – at all levels – in detail and concludes that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. 

Despite being aware of this, the outside world stays silent. It is an uncomfortable silence. But from it erupt attempts at breaking it. This issue, which now bears the theme Palestine, is such an attempt.” 

Melanie Kitti & Iman Mohammed, editors 

Welcome 


Bios:

Ali Alonzo (b. 2003) is a poet based in Stockholm. His debut collection Jag tänker bli äcklig was published by Nordstedt in 2024. 

Priya Bains (b. 1995) is a poet, essayist and editor of the journal Vinduet. She made her debut with the poetry collection Med restene av mine hender published by Forlaget Oktober in 2021. 

Sanna Helena Berger works with site- and situation-specific installations, situation aesthetics and post-institutional critique. Her work is informed by her extensive writing in which we understand the exhibition as its synthesis, whilst her monologues are performed as either a coupling discourse or an autonomous ‘composition’, often in non-disciplined form.

Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, PhD, is a visual artist, independent researcher, and educator. Working across media and in collaboration with others, her work explores the framework of “reparative critical practices,” which aim to create small acts of repair, resistance, and intervention in the cultural archive while building alternative infrastructures for art and culture. Her contribution to ABHIVYAKTI, VACUUM TIME, consists of notes written between Beirut and Copenhagen from January to November 2024.

Somaya El Sousi is a Palestinian poet and writer from Gaza (born 1974) who lives in Norway as a guest writer. She has published four poetry books in Arabic. Somaya El Sousi´s fifth book  “flöjt av mörker” was translated into Swedish by Hanna Hallgren, Jenny Tunedal and Anne Jansson and published by Ellerströms in 2024. 

Ahsan Naseer is a poet and anthropologist from the Kashmir region, writing queer poems and letters influenced by Sufi poets from South Asia, but especially Punjabi poets such as Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah. The poems often deal with myths, landscapes, shrines, magic, seduction, destruction and ecstasy. Ahsan’s texts are primarily dedicated to trans and queer people. 

Andrzej Tichý is a Swedish author based in Malmö. His latest novel Händelseboken was published by Albert Bonniers Förlag in 2024.

 

Palestine includes texts by: Nynne Roberta Pedersen Pedersen, Elis Monteverde Burrau, Johanne Lykke Naderehvandi, Sahar Seyedian, Samara Sallam, Laila Mote, Isabella Solar Villaseca, Ahsan Naseer, Javier Alvarez Sagredo, Ylva Gripfelt, Ida Helene Benonisen, Nattalie Ström Bunpuckdee, Ursula Andkjær Olsen, Dina El Kaisy Friemuth, Ali Alonzo, Priya Bains, Sanna Helena Berger, Channa Bianca , Channa Riedel, Judith Kiros, Balsam Karam, Nadia Maghder, Merima Dizdarević, Andrzej Tichý, Somaya El Sousi, Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Duaa Kamel and Line Gry Hørup.

Illustration: Samara Sallam
Graphic Design: Abirami Logendran