A culture of writing in absence of freedoms

February 8, 2015 by kiccovich

Il 12 febbraio saremo alla Fondazione Feltrinelli con Parvaiz Bukhari e Mirza Waheed a parlare di libri e Kashmir.

Gli ultimi anni hanno visto una crescita esponenziale dell’uso dei social media da parte dei giovani Kashmiri a testimonianza del bisogno di comunicare un’immagine differente e più radicata della storia politica della regione.

Riflettendo su questa situazione, la conversazione prende in esame il ruolo della scrittura, la cultura della lettura e la scelta delle possibilità di pubblicazione in un contesto in cui il conflitto si articola in termini religiosi, linguistici e coloniali.

Qui orari e indirizzo.

Winter twilight

January 25, 2015 by kiccovich

The first snowfall of the year in Kabul

Learning to read

January 23, 2015 by kiccovich

I have been studying Dari for a year now and I finally reached a functional level that allows me to ask to change the dynamo of the generator, check with the plumber that the sewage finally works properly and converse with taxi drivers – mostly about God and religion, conversations that – beyond the language barrier, often leave me with questions that I am not capable to answer.

I have learnt the alphabet since the very beginning, but it has only need a week since I started reading out loud.

It made me feel like a little girl again and Sister Fidalma came to mind – she was the incredibly old nun who gave me reading tuitions when I was in school. When I was little, it took me a very long time before I learnt to read properly. My first oculist got my prescriptions wrong and, despite huge baby-pink specs, I could hardly see anything and the letters on the page would hopelessly blur.

It is funny to think now that my first active relationship with books was one of effort and frustration and it makes me happy to look back and see how much things have changed.

Learning to read as an adult is turning into a funding moment in my personal development. It is a humbling experience where I have to look at myself and my limits without filters or excuses: there is no bluff and there is no hiding. Reading out loud a syllable after the other is embarrassing – I have the impression to blush every time I finish reading a word; making banal mistakes is frustrating, but reaching the end of a sentence – exhausted after barely five words – is a priceless and unforgettable pleasure.

Sayed, my fantastic teacher, has found the right balance with me: he pulls my leg and encourages me at the same time, he helps me laugh at my efforts and not to take myself too seriously.

There is so much that we take as a given, we hardly question our abilities and all those things we believe we are entitled to.

Starting from scratch again is reminding me of the importance of humility, of the satisfaction of small steps, and of the genuine joy of simple achievements.

Imparare a leggere

January 23, 2015 by kiccovich

Studio il Dari ormai da un anno, sono arrivata ad un livello tale per cui posso chiedere di cambiare la dinamo del generatore, verificare che l’idraulico abbia riparato la fogna per bene e conversare con i tassisti – spesso di Dio e di questioni religiose a cui difficilmente riesco a dare risposta.

Sin dall’inizio ho imparato l’alfabeto, ma è solo da una settimana che ho cominciato a fare esercizi di lettura ad alta voce.

Mi sono sentita di nuovo una ragazzina e mi è tornata in mente Suor Fidalma, la suora vecchissima che mi dava ripetizione di lettura. Da piccina, mi ci è voluto tantissimo tempo per imparare a leggere. Il mio primo oculista aveva sbagliato la prescrizione delle lenti e nonostante avessi dei giganteschi occhiali rosa confetto, fondamentalmente non vedevo un granché e le lettere sulla pagina si confondevano.

Strano pensare come il mio primo rapporto attivo con i libri sia stato caratterizzato dalla fatica e dalla frustrazione, ed è bello guardarsi indietro e vedere quante cose siano cambiate.

Imparare a leggere da adulta si sta rivelando un’esperienza fondamentale nella mia formazione personale. E’ un confronto con me stessa e con i miei limiti: c’è poco da bluffare e non ci sono sconti. Sillabare ad alta voce è imbarazzante – ho l’impressione di arrossire ogni volta che leggo una parola – fare errori banali è frustrante, ma arrivare in fondo alla prima riga, stanchissima dopo cinque parole, è un’esperienza assolutamente indimenticabile. Sayed, il mio fantastico maestro, ha trovato la giusta misura: mi prende in giro e mi incoraggia, mi aiuta a ridere delle mie difficoltà e a non prendermi troppo sul serio.

Si dà così tanto per scontato, su noi stessi sulle nostre capacità e su quello che ci sembra ci sia dovuto. Ricominciare da zero, mi sta ricordando l’importanza dell’umiltà, la soddisfazione dei piccoli passi e la gioia genuina dei traguardi semplici.

A Contemporary Arts Library in Kabul?

January 14, 2015 by kiccovich

As some of you may already know, in the past year I have helped Berang Arts, a collective of young artists, to set up a small, independent Contemporary Arts Academy in Kabul.

We’ve now decided to move one step further and we want to try and set up an art library and specialised resource centre that artists can access and use for their research. This is a non-NGO funded initiative, it springs out of our time, enthusiasm and commitment.

As there is no international donor to fund this, we are looking for friends and patrons who are willing to support us – by donating a book, getting your friends to donate books or, for those who come and go from Afghanistan, make some space in their suitcase to help bring books in.

We are looking for books on contemporary arts and related subjects in English and Persian. Any contribution will be very very welcome!

Please get in touch if you want to know more [ kiccovich (@) gmail (.) com] and feel free to pass my email on to those who may be interested in contributing.

Thanks for your support!

The Pain of Others

January 12, 2015 by kiccovich

I wrote this bulletin a while ago, after coming back from a trip to Kashmir. I think it sums up the how and why I do what I do.

