The Superhero Summit
A two-day event that conjures a multitude of superheroes and superpowers from across different landscapes, geographies and imaginations. Artists, curators, writers, designers, and superheroes convene to explore new morphologies of power and agency in the 21 st century. This event is conceived by researcher/curator Sabih Ahmed and artist Taus Makhacheva, and produced by KADIST in collaboration with ‘Cosmopolis #2: rethinking the human’. This event will be held in English. 15 Nov, Friday 2pm Superhero Appearances by Super Taus, Super Sohrab and Nissan Patrol 6pm Film screening of Supermen of Malegaon by Faiza Ahmad Khan 16 Nov, Saturday 11am Introduction Emilie Villez, Sabih Ahmed and Taus Makhacheva 11:15am The Submarine Horizons of Contemporaneity Keynote by Shuddhabrata Sengupta from Raqs Media Collective that invokes the Deep-sea diver and her excursions into distant futures and the deep present. 12pm The Other Empire Writer Deepak Unnikrishnan and literary scholar Zaal Andronikashvilli take us into parallel stories of crowded empires where bodies and continents are shape-shifting entities, and in which it’s sometimes hard to tell who is the hero among the crowd. Moderated by Sabih Ahmed. 1pm Break 2:30pm Seeing things, Hearing things Performative interventions and speech acts by Super Sohrab, Super Taus and Lav Kontinovic, throwing light on the circumstances in which their superpowers get summoned. 3:30pm Heightened States Lecture performances by Jennifer Teets and Lantian Xie that attempt to amplify the super-conditions and material flux of a rapidly transforming world. Moderated by Deepak Unnikrishnan. 4:30pm Altered Egos Panel discussion with the artists Sohrab Kashani, Taus Makhacheva and Leone Contini moderated by Jennifer Teets. The artists shed light on their practices, their superhero alter egos and the background stories of each of their emergence. 5:45pm Break 6pm Rendered Environments Narrative designer Sybil Collas offers a glimpse into the last two decades of the gaming world and its approach to rendering environments, subjectivities, and narratologies. In discussion with Sabih Ahmed. List of Participants Faiza Ahmad Khan (filmmaker and researcher based in India and the United Kingdom) Sabih Ahmed (curator and researcher based in India) Zaal Andronikashvili (professor and researcher based in Germany and Georgia) Sybil Collas (game narrative designer based in France) Leone Contini (artist based in Italy) Sohrab Kashani (artist based in Iran) Lav Kontinovic (superhero based in former Yugoslavia and Italy) Taus Makhacheva (artist based in Russia) Raqs Media Collective (represented by Shuddhabrata Sengupta, based in India) Super Sohrab (superhero based in Iran) Super Taus (superhero based in Dagestan) Jennifer Teets (artist, writer and curator based in France) Deepak Unnikrishnan (writer based in the United Arab Emirates) Lantian Xie (artist based in the United Arab Emirates)