by Omar Kholeif with an afterword by Lubaina Himid CBE RA
artPost21, a not-for-profit social enterprise operating at the nexus of art, creative technology and social justice and Sternberg Press, one of the world’s leading publishing houses for art and cultural criticism are pleased to announce the release of imagine/otherwise 2: Magda Stawarska by Omar Kholeif with an afterword by Lubaina Himid CBE RA.
Conceived as a modular score of evolving illustriously-designed “pocket sized” critical biographies on women artists, queer, and non-binary narratives, imagine/otherwise is a composition of accumulating portraits that reveals itself as it unfolds across space and time. The overall proposition of the series (to “imagine” a world “otherwise”) stems from the desire to find a different ways of writing and reading about art. Can art be examined unreservedly, unburdened of the limits imposed by the dominant hand of hegemony?
Volume II in the series marks the first monograph on the life and work of Polish-born, UK-based artist, Magda Stawarska. For nearly two decades, Stawarska has explored the threshold of memory, the sanctioned shape of history, and the active experience of listening. Through sound and performance, moving image, photography, painting, and printmaking, the artist unfolds overlooked and contested narratives of the past through her practice of “inner listening.”
In this cinematic portrayal, award-winning author, curator, and historian, Dr. Omar Kholeif, director of collections and senior curator, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, deftly weaves Stawarska’s inner and outer worlds—bearing witness to losses both personal and exterior, and considers, how these events are transformed into forums of and for salvation. Scripts and propositions; accents and voices are absorbed and expunged, performed and eradicated via Stawarska’s performing body, which transmutes across multiple borders.
Magda Stawarska (imagine/otherwise 2) is available to order now, directly from Sternberg Press here.
Watch a conversation between author Omar Kholeif and artists Magda Stawarska and Lubaina Himid, which is available to view here.
Magda Stawarsa (b. 1976 Ruda Śląska) is concerned with the role of women and the city—a lens that she deploys in print, paint, photography, sound and installation to explore the fine lines of what of is heard, performed, and received by citizens of the urban metropole. Stawarska has recently been the subject of several solo and two-person exhibitions including, DRIFT at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix Gallery, London and Plaited Time / Deep Water with Lubaina Himid, curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif at Sharjah Art Foundation (2023). A major European survey of her collaborative practice with Himid will be presented at MUDAM, Luxembourg in March 2024. Her installations have been presented at HOME, Manchester; at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and Villa Arson, Nice, the International Biennale of Casablanca, Morocco, York Art Gallery, New Museum, New York, Tate Modern, London, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and Leeds Art Gallery.
imagine/otherwise is a modular score conceived and queered as an act of “female worlding” and governed by a global advisory board whose members include: Skye Arundhati-Thomas, Goa / Zoe Butt, Chiang Mai / Carla Chammas, Beirut and New York / Alison Hearst, Fort Worth, Texas / Prof. Sarah Perks, Tees Valley, UK / Sofia Victorino, Lisbon.
imagine/otherwise is an artPost21 Production developed in collaboration with Sternberg Press, London. Volume I of imagine/otherwise focuses on the life and work of the Armenian Iranian American artist, Sonia Balassanian, one of the most significant artists to emerge from the New York art scene of the 1970s, authored by Omar Kholeif and edited by Rebecca Morrill.
Fall 2024 marks the release of imagine/otherwise 3: Lalitha Lajmi. This volume narrates an alternative tale of Indian modernism through lyric and prose by Skye Arundhati-Thomas with words and an annotated diary selections by Omar Kholeif.
In winter 2024, imagine/otherwise 4: Simone Fattal by Hans Ulrich Obrist with words by Dr. Omar Kholeif and Rasha Salti will be published.
Volumes V and VI will explore the lives of two longstanding ghosts who continue to haunt the corridors—the inner and outer orbits of our worlds. We look forward to announcing further information to you on these titles soon.
