Museum of Impossible Forms is glad to present a talk by Abdullah Qureshi concerning his ongoing doctoral project: Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias.
Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias examines formations of queer identity and resistance in Muslim migratory contexts. Responding to an urgent need to recognize queer Muslim voices and address the rampant Islamophobia in Europe, the research contextualizes narratives of Muslim LGBTIQ+ immigrants in Islamic history, mythologies, and art. Through artistic and curatorial interventions, the project challenges and re-imagines spaces of exclusion and fetishization. The project is part of Abdullah Qureshi’s ongoing doctoral studies at Aalto University, Finland, and includes two artistic components, Chapter 1: The Nightclub (2019) and Chapter 2: The Darkroom (2020), and a monograph (forthcoming).
Abdullah Qureshi (b. 1987, Lahore) is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator. Rooted in traditions of abstraction, he incorporates gestural, poetic, and hybrid methodologies to address autobiography, trauma, and sexuality through painting, filmmaking, and immersive events. In 2017, Qureshi received the Art and International Cooperation fellowship at Zurich University of the Arts, and in 2018, a research fellowship at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research, Boston. In 2019, he joined the Center for Feminist Research, York University, Toronto as a visiting graduate student. Qureshi is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, Espoo, and Sessional Faculty at OCAD University, Toronto.
