Ahmet Ögüt’s Stones to Throw, was an installation originally developed for Kunsthalle Lissabon, Portugal and then shown as part of the Biennale of Sydney in 2014. With this work, Öğüt adapted the tradition of nose art, the decorative paintings or designs on the fuselage of military aircrafts, which can be seen as a form of aircraft graffiti, to present a series of 10 painted stones that feature the same kind of designs seen in airplanes. Throughout the exhibition, and gradually, all of the stones, except the last one, were removed from display and sent to Diyarbakir, Öğüt’s hometown. The stones were received by a friend of the artist and left abandoned on the streets. Diyarbakir, located in southeast Turkey has witnessed an increase of children arrested on charges of stone throwing.
Ögüt instigated The Silent University in 2012 in response to an invitation from the Learning and Community Partnerships teams at Tate Modern while Ögüt was undertaking a year-long residency with the Delfina Foundation in London. Assuming the format of an academic programme, The Silent University launched at Tate Modern in November 2012 with lectures following weekly meetings. These included a session in Arabic on Arabic calligraphy led by Behnam Al Agzeer, a calligrapher from Iraq; a talk given in French on the process of consultation before surgery by B.N., a nurse from the Democratic Republic of Congo; a paper on sexually transmitted diseases and the history of HIV, delivered in Spanish by Mulugeta Fikadu from Eritrea; and a talk, in French, on accounting methods by B.K., an accountant from the Democratic Republic of Congo. After registering and completing a ‘Time and Skills Loan Form’, online users were given a password providing access to all of the Silent University courses.
Tate Modern and Delfina Foundation provided support to the project, including the creation of a publication, temporary resource area, website and public events, all with a yellow-and-black design by the Turkish artist and graphic designer Vahit Tuna. The Silent University was later hosted by The Showroom in London. Since 2013, its branch in Sweden has been hosted by Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm, and involves partners such as FARR, The Swedish Network of Refugee Support Groups and other community centres. In 2014, the project was also established in Hamburg, Germany, initiated by Stadtkuratorin Hamburg in partnership with W3 – Werkstatt für internationale Kultur und Politik. Other events have also been held in Austria, France, Canada, Netherlands, and the United States. A year before, it won the Visible Award for art ‘in the social sphere that aims to produce and sustain socially engaged artistic practices in a global context’. (Matteo Lucchetti)
thesilentuniversity.org
ahmetogut.com
Text from Ahmet Ögüt, The Silent University, Multiple locations, worldwide (2012 – ongoing) in Claire Doherty’s edited volume Out of Time, Out of Place, Public Art (Now).
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About Situations Situations is an internationally renowned arts producer, based in Bristol. Situations opens up the potential for artists to make extraordinary ideas happen in unusual and unexpected places, inspiring audiences and participants to explore new horizons. Our work is guided by our core values: the arts have the capacity to change and enrich how we see, and act in, the world; artists should be trusted and supported to experiment and innovate; and spaces outside conventional arts venues offer rich and rewarding contexts in which this can happen.
Funding credits Public Art (Now) has been made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Cultural Value programme, European Cultural Programme, Paul Hamlyn Foundation Breakthrough Award, Public Art Agency Sweden and the European Network of Public Art Producers.