***

I have come back from Srinagar a week ago and the voices and details of the city are still vividly present in my memory. The Dal lake, the snow-capped mountains, the windstorm that shook my last night in the city and got mingled with the lamenting voices of women praying to fight their fear.

Srinagar is not leaving me, I would like perhaps some distance, but it has decided to stay with me. The Kashmir of the almost forgotten conflict has crept under my skin.

Agha Shahid Ali, the poet who more than anyone else gave voice to the unique mixture of beauty and brutality that seems to be the essence of the Valley, has been my guide. I have looked at his Valley through the lens of his words. And Srinagar inevitably became also for me the city of daughters: where almost every man has a police record – if not as a suspect, as a spy: it seems, in fact, that there are some 170 thousand spies for a population of 10 million people – and where women make life go on, in silence, away from indiscreet gazes and the clamours of public domain.

And so it is that also the apparent quiet that surrounds Srinagar, the renewed presence of tourists, the rhetoric of the regained stability acquire a new meaning through the verses of

Agha Shahid Ali, who quotes Tacitus: solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant – they make a desolation and call it peace.

It is not the first time that I experience this kind of desolation. It hit me in Palestine, in refugee camps in Iraq and Tunisia, in the slums of Pakistan.

But it seems that this desolation has now come back to claim a long overdue credit.

Of years of stories that I listened to, collected and preserved in my memory. Of tales of lives and places that I visited, felt and shared through my writings.

How can I do justice to so much richness and pain?

How to give proper credit to those who tell you that they feel guilty to be happy when their country is under an oppression that seems to have no end?

How do to sail in this big sea? Where is the compass that leads the path so as to preserve a sensitive eye and yet avoid pitiful sympathy? How can one tell about the power of human dignity without risking the objectifying gaze of the anthropologist who looks for truths?

Questions multiply and answers seem to slip away.

Hitting the road is the only solution I know: the source of more questions that animate the quest for more answers.

The road and a desire for care, dedication and attention – in my words and politics – towards the people and places that have told and continue telling me these stories.

The Little Book of Kabul in London

November 23, 2014 by kiccovich

The Little Book of Kabul

SOAS Afghan Society will be joined by Francesca Recchia and Lorenzo Tugnoli, the authors of The Little Book of Kabul.
The Little Book of Kabul is a book project that depicts a portrait of Kabul through the daily activities of a number of artists who live in the city. With an evocative tone, it focuses on the tiny details that escape grand narratives. Colours and gestures, smells and accents. In 20 short stories and 47 black and white photographs, The Little Book of Kabul dives into the lives of the three main characters exploring what it means to be an artist in Kabul and hence unveiling the beauty and brutality of the city.

Come join us!

Date & Time: Friday 28th November, 6-8pm
Room: G3 SOAS, University of London, London WC1H 0XG
Nearest tube: Russell Square

This event is free and open to all.

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The Little Book of Kabul on Fair Observer

November 9, 2014 by kiccovich

The Little Book of Kabul

Fair Observer featured our book:

The Little Book of Kabul is a book project that depicts a portrait of Kabul through the daily activities of a number of artists who live in the city. With an evocative tone, it focuses on the tiny details that escape grand narratives. Colors and gestures, smells and accents. In 20 short stories and 47 black and white photographs, The Little Book of Kabul dives into the lives of the three main characters exploring what it means to be an artist in Kabul and hence unveiling the beauty and brutality of the city.

Mountains, Mines and Memories: The Idea of Kurdistan

November 8, 2014 by kiccovich

Ty Mayfield reviewed Picnic in a Minefield for War on the Rocks.

Here is a teaser:

Recchia is an Italian academic who left Europe for a position at the University of Kurdistan Hawler (UKH) in Erbil, Iraq in the hopes of expanding her professional horizons as an educator. In the course of two years, Recchia experiences life in many different circles. She transitions between guest, traveler, teacher, and mentor with an ease that disarms those who might stand in her way. It is from the unique perspectives of both her professional work at the UKH and her personal interactions with locals that Kurdistan is made real for the reader. Through Recchia’s travels, the soldiers, diplomats, journalists and humanitarian aid workers that usually narrate our collective Iraq experience, are illuminated for the reader from a new perspective. She reports their actions, thoughts and intentions in the insightful and articulate observations of a self-aware and humble narrator.

Recchia set out for Iraqi Kurdistan in search of herself. Along the way it is fair to say she found an entire group of people in search of themselves, their own identities, and perhaps, their own nation. These two arcs, one individual and one collective, intersect in Picnic in a Minefield and provide a compelling narrative that gives insight into the permanence of resistance, the pace of change, and the promise of a Kurdistan.

***

You can read the full review here.

The Little Book of Kabul – Launch in Kabul

November 7, 2014 by kiccovich

The Little Book of Kabul

The Little Book of Kabul is now out in the world.It has reached many houses and hopefully offered a glimpse of unexpected beauty.

In the next few weeks, Lorenzo and I will be travelling to present the book and tell the story of its making.

This last phase of our journey – obviously – began in Kabul.

We had the great privilege of being hosted by Margherita Stancati and Nathan Hodge at the Wall Street Journal for an evening of discussion and celebration.

*Photo Credit: Joel van Houdt *

It was beautiful to share some of the backstage stories with old friends who have followed our adventure since its inception and new friends who now walk the same streets we recount in the book.

The incredible amount of affection that surrounds The Little Book of Kabul never ceases to surprise us and we are deeply grateful for that.

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