The Houses of Kal in Karachi, Cololmbo and Berlin bring together art and transdisciplinary practitioners whose work explores feminist, anti-fascist, anti-racist and queer possibility. The Houses of Kal are conceived as a collective and self-organized space in the making with a public programming and publishing outlet, from May to September 2021.

The Houses of Kal summon a multiplicity of approaches to learning, sharing, healing, and co-living as a collaborative practice with the aim of fostering community and solidarity, locally and across borders. The Houses gathers and co-produces discourse and praxis at the crossings of art-making, queer and decolonial feminisms, and eco-politics with an emphasis on collaboration and care for each other’s practices.

With A Frei, Arshia Fatimah Haq of Discostan, Ayesha Alizeh, Ayesha Chaudhry, Aziz Sohail, Chathuri Nissansala, Ferdiansyah Thajib, Fiza Khatri, Floating Space, Hema Shironi & Sabeen Omar, Karachi La Jamia, knowbotiq, NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, Nuray Demir, Promona Sengupta, Sadia Khatri, Sandev Handy, Seher Naveed, Promona Sengupta, Muhanned Cader, Sharmini Pereira, Printmaking Lab Colombo, Sakina Aliakbar, Sehan Khanna, Sophia-Layla Afsar, Tehreem Mela, The Many Headed Hydra, Vera Ryser, Venuri Perera, Vicky Shahjehan, Vasi Udurawane, Veenadari Lakshika, We Are From Here, Zahabia Khozema, a.o.

House of Kal, Berlin

With Zubaan Books, Vicky Shahjahan, Venuri Perera, Vassiliea Stylianidou aka Franck-Lee Alli-Tis, Umair Khan, The Many Headed Hydra, Tara Rani, Tamara Fernando, Suza Husse, SS Beben, SoundSysters, Shahana Rajani & Zahra Malkani, Sandev Handy, Sadia Khatri, Raed Yassin, radio kal, Promona Sengupta, Omer Wasim & Saira Sheikh, Nuray Demir, Najia Sabahat Khan, Lucas Odahara, Katusa Medusa, Kallia Kefala, Fiza Khatri, Fatimah Asgar, Emma Wolf Haugh, Aziz Sohail, Aziza Ahmad, Arshia Fatima Haq/Discostan, Archive Books, A Frei, and guests.

Residents

Promona Sengupta is an academic, an activist and a curator based in Berlin. She co-founded Mo’Halla along with Jyothidas KV and Prabhas Tripathy, a pop-up space for progressive art, culture and politics. During her 9-month studio and research grant in the frame of kal she draws inspiration from worldbuilding, science fiction and anticolonial activism to engage in exercises in liberatory speculation. With Speaking Barnacular: Watery Sanctuaries she proposes to look at swimming, flotation and altered states of human consciousness under water as socio-politically rooted practices of dissident history and material culture.

Venuri Perera is a choreographer, performance artist and curator from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her works have dealt with violent nationalism, patriarchy, border rituals, colonial heritage, and class. Her solos and collaborative creations have been shown in Europe, South and East Asia. Since 2017, she has been exploring the power dynamics of gaze, sensuality and anonymity. Currently, she is searching for ways to create conditions for radical love and compassion in her work and life. Although mostly failing, she remains optimistic. She is currently based in Amsterdam and a participant at DAS Theatre.

Arshia Fatima Haq (born in Hyderabad, India) works through film, visual art, performance, and sound, in feminist modes outside of the Western model. She is interested in counterachives and speculative narratives, and is currently exploring themes of embodiment, mysticism, indigenous and localized knowledge within the context of Sufism. She is the founder of Discostan, a collaborative decolonial project and record label working with cultural production from South and West Asia and North Africa. She hosts and produces monthly radio shows on Dublab and NTS. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at museums, galleries, nightclubs, and in the streets.

House of Kal Berlin unfolds in trans*oceanic correspondences and collaboration with the Houses of Kal Karachi and Colombo. Each of these spaces bring together art practitioners whose work explores feminist, anti racist, anti fascist and queer possibility. House of Kal Karachi are resident artists Ayesha Alizeh, Ayesha Chaudhry, Sehan Khanna, Sophia-Layla Afsar, Tehreem Mela with curators Fiza Khatri and Zahabia Kozema. House of Kal Colombo are resident artists Chathuri Nissansala, Vicky Shahjehan, Vasi Udurawane, Veenadari Lakshika, Hema Shironi & Sabeen Omar with curators Sandev Handy and Sakina Aliakbar.

