Conversations in the Time of Corona

A series of conversations with creative practitioners around the world in response to the Covid-19 pandemic

Conversations in the Time of Corona is a project that seeks to promote dialogues between creative practitioners across the world in order to investigate the human impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Engaging with artists directly, this project offers immediate perspectives on the unforeseen challenges encountered during the pandemic and the new ways through which a community may maintain contact. In contrast to the transactional character of the fast-paced world pre-Covid, the aim of Conversations in the Time of Corona is to create a common space in which we can really get to know each other.

Actively supporting a dialogue between East and West, Conversations in the Time of Corona presents plural points of view, showcasing the many different ways a pandemic might affect society depending on preceding geopolitical circumstances. Eschewing the fallacies of neutral reports, this project focuses instead on personal statements and lived experiences.

In 2020, London-based curator Fedja Klikovac engaged in a series of online exchanges with artists from across the globe. Manal Al Dowayan, Zineb Sedira, Hanibal Srouji, Jelena Tomašević, Richard Wentworth, and Alun Williams discussed a wide range of topics—from confinement and the role of the countryside to economic and political unrest—to create a document of the human dimension of this historical event.

Hanibal Srouji and Alun Williams in conversation with Fedja Klikovac, 20 May 2020 from Conversations in the Time of Corona, 2020, HD video, 38:34 min.

Zineb Sedira and Richard Wentworth in conversation with Fedja Klikovac, 11 June 2020 from Conversations in the Time of Corona, 2020, HD video, 59:32 min.

Manal Al Dowayan and Jelena Tomasevic in conversation with Fedja Klikovac, 11 July 2020 from Conversations in the Time of Corona, 2020, HD video, 49:55 min.

More than a year after recording these online dialogues, Fedja Klikovac met artists Zineb Sedira and Richard Wentworth once more—this time in person and in front of a live audience for the event Conversations in the Time of Corona: Live at the Freud Museum London. They were joined by Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. The event also featured virtual participations by representatives of art institutions in the Middle East: Dr Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, Director General of the Palestinian Museum, and Heba Hage-Felder, Director of Beirut’s Arab Image Foundation. A commentary by HE Hassan AL Balawi, First Counsellor at the Mission of the State of Palestine to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, opened the floor to audience questions.

The event’s participants continued to explore the broad impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, discussing the many cultural and political issues that have arisen during these difficult times. Topics of conversation included approaches to collective memory, the future of museums, and our role in the production of cultural heritage.

The views, information, or opinions expressed during the interviews that make up the Oral History Collection are those of each individual involved and do not represent those of the Foundation for Art and Psychoanalysis.

Recording of Conversations in the Time of Corona: Live at Freud Museum London, 5 December 2021, HD video, 2:08:15 min.

Manal Al Dowayan is an artist long invested in interrogating the gender-biased customs that impact the condition of women in Saudi Arabia. In Al Dowayan’s practice, the personal and the political overlap. Her work has been exhibited internationally. In 2014, Al Dowayan was the recipient of a research fellowship from New York University Abu Dhabi. Born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 1973, she currently lives and works between London, Dhahran, and Dubai.

Heba Hage-Felder has over 20 years of experience in development and institutional capacity building. Her work experience between 1996 and 2006 covered community development initiatives, production of knowledge resources, as well as eco-tourism. She worked with diverse local and international organisations such as Search for Common Ground in Washington DC and in Jordan, Save the Children in Lebanon, Arab Resource Collective in Lebanon, and UNOPS in Geneva supporting a peace building program in Rwanda, as well as being a co-founder and volunteer coordinator of Mada, a local NGO in Lebanon.

Dan Hicks FSA, MCIfA (born 1972) is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. Dan has published eight authored and edited books, and has written articles, essays and op-eds for a variety of journals, magazines and newspapers. His latest work, The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, was published by Pluto Press in 2020.

Fedja Klikovac is a curator and art advisor. Having lived in London since 1992, Klikovac worked for various art galleries. In 2002, he established the pioneering medievalmodern gallery in Marylebone, where he curated a series of exhibitions that saw contemporary artists work with medieval artifacts. He is currently the Director of Handel Street Projects, a gallery dedicated to promoting new British and international contemporary art.

Adila Laïdi-Hanieh is a writer and academic focusing on Palestinian art and cultural practices, modern Arab intellectual history and cultural spaces and processes. She was the founding director of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre from 1996 until 2005. Dr Laïdi-Hanieh has published several books and essays, including the artist biography Fahrelnissa Zeid. Painter of Inner Worlds in 2017. She also published Palestine. Rien ne nous manque ici (Palestine. We lack for nothing here) in 2008, which explored contemporary Palestine from a critical cultural perspective.

Zineb Sedira is an artist who lives and works between Algiers, Paris, and London. Sedira’swidely-exhibited work, which has stemmed from research into her identity as a woman and her personal geography, is concerned with ideas of mobility, memory and transmission. Sedira is the founder of aria, a residency program dedicated to support the development of the contemporary art scene in Algeria. She will represent France at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.

Hanibal Srouji is a Lebanese artist and educator. Before joining the Lebanese American University in 2010, Srouji held different teaching positions in North America and at the Sorbonne, in Paris. His paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows internationally. In 2016, Srouji was awarded the Jouhayna Baddoura Prize.

Jelena Tomašević is an artist born in Montenegro. Tomašević’s paintings explore life under late-capitalism, with particular focus on the roles which are imposed on women. They have been exhibited widely across Europe and North America, in solo and group presentations. Tomašević lives and works in Berlin and Montenegro.

Richard Wentworth is a British artist, curator, and teacher. He has played a leading role in New British Sculpture since the 1970s. Wentworth’s work was the subject of solo exhibitions in major contemporary art institutions around the world, including Galerie Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, in 2017; Whitechapel Gallery, London, in 2010; 52nd Venice Biennale, in 2009; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in 1994; and Serpentine Gallery, London, in 1993. He was awarded an OBE in 2011.

Alun Williams is a British artist. After completing his studies at Goldsmiths’ College, Williams undertook residencies in France and North America, while also having his work exhibited in London. In 1992, with Isabelle Viallat, he created the Association La Vigie in Nîmes, and in 1993 he joined the Board of Directors of the Triangle Arts Association in New York. In 1995 he was the founder, with Claire Lesteven and Bernard Plasse, of the Triangle France Association, in Marseille at the Friche Belle de Mai. Since 1998, he has been based in New York, and in 2000, he was the founder of Parker’s Box, in the artist-run gallery neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Today, Williams continues to offer his support of these institutions while working on his painting practice.