A month long exhibition starting this week will look to challenge western media’s view of Pakistan “as a rogue nuclear state suffering from conflict, extremism, natural disaster and sporadic martial law”.

Organised by the Museum of Non-Participation, it will offer a newspaper supplement, an exhibition, a film and a diverse programme of film screenings, language classes, readings, a poetry symposium, makeovers, soap-opera script-writing workshops, talks and discussions.

From 25 September Mirza and Butler bring The Museum of Non Participation to the streets of Bethnal Green.

Karen Mirza and Brad Butler conceived The Museum of Non Participation in 2007 when – during the Pakistani Lawyers movement in Islamabad – they viewed the protests and subsequent state violence from a window in The National Art Gallery.

They say they worked extensively in London and Karachi with street vendors, architects, lawyers, artists, housing activists and writers to explore, “how our lives in one space have implications on another.”

On Sunday they introduced themselves with a special 12-page Urdu and English edition supplement in Pakistan’s international broadsheet The Daily Jang with a range of contributors.

The space will be developed as a living archive, with a sound installation, documentation of performances, photographs from a series called The Cities Unbuilt and a collection of printed matter.

It will also host:
- discussion on the power of the media by award-winning investigative journalist Nick Davies
- poetic symposium lead by playwright Yasmin Whittaker Khan and Rukhsana Yasmin
- discussion on the politics and ethics of museum and gallery collections by artist and curator Alan Jelinek

The programme also includes an intimate film screening of the first ever Pakistani vampire movie Zinda Laash (1967); Lollywood-style makeovers; discussions on Pakistani politics hosted by the owner of a local newsagent; script-writing workshops to develop a pilot for a television soap opera based on Pakistani life in the UK and more.

The events will take place in a temporary museum headquarters located in an empty storage space behind Yaseen Hairdressers.

Karen Mirza and Brad Butler both live and work in London.
www.mirza-butler.net

More information about the month-long exhibition at artangel.org.uk

——–
Media contact: Sarah Davies or Janette Scott, or 020 7713 1400.