Evar Hussayni and Sarah Hamed
Êvar Hussayni’s personal multi-disciplinary practice focuses on Kurdish genealogies, colonial violence in archives and their relationship with the trajectory of Kurdish identities and feminisms. In her analysis of archives, she investigates the psychological impact of the archived material; what role does archiving play in shaping freedom - specifically that of occupied people and lands? How far does the current archive privilege particular narratives and create bias in the collective memory? Êvar’s endeavour is to assess the implications of archival structures on Kurdish identity formation.
Sarah Hamed is a curator and editor. Dedicated to seeing nuance and breadth in what stories are shared with the world, Sarah is drawn to the use of the arts and associated creative processes to open up these worlds.
The West Asian and North African Women’s Art Library (WANAWAL), is an alternative archival practice and library. Initiated by Êvar Hussayni in 2019, the project challenges colonial methodologies of archiving, prioritising experimental and anti-colonial research methods and systems. Embracing the concept of 'slowness,' the WANAWAL resists capitalistic and hierarchical systems, aiming to create an open-source and publicly accessible library and archive that innovatively catalogues and preserves the creative contributions of practitioners from West Asia and North Africa. By questioning the dynamics of archiving, WANAWAL seeks to reshape narratives and the impact of colonial practices on collective memory.