WHAT’S ON
@ THE READING ROOM
WHAT’S ON
@ THE READING ROOM
MANGROVE THEATRE
The Wartime Photography of Võ An Khánh
24 June - 14 September, 2025
IC Visual Lab / 6 West St, Bristol, BS2 0BH
Opening Reception: Tue 24th June - 6-8.30pm
Opening hours: Thu-Sat, 12-5pm
Exhibition Press Release
Throughout the Vietnam War, Võ An Khánh (1936-2023) documented the hidden lives of communist guerrilla fighters and their communities, living throughout the country's mangrove forests. A member of the North Vietnam Communist Army, Võ was tasked with upholding the vision of collective socialist struggle, yet his images often dwell on unexpected moments of relative stillness. Women can be seen performing balletic leads across flooded fields, while children study in makeshift forest classrooms. Elsewhere medics operate standing knee-deep in swamp water - a scene of wartime surrealism that Hollywood studios would spend fortunes attempting to recreate.
For decades, Western photographers shaped how the world saw the Vietnam War through images of pain and bloodshed. While these photographs stirred emotions worldwide, they reduced Vietnam to a narrow stereotype. Võ’s images stand as a testament to the complexity of life, even in the midst of war. ‘Mangrove Theatre’ is the first solo exhibition of Võ’s work to be staged in Europe.
The exhibition is accompanied by the symposium ‘Uncatalogued: Vietnam and Archives of Visual Culture’ (27-29th June, 2025), staged across London at MayDay Rooms, Dalston CLR James Library and Hackney Archives. Ticket details will be released shortly.
The exhibition is produced in collaboration with Dogma Collection (HCMC, Vietnam).
To accompany the exhibition, we have translated an interview with Võ An Khánh, conducted in 2013 by writer and scholar Thy Phu (University of Toronto). This is the first time this rare interview has been available to audiences in English.
NEW NARRATIVES / WHIPLASH MEMORIAL
by Max Ferguson
Friday, 4 April 2025
IC Visual Lab / 6 West Street BS2 0BH
Opening Night: Friday 4th April - 6.30-8.30pm - all welcome
Exhibition continues - Thu-Sat, 12-5pm, until 11th May
Artist Talk with Max Ferguson
Saturday 5 April 2025 4.30pm
BOOK TICKETS
Max Ferguson's Whiplash Memorial is a poetic reflection on the shifting histories of North Kensington, exploring the intersection of memory, architecture and belonging. At the core of the project lies the Westway flyover - a towering, brutalist structure that has long fascinated Ferguson. This raised section of the A40 cuts through the heart of North Kensington, passing his childhood home on one side and the shadow of Grenfell Tower on the other. The project is a cryptic love letter to a flyover and the community beneath it, weaving together personal and collective histories.
Max Ferguson is the inaugural recipient of the New Narratives Award, organised by IC Visual Lab in collaboration with UWE Bristol. Artist Talk Join us on Saturday 5th April (4-6pm) for an in-conversation event where Max will be unpacking the themes of the exhibition alongside the team at IC Visual Lab. The conversation will draw upon ideas of place, architecture and belonging, while also considering Max's expansive approach to visual storytelling. Tickets are £4 and likely to go quick, so do grab one if you want to attend.
Max Ferguson is the inaugural recipient of the New Narratives Award, organised by IC Visual Lab in collaboration with UWE Bristol. Artist Talk Join us on Saturday 5th April (4-6pm) for an in-conversation event where Max will be unpacking the themes of the exhibition alongside the team at IC Visual Lab. The conversation will draw upon ideas of place, architecture and belonging, while also considering Max's expansive approach to visual storytelling. Tickets are £4 and likely to go quick, so do grab one if you want to attend.
Artist Workshop
On Saturday 3rd May 10am - 5pm
BOOK TICKETS
Max will be leading a one-day workshop exploring forms of storytelling in relation to specific places and communities. The workshop will use the context of Bristol and the M32 motorway as a starting point, looking at the how the construction of the road echoes closely with his own study of the Westway flyover in London. The workshop will explore the entanglement of the personal and political, as well as the role of the diary and the archive, asking how we can tell deeper, more complex stories about the places we inhabit.
