ArkDes, Stockholm

The AL MADAFEH: THE RIGHT TO BE A HOST is a series of formal and informal events that took take place in Al-Madafeh: the room of hospitality in the exhibition space of Public Luxury at ArkDes during the fall of 2018.

Located between the domestic and the public sphere, Al-Madhafah, in Arabic, is the living room dedicated to hospitality. It has the potential to subvert the role of guest and host and give a different socio-political meaning to the act of hospitality. It seeks to mobilize the condition of permanent temporariness as an architectural and political concept able to challenge the binaries of inclusion and exclusion, public and private, guest and host. It activates the rights of temporary people to host and not to be eternally a guest, the right to claim life in the new destination but without feeling obliged to revoke the desire to belong to the life back home

The event-series further developed the two concepts: Al-Madhafah and Al-Mujawara. These are interconnected Arabic concepts: the former meaning the living room dedicated to hospitality and the latter the space dedicated to the act of neighbouring.

Al-Madhafah when opening itself to host the stranger guest, functions as a self- representational space, that has the potential to subvert the role of guest and host and give a different socio-political meaning to the act of hospitality. Behaving in the public space for foreigners, especially in a highly codified environment such as Sweden, is often a big challenge as they are expected to constantly perform the role of the “perfect guest”. Turning private spaces, such as the living rooms, into social and political arenas of self-representation, is one response to the lack of public representation and of the limitation of political agency in the public realm.

In a related way Mujawarah in Arabic means the space dedicated to the act of neighbouring, it is a form of being together based on the proximity of being neighbours. For the Palestinian Mullem ( teacher) Munir Fasheh, the Mujawarah is a form of organization where there is no hierarchy. Mujawarah is a medium of learning, a basic ingredient in the stitching together of the social-intellectual-spiritual fabric within communities. This embodies the spirit of regeneration in a most important aspect in life: learning. It demonstrates that another vision of being together and learning from each other is possible and crucial.

 

Friday, the 14th of September from 15.00-17.00
Introduction in Al-Madafeh the room of hospitality by Sandi Hilal, followed by a conversation about forms of knowledge production and their role in contermporary society:, with Mauricio Corbalan , Shahram Khosravi.

September 28th all day event with:
Tensta-Hjulsta Womens Center (Tensta –Hjulsta kvinnocenter). The center is a self- organized meeting place for women with diverse backgrounds, a place for sharing skills, learning languages and forming friendships and was founded in 1997 collaboration with a local resident group of women responding to the need of a meeting place where knowledge could exchange knowledge, practice Swedish both also break the feeling of isolation that many experience at that time. The center also offerd courses, counseling and child care. Today the center has more than 260 members from a variety of countries, cultural backgrounds and religions.
K.Ö.K (Kvinnor önskar Kollektivitet – Women Desire Collectivity) experiments with ways to build a feminist institution from within the existing community of The Women’s Centre in Tensta Hjulsta. Based on a process of exchange k.ö.k aims to highlight the politics within the daily routines of the center and the acts of resistance (often overlooked) that continually challenge and re-shape the community. k.ö.k is a context responsive institution taking care of the many different experiences that make up The Women’s Centre in Tensta-Hjulsta. Artistic methodologies are used to share this knowledge with a broader audience as well as to connect our experiences to broader political issues. K.ö.K is initiated by artist and Art professor Petra Bauer at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.

Friday 12th of October from 16.00-18.00
The introduction to Al-Madafeh, the room of hospitality, by Sandi Hilal will be followed by a conversation on forms of knowledge production and hospitality and their role in contemporary society with Elena Isayev and Staffan Müller-Wille.

Friday, October 19th from 16.00-17.00 half-day event with Children.
This event is centered around the notion of Hospitality in conversation with children and their families
Kids below 8 years old might struggle to follow up but they are welcome to join ad I’m sure we will find ways to involve them. After the conversation, as part of the experience, we will all be moving for dinner to another living room in Reimersholmsgatan 11.

Thursday, December 13th from 15.00-17.00
The introduction to Al-Madafeh, the room of hospitality, by Sandi Hilal will be followed by a conversation on forms of knowledge production and process of unlearning with Sepake Angiama.