Exhibition

8 July – 24 August
Tidal KoHabitat for Post-Patriarchal Futures
a breathing space interlacing Lucas Odahara’s “Lingual” sculptures and tongues with The Many Headed Hydra’s “Rituals” soft architecture by Emma Wolf Haugh
Works and offerings by Arshia Fatima Haq/Discostan, Fiza Khatri, Lucas Odahara, Nuray Demir, Omer Wasim & Saira Sheikh, Shahana Rajani & Zahra Malkani, SS Beben & Promona Sengupta, The Many Headed Hydra, Vassiliea Stylianidou aka Franck-Lee Alli-Tis, Venuri Perera, Vicky Shahjahan and guests.

Opening hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 3 pm on gathering days and performance evenings

Gatherings and Conversations

29 July, from 6 pm
celebration ceremony for Tidal KoHabitat for Post-Patriarchal Futures
with works and offerings by Arshia Fatima Haq/Discostan, Fiza Khatri, Lucas Odahara, Nuray Demir, Omer Wasim & Saira Sheikh, Shahana Rajani & Zahra Malkani, SS Beben & Promona Sengupta, The Many Headed Hydra, Vassiliea Stylianidou, Venuri Perera, Vicky Shahjahan and guests.

29 July, 7 pm
queer politics of crossing and liquifying time and space
Promona Sengupta, Vassiliea Stylianidou aka Franck-Lee Alli-Tis and Venuri Perera in conversation
moderated by Aziz Sohail & Suza Husse of The Many Headed Hydra

5 August, 7 pm
temporary community as decolonial practice
Arshia Fatima Haq of Discostan, Lucas Odahara, The Many Headed Hydra
moderated by Aziz Sohail

11 August 6 pm – 7 pm
Artist talk with Mahmoud Khaled
(note: this talk will take place online via Zoom)

Performances

10 August, 6 – 7.30 pm
Speculative Roadside Maduwa Ninja Kesel Fame Bitches Alphabet (working title)
A Performance in Public Space by Nuray Demir and Venuri Perera

10 August, 8 pm
Sama: The Divine Listening Room
Performance & installation by Arshia Fatima Haq with Raed Yassin

Workshops

21 June – 2 August
Rituals for Coastal Commons
Collaborative DIY video zine workshop with The Many Headed Hydra

8 – 11 July
radio kal hosts: SoundSysters’ Level 1 PA – Live Mixing Workshops
by and for FLINT* (women, lesbians, intersex, non binary and trans*) people

11 & 13 July
Space Debris and Shrine Capsule Sculpting
Worldbuilding workshop on Spaceship Beben with Kosmik Skulptress Kallia, Captain Pro and Nav Chief Hydra

3 – 5 August, 12 am – 3 pm
radio kal TOOLING#3: Relational Listening Composing Workshop
with A Frei

The Houses of Kal are part of the trans*oceanic platform a language where yesterday and tomorrow are the same word. kal co-initiated by Aziz Sohail and The Many Headed Hydra.

a language where yesterday and tomorrow are the same word. kal is a collaboration with Archive Books, COCA Collective Colombo, District*School Without Center, Goethe Institut Sri Lanka, Goethe Institut Pakistan, IVS Gallery Karachi and Zubaan Books supported by the Department for Culture and Europe in the Berlin Senate, Goethe Institut South Asia, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and ifa.

Team House of Kal Berlin: The Many Headed Hydra/Emma Wolf Haugh (scenography), SoundSysters (sound), Promona Sengupta (studio and research grant), oax_constructions/ Winnie Olbrich, Serra Oner & Anne Hierzi (technical team), Nino Halka (production support), Johanna Ekenhorst (communication), Aziz Sohail & The Many Headed Hydra/Suza Husse (curators), Aziza Ahmad/Archive Books (design), Anneli Schütz (finances).

The Houses of Kal Colombo and Karachi are curated and cared for collectively by Aziz Sohail, Fiza Khatri, Sandev Handy and The Many Headed Hydra with curatorial support from Sakina Aliakbar,  Zahabia Khozema and the team of District*School Without Center.

House of Kal Berlin continues in Winter (November and December 2021) at District*School Without Center with trans*oceanic transmissions from House of Kal Karachi and House of Kal Colombo as well as contributions by fehras publishing practices, knowbotiq, Ferdiansyah Thajib, Aroh Akunth, and the contributors and editors of kal RITUALS.