This workshop is open to all. You don't have to be a photographer, you just have to be interested in ways of telling stories. The workshop will be practical, including moving around the neighbourhood, making images and gathering materials.
This workshop is open to all. You don't have to be a photographer, you just have to be interested in ways of telling stories. The workshop will be practical, including moving around the neighbourhood, making images and gathering materials.
FIRST THURSDAY - BANDUNG ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
Thursday 3rd April 2025
Early Session 6pm (SOLD OUT)
Late session 8pm
BOOK TICKETS
The Bandung Conference (Indonesia, April 18th-24th, 1955) assembled representatives from 29 Asian and African nations, most of whom were newly independent. Together they discussed how to work together for a more equal world, all in the aftermath of European colonialism. The conference laid the foundations for the nonaligned movement, thus becoming a symbol of peace and international cooperation throughout the cold war period.
Join us for an evening of discussion and sounds to mark the 70th anniversary of the conference. The evening will be led by Professor Su Lin Lewis (Global & Asian History, University of Bristol) who will be telling the story of Bandung and the many movements that grew from this moment. Alongside the conversation we will be playing a selection of archival sounds and songs from the time of the conference. From the music career of Cambodia’s political leader Norodom Sihanouk, to songs written to celebrate independence in Ghana, to the sounds of 1950s Indonesian pop. Expect a heady mix of folk, highlife, soukous, early psychedelia and more.
This event is the fifth in our ‘First Thursdays’ series. Each event invites a guest to present a collection of music, alongside photography and film. The series focuses upon hidden collections, field recordings, ethnographic sounds and accidental archives, considering what they tell us about today’s entangled world.
Join us for an evening of discussion and sounds to mark the 70th anniversary of the conference. The evening will be led by Professor Su Lin Lewis (Global & Asian History, University of Bristol) who will be telling the story of Bandung and the many movements that grew from this moment. Alongside the conversation we will be playing a selection of archival sounds and songs from the time of the conference. From the music career of Cambodia’s political leader Norodom Sihanouk, to songs written to celebrate independence in Ghana, to the sounds of 1950s Indonesian pop. Expect a heady mix of folk, highlife, soukous, early psychedelia and more.
This event is the fifth in our ‘First Thursdays’ series. Each event invites a guest to present a collection of music, alongside photography and film. The series focuses upon hidden collections, field recordings, ethnographic sounds and accidental archives, considering what they tell us about today’s entangled world.
SOUNDS OF CONNEMARA
with Tom Connolly (Fohn)
Thursday, 6 March 2025
IC Visual Lab / 6 West Street BS2 0BH
BOOK TICKETS
Tom Connolly, is a musician best known for his work with the celebrated Bristol quartet Quade. In 2024, he released his first solo record under the moniker ‘Fohn’. The album, ‘Seanteach’, explores displacement, lore and belonging in relation to the West of Ireland. Tom draws attachment via his Dad's family, who were from Connemara yet forced like many others to migrate to Boston. Using the fiddle as his primary tool of composition, his music shifts between traditional folk, field recordings, ambient electronics and experimental sound collage.
Join us for an evening of music and discussion. Tom will be playing a selection of songs and field recordings from the West of Ireland, while discussing the history of the region and its diaspora. We will unpack themes of power, authenticity, displacement and tradition, ultimately asking how the region’s cultural history might lead us to unexpected futures.
This event is the fourth of our ‘Thursdays’ series. Each event invites a guest to present a collection of music, alongside photography and film. The series focuses upon hidden collections, field recordings, ethnographic sounds and accidental archives, considering what they tell us about today’s entangled world.
Join us for an evening of music and discussion. Tom will be playing a selection of songs and field recordings from the West of Ireland, while discussing the history of the region and its diaspora. We will unpack themes of power, authenticity, displacement and tradition, ultimately asking how the region’s cultural history might lead us to unexpected futures.
