Never Seen

25 January 2023 / Casco HQ & online
17:30 (walk-in), start 18:00 with debriefing until 19:30
RSVP by sending an email to leana@casco.art
The physical building of Casco Art Institute is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible.

The event can be livestreamed through this Zoom link (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85207825318). The documentary film has captions in English and Dutch and there will be both NGT and International Sign (IS) interpreters plus English captioning present for the opening words and Q&A afterwards.

We are delighted to have the premiere of the documentary Never Seen by Nimco Hersi and Naima Abdullahi, commissioned by Casco Art Institute following last year’s accessibility grant approval by the Municipality of Utrecht.

Never Seen is a documentary produced by Naima Abdullahi that offers us a glimpse into the life of Nimco Hersi and shows how she navigates Dutch society as a Black deaf woman. What obstacles does she encounter within the white deaf community and where does she draw her strength from?

The title Never Seen refers to the fact that in the deaf community the term “I’ve never seen it” is used instead of “I’ve never heard of it” when someone is unfamiliar with a particular subject. It is also a reference to the double layer of invisibility that the Black deaf community experiences in Dutch society, a convergence of ableism and racism.

Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons strives to welcome and incorporate accessibility into the various layers of its institute. Casco Art Institute envisions a more just society through art and commoning practices. This vision also resonates with our activities around un/learning, which means that our learned ways of thinking and acting on institutional practices, including accessibility, ought to be questioned and rearticulated. Resonating with our 2019 spring exhibition program Het is of de stenen spreken (silence is a commons) Casco Art Institute again aims to facilitate space to go deeper into themes such as the limitations and possibilities of language, obstacles within communication, and the entanglement of these themes with power structures. The publication Commoning Accessibility (2022), developed by Staci Bu Shea, presents various tools and approaches on how accessibility can be broadly supported within art institutions and why this is necessary. With the co-development and screening of Never Seen, Casco Art Institute continues an institutional line that focuses on conversations, knowledge, and tools around accessibility.

Colophon:

For the documentary film:
Nimco Hersi, narrator. Naima Abdullahi, videographer and editor. Daniël Schoevaart, translator. Linde Terpstra, production assistant. With support from Staci Bu Shea and the team at Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons. With financial support from Gemeente Utrecht’s subsidy Toegankelijkheid.

For the screening event:
Ellen Nauta, Richard Cokart, Lianne Nap, Lisanne Houkes, Yvonne Jobse, Renske Koster, interpreters. Veerle Haverhals, live captioner. Francisco Baquerizo, camera.

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