Hamja Ahsan: Shy Radicals

For its last event before the summer break, Page Not Found will receive Hamja Ahsan, founder and co-curator of the DIY Cultures festival of creative activism, zines and independent publishing. Hamja will present his publication “Shy Radicals: The Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert”, heralded as a subversively funny hymn to introversion.

Drawing together communiqués, covert interviews, oral and underground history of introvert struggles (Introfada), the book is a detailed documentation of the political demands of shy people. Radicalised against the imperial domination of globalised PR projectionism, extrovert poise and loudness, the Shy Radicals and their guerrilla wing the Shy Underground are a vanguard movement intent on trans-rupting consensus extrovert-supremacist politics and assertiveness culture of the twenty first century. Shy Radicals are the Black Panther Party of the introvert class, and this anti-systemic manifesto is a quiet and thoughtful polemic, a satire that uses anti-colonial theory to build a critique of dominant culture and the rising tide of Islamophobia.

Hamja Ahsan is an artist, writer, activist and curator based in London. He was recently awarded the Grand Prize at the Ljubljana biennial 2019 for his current exhibition Aspergistan Referendum based on this book. He was shortlisted for the Liberty human rights award for campaigns on extradition and detention without trial under the War on Terror utilising art and film. His recent writing was anthologised in No Colour Bar: Black Art in Action 1960-1990. He has presented art projects at PS1 MOMA at New York Art book fair, Tate Modern, Gwangju Biennale, Staedelschule in Frankfurt, Shaanakht festival Pakistan and Shilpa Academy, Bangladesh. His practice encompasses all media: conceptual writing, building archives, performance, video, sound and making zines.

Page Not Found heartily thanks PrintRoom for suggesting and co-organising this event.

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Starts at 18:00.