This event is the fourth of our ‘Thursdays’ series. Each event invites a guest to present a collection of music, alongside photography and film. The series focuses upon hidden collections, field recordings, ethnographic sounds and accidental archives, considering what they tell us about today’s entangled world.
WANAWAL SOUNDS
with Êvar Hussayni
Thursday, 6 Feb 2025
IC Visual Lab / 6 West Street BS2 0BH
BOOK TICKETS
The West Asian and North African Women’s Art Library (WANAWAL) is an alternative archive and library that exists to catalogue, preserve and share creative practices from West Asian and North African practitioners. Founded in 2019 by Êvar Hussayni, the project challenges the colonial methods and histories that lie at the heart of many archives, instead favouring experimental and collective methods that embrace slowness and dialogue at all times. Ultimately WANAWAL aims to create an open and accessible library that builds towards a more liberated collective memory.
Aside from leading WANAWAL, Êvar is a multi-disciplinary artist focused on Kurdish genealogies, feminisms and identity. Her work investigates the colonial violence of archives, which often erase communities that do not conform to a dominant reading of history. She is interested in the psychological aspect of the archive, as well as the role that memory-making plays in shaping freedom - specifically for occupied people and lands.
We are honored to be joined by Êvar for an evening exploring WANAWAL’s sound archive. Expect Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian and Cypriot field recordings, interviews, resistance music and chants, alongside conversations and visual projections.
This event is part of the City Centre and High Streets Culture and Events Programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority. All events are free - the ticket fee of £6 can be refunded to all who attend, or exchanged for refreshments.
Aside from leading WANAWAL, Êvar is a multi-disciplinary artist focused on Kurdish genealogies, feminisms and identity. Her work investigates the colonial violence of archives, which often erase communities that do not conform to a dominant reading of history. She is interested in the psychological aspect of the archive, as well as the role that memory-making plays in shaping freedom - specifically for occupied people and lands.
We are honored to be joined by Êvar for an evening exploring WANAWAL’s sound archive. Expect Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian and Cypriot field recordings, interviews, resistance music and chants, alongside conversations and visual projections.
This event is part of the City Centre and High Streets Culture and Events Programme, funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority. All events are free - the ticket fee of £6 can be refunded to all who attend, or exchanged for refreshments.
SOUNDS FROM OKINAWA
with David Mckeown (aka.zato)
Thursday, 7 November 2024
IC Visual Lab / 6 West Street BS2 0BH
BOOK TICKETS
Originally hailing from Newry in (N.) Ireland, in 2017 David Mckeown moved to Okinawa, Japan, immersing himself in the local music scene. He organised experimental music nights under the name inis:eto, alongside an ongoing mix series that continues to draw together DJs and selectors from across the globe, all set against the backdrop of Okinawa.
Now based in Bristol, he retains strong connections with Japan. By day he is an academic researcher studying the legal frameworks, contested values and spaces of activism that surround Japan’s satoyama landscapes. By night he is a prolific music selector, recently launching the label Bellyache, alongside a monthly show on Noods Radio and regular parties at Strange Brew under the moniker O.S.T.
David’s musical commitments reach beyond dancefloors, incorporating field recordings, ambient sounds, folk music and overlooked oddities. During his years in Okinawa, music and activism often overlapped, with many dance floor friends involved in efforts to resist the expansion of a nearby US Marine Corps base in Henoko. Studying the colonial histories of both Okinawa/Ryukyu and his native Ireland, led to an understanding of the shared importance of sound as a form of cultural resistance across both locations. In the case of Okinawa, this sound has often taken the form of Min'yō folk recordings, which stand as a testament to cultural independence and perseverance.
