11:00 AM
On May 13 we invite you to come celebrate the exhibitions, activities and artists of Tasweer 2023. We have a busy program planned from 11am onwards with the first guided tour of the A Chance To Breathe and Doha Fashion Fridays by the exhibitions’ curator and Tasweer’s Artistic Director, Charlotte Cotton. From 11am onwards, 3 pop-up exhibitions will be on show: amazing zines made by local and international photographers who joined Tasweer’s zine and DIY publishing workshops curated by Andreas Laszlo Konrath and Adriane de Souza over the course of Tasweer 2023. Join us and the local participating photographers to see their incredible zines and learn more about their photographic approach. Tasweer is also showing a pop-up exhibition of new photographs made by A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson, Dil Kayas and Omal Khair during Ramadan and Eid-Al-Fitr showing the rituals, fashion and celebrations within the Rohingya refugee communities in India and Bangladesh. At 2pm, in partnership with Doha Debates, VCUQ and Shared Studios, there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson and Omal Khair, via video link live to them at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
A Chance To Breathe and Doha Fashion Fridays
A Chance To Breathe and Doha Fashion Fridays Guided Tours
In these two, final gallery tours at M7, Msheireb, Charlotte Cotton will describe the curatorial approaches behind the creation of Doha Fashion Fridays andA Chance To Breathe exhibitions for the 2023 Tasweer biennial. You will have the opportunity to understand the collaborations with the contributing artists and the intentions the exhibitions set for the future of these important photographic projects. Following the gallery tour, please join Tasweer Photo Festival for an intimate event to meet - and celebrate the creativity of - the participants in two zine-making workshops that took place during Ramadan. There will also be a pop-up exhibition of images made especially for Tasweer celebrating Rohingya culture and community during Ramadan and Eid-Al-Fitr by photographers Azimul Hasson, Omal Khair and Dil Kayas who are the participating artists on show in A Chance To Breathe exhibition, plus a video conversation at M7 with Azimul and Omal live from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
3 pop-up exhibitions:
- Zine Workshop Exhibition - Tasweer’s zine and DIY publishing workshop with Andreas Laszlo Konrath
- 2- Zine Workshop Exhibition - Tasweer’s youth photography and zine-making workshop with Adriane de Souza
- New photographs made by A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson, Dil Kayas and Omal Khair during Ramadan and Eid-Al-Fitr.
1- Zine Workshop Exhibition - Tasweer’s zine and DIY publishing workshop with Andreas Laszlo Konrath
Tasweer Photo Festival has collaborated this year with two brilliant photographers and zine-makers, Adriane De Souza and Andreas Laszlo Konrath, to train and inspire photography practitioners in five sessions to turn their works into zines. Andreas Laszlo Konrath led an online workshop with participants from Yemen, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates, who have gone through the history of zine-making, techniques, and examples, and they have created their zines printed and bound in Doha.
Participating photographers:
Ramy Abdou, Sadiq Al-Harasi, Antonios Chalfoun, Constantinos Constantinou, Hager Elhady, Hana Osama, Hind Mezaina, Roula Patra and Dimitris Sideridis.
Image: Sadiq Al Harasi, from the zine and DIY publishing workshop with Andreas Laszlo Konrath
2- Zine Workshop Exhibition -Tasweer’s youth photography and zine-making workshop with Adriane de Souza
Tasweer Photo Festival has collaborated this year with two brilliant photographers and zine-makers, Adriane De Souza and Andreas Laszlo Konrath, to train and inspire photography practitioners in five sessions to turn their works into zines. Adriane De Souza led a youth workshop, a collaboration between Tasweer Photo Festival and M7 when the eight participants created a collective zine with daily life images and observational details from the M7 building and exhibitions.
Image: from the youth photography and zine-making workshop with Adriane de Souza
3- New photographs made by A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson, Dil Kayas and Omal Khair during Ramadan and Eid-Al-Fitr.
A pop-up exhibition of new photographs made by A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson, Dil Kayas and Omal Khair during Ramadan and Eid-Al-Fitr showing the rituals, fashion and celebrations within the Rohingya refugee communities in India and Bangladesh.
Image: Azimul Hasson
2:00 PM
Meeting A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson and Omal Khair:
A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson and Omal Khair, will be present via a live video link from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Meeting A Chance To BreatheRohingya artists Azimul Hasson and Omal Khair
At 2pm, in partnership with Doha Debates, VCUQ and Shared Studios, there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet A Chance To Breathe Rohingya artists Azimul Hasson and Omal Khair, via video link live to them at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
About Charlotte Cotton
Charlotte Cotton is a curator, writer and creative consultant who has explored photographic culture for over twenty-five years. She has held positions including curator of photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, head of programming at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, curator, and head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is the founding and current Artistic Director of Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar.
About A Chance To Breathe
A Chance To Breathe presents the remarkable photographs of Omal Khair, Dil Kayas and Azimul Hasson, who have been documenting their lives and those in their Rohingya refugee community living in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh since 2018. By telling visual stories of life, resilience and hope, their photographs help reframe the prevailing narratives of violence, death and victimhood that often describe Rohingya refugees’ experiences. In 2018, Doha Debates teamed up with Fortify Rights to equip and support these three talented photographers and give the world an inside look at the lives within the world’s largest refugee camp. Omal Khair dreamed of becoming a professional photographer – a forbidden occupation in her indigenous homeland. Azimul Hasson used to study and play football back at home, and he still dreams of pursuing higher education there. Dil Kayas is a mother of three. Like Omal, she harbored a passion for photography, but the Myanmar government denied her the right to pursue it. These three Rohingya photographers are talented, creative and hard-working and this exhibition celebrates their vital and ongoing storytelling.
About Andreas Laszlo Konrath
Andreas is a photographer and artist educator and utilizes the zine format as a vehicle for many projects, additionally publishing with other artists citing community building, exchange, and collaboration as a key inspiration and motivator. Andreas' zines have been archived in collections at the ICP Triennial, The Getty Research Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, MoMA Library & The Yale University Library. Andreas contributes regularly as a visiting artist to FIT, ICP, Parsons School of Design at The New School, Pratt Institute, Red Hook Labs & SVA, and has organized zine workshops for Fondation Louis Vuitton, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Penumbra Foundation, Red Hook Community Justice Center & Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar.
About Adriane de Souza
Adriane de Souza is a Brazilian photographer currently based in Doha, Qatar. She received her BA degree in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Years later, she shifted to photography as a way of self-liberation, research, and to further understand human interactions and emotions. She is currently undertaking her MFA in interdisciplinary Design Studies at VCUQ. Adriane has been selected by Adobe as a part of Adobe Rising Stars in 2019, featured in PH Museum Mobile Photography Book. She won second place and was book cover for Photos from the Arab World by Jotun, and third place in the single image category on Lens Culture Journeys 2020. She was also part of the jury of the Single Image Awards at Tasweer Photo Festival 2021. Adriane works as a facilitator in several educational projects, reflecting on freedom and encouraging others to search for their path through photography.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous cultural venues internationally, including in Brazil, Qatar, Russia, UAE, and the United Kingdom. Her photographs have been commissioned and published by notable media titles including Vogue, GQ, New York Times, Der Spiegel, The Telegraph, Stern Magazine.