KNOT KNOW: Alina Kokoschka, “Scripted Ambiguities along the (Arabic) Line”, 8 October 2021
The Arabic Script is essential to Islam and Muslim life. Not only is it the script of a scripture, the holy Qur’an, it is itself considered holy and is believed to carry great powers. Out of this special place in Islam superb artistic skills in calligraphy have been developed. Sometimes these calligraphies are easily legible, often not. It is this seemingly hindered legibility that initially caught Alina Kokoschka’s attention and made her ask: What does writing mean if it is not legible? Those familiar with Arabic will discover distorted characters, teared words, and destroyed meaning. With examples from East Germany to Western China, Alina Kokoschka will disentangle intertwined Arabic lines between typographic glitches and Islamic calligraphy, in “the art of the line”.
Alina Kokoschka is a Berlin-based researcher, writer and curator. She holds a PhD in Islamic Studies and investigates contemporary Islam at the intersection of things, images, and script. Hence, she founded the contemporary archive, virtual showroom, and open research network “Hawass. Contemporary Islamic Aesthetics”.
Part of a collaboration between Pickle Bar and CCA Tashkent in the framework of the exhibition “Dixit Algorizmi”, Alina Kokoschka's and Mi You's lecture will take place in live broadcast in Berlin and Tashkent on 8th October and 13th October.