STURM AND SLANG: Annual Program 2024

Throughout history, language has been systematically used as a weapon to assert control and delegitimize belonging: without enough regard to its empowering and liberating potential. By exploring language affects specific to artists, poets, writers and activists, Sturm and Slang intends to illuminate the various processes of adaptation, evolution, and hybridization–from slang to queer linguistics–amidst great geopolitical changes and cultural upheavals. The spring-fall 2024 program at Pickle Bar takes a closer look at the transformation and disruption of languages as a means of forging new ways of being and identity in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, the Baltics and Central Asia and their significant diaspora communities. A series of performances, lectures, round tables and workshop investigates the spaces for inclusivity and linguistic affinities from acoustic, visual and semantic perspectives to celebrate and redeem the necessarily fluid nature of language as an agency of self-determination and empowerment.

Mina Masoumi, work on display

23 March, 7:30 PM: Opening of the program, Nino Dava, “ეთი - Leti”, music-performance

12 April, 7:30 PM : Diliara Brileva, “Alternative Women's Discourse in Tatar Satirical Magazines in Late Imperial Russia”, lecture

26 April, 7:30 PM : Urok Shirhan, “Arabic Letter Seen س Arabic Letter Wow و”, lecture-performance

31 May, 7:30 PM and 9 PM: Hussein Nassereddine, “Laughing on the River, Your Eyes Drown in Tears”, performance

7 June, 7:30 PM: Yevheniia Moliar, Zhenia Stepko, Vova Vorotniov, “Surzhrealism”, panel discussion.

13 June, 7:30 PM: Daniel Kotowski, “delighting”, performance

27 June, 7:30 PM: Natalia Papaeva, Agnieszka Matkowska, Tudebei Khandama, Timur Zolotoev, panel discussion

12 July, 7:30 PM: Fatma Cheffi, “Steal, Steel, Still Fatma”, performance and discussion. 

13 September, 7:30 PM and 08:30 PM: Agnė Jokšė, “Lezbynai”, performance

4 October, 7:30 PM: Mila Panić, stand-up comedy

11 October: Qalqalah قلقلة, workshop 

8 November: Mekhitar Garabedian, Garine Gokceyan, workshop

Work on display: Mina Masouni

23 March, 7:30 PM: Opening of the program, Nino Davadze, - DAVA, ეთი - Leti, sound-performance 

Yevheniia Moliar, Yevheniia Stepko, Vova Vorotniov “Surzhrealism”, panel discussion, 7 June, 2024, 7:30 PM

Displayed at Pickle Bar during the Sturm and Slang program, the artwork "On Manners of Dance and Ecstasy" by calligraphy and visual artist Mina Masoumi intricately weaves the words of the title in Farsi script. At its center, "در آداب" (on manners) serves as the introduction, guiding the eye through the intricate of the letters composing the words "رقص" (dance) and "طرب" (ecstasy), which spiral around it like a complex knot. This movement symbolizes the hands of a dancer entwined in the rhythm of music, shimmering together to intertwine the visual and auditory essence of the words.

Mina Masoumi  lives and works in Tehran. She is a graduate of Persian Literature from Zanjan University, and holds two Mumtaz-level excellence degrees in Nastaliq and Shekasteh- Nastaliq from the Society of Iranian Calligraphists. Masoumi's visual and semantic references are intertwined with classic and contemporary Persian literature, Iranian and Islamic architecture and Miniature and Middle-eastern culture, as well as a deep connection with the inner workings of modern image processing devices. She establishes a unique relationship between sounds of the words, their forms, and the narratives of the image. She is represented by Delgosha Gallery.

The project “Leti - ლეთი” explores the linguistic dynamics of Svan, a languages spoken in Svaneti, a region in western Georgia, Caucasus. During the Russian imperial rule, Svan culture was often alienated, estranged and often used in Georgian anecdotes as a mountainous “frozen in time” culture. However, Svanetian ethnographical resistance has always been an example in Georgia, and the Svan language represents its widest dimension. By breaking down Svan folk poetry and tales into rhythmic phrases, “Leti” aims to clarify how the ancient Svan language can function in software algorithms triggered during the reading of the poetry itself. The rhythmic impulses are further developed and merged with heavy industrial noise or Svan scales, recreating itself in new audio form.

Free admission. 
Duration: 40 minutes.

Doors open at 7:00 PM. Performance starts at 07:30 PM.

Nino Dava  is an experimental musician and multimedia artist based in Tbilisi Georgia. Her sonic trajectory repurposes the form of IDM, electronic minimalism via storytelling and political lyricism to create a new hybrid sound. 

Following the mass appearance of the periodical press of the Muslim Tatars in late Imperial Russia the life of Muslim women and the problems they faced in everyday life became one of the most discussed. The lecture explores how Tatar humorous and satirical magazines (textually and visually) raised and discussed the problems of women in the Tatar Muslim community of late imperial Russia and how language was instrumentalized in these discussions. Moreover, lecture looks at how Tatar satirical periodicals used gender discourse to resist capitalism between the two Russian revolutions, continuing the story of the objectification of Muslim women.

Free admission.
Language: English. 
Duration: 40 minutes.

Doors open at 7:00 PM. Lecture starts at 07:30 PM.

Diliara Brileva is a linguist and historian lost in cinema studies. Her research interests cover everything written, spoken, and shot by Turkic-speaking communities. Currently she is a researcher at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin with the project “Public Theology: The Formation of New Theological Discourse in the Periodical Press of Muslim Tatars in Late Imperial Russia”.