Through a dialogue with images of protest, folk and club culture, the evening will reflect on the intersection of music and resistance in Okinawa. David will be playing a selection of Min'yō folk recordings, unpacking their ongoing significance today. Alongside the music, we will be screening Tomatsu Shomei’s seminal photobook Camp Okinawa. Photographed over a 40-year period (1960-2008), it offers a unique portrait of the island, examining the culture born from the American military presence, as well Okinawa’s relative isolation from the rest of Japan.
Now based in Bristol, he retains strong connections with Japan. By day he is an academic researcher studying the legal frameworks, contested values and spaces of activism that surround Japan’s satoyama landscapes. By night he is a prolific music selector, recently launching the label Bellyache, alongside a monthly show on Noods Radio and regular parties at Strange Brew under the moniker O.S.T.
David’s musical commitments reach beyond dancefloors, incorporating field recordings, ambient sounds, folk music and overlooked oddities. During his years in Okinawa, music and activism often overlapped, with many dance floor friends involved in efforts to resist the expansion of a nearby US Marine Corps base in Henoko. Studying the colonial histories of both Okinawa/Ryukyu and his native Ireland, led to an understanding of the shared importance of sound as a form of cultural resistance across both locations. In the case of Okinawa, this sound has often taken the form of Min'yō folk recordings, which stand as a testament to cultural independence and perseverance.
Through a dialogue with images of protest, folk and club culture, the evening will reflect on the intersection of music and resistance in Okinawa. David will be playing a selection of Min'yō folk recordings, unpacking their ongoing significance today. Alongside the music, we will be screening Tomatsu Shomei’s seminal photobook Camp Okinawa. Photographed over a 40-year period (1960-2008), it offers a unique portrait of the island, examining the culture born from the American military presence, as well Okinawa’s relative isolation from the rest of Japan.
The Majazz Project: Palestinian Sound Archive
Thursday, 7 November
IC Visual Lab / 6 West Street BS2 0BH
Late Show from 8:30 - 10 PM
Through years of digging, discovering and remastering, artist Mo'min Swaitat has created The Majazz Project, an archive of Palestinian sound and music. An act of reclamation and a site of resistance to colonial erasure, the archive is an embodiment of Palestinian culture across decades. Weaving tales of joy, grief, love, resistance, and steadfastness, these sounds are bridging generations. These sonic stories have travelled a long way to you, beckoning, a hand held out through time itself.
In collaboration with Bristol Photo Festival, Mo'min will be presenting the archive - playing records and discussing their significance. Join us for an informal evening of sound and discussion.
In collaboration with Bristol Photo Festival, Mo'min will be presenting the archive - playing records and discussing their significance. Join us for an informal evening of sound and discussion.
UNSHOWABLE PHOTOGRAPHS
16 Oct to 17 Nov 2024
IC Visual Lab / 6 West Street BS2 0BH
Thu-Sun 11am-5pm
In 2009, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay visited the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to view archival photographs of Palestine, taken between 1947 and 1950. The images document the forced displacement of the Palestinian population – an event commonly known as the ‘Nakba’. Azoulay was instructed that the archival images could not be reproduced or exhibited unless strict conditions were met, limiting the free interpretation of the material and ultimately of history itself. In response, Azoulay decided to draw the photographs, creating a record that exists beyond the control of official narratives and archives.
About Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Ariella Aïsha Azoulay holds a dual appointment in the Department of Modern Culture and Media and the Department of Comparative Literature at Brown University. She is a film essayist and independent curator of archives and exhibitions. Her research and recent book, Potential History (Verso, 2019), concern key political concepts/institutions: archive, sovereignty, plunder, art, human rights, return and repair. Potential history, a concept and an approach she has developed over the last decade, has far-reaching implications for the fields of political theory, archival formations, and photography studies as well as for the reversal of imperial violence.
Azoulay studied at the Université Paris VIII and received her DEA from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and PhD from Tel Aviv University’s Cohn Institute. Her books include Civil Imagination: The Political Ontology of Photography (Verso, 2012), From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950 (Pluto Press, 2011), The Civil Contract of Photography (Zone Books, 2008), and (with Adi Ophir) The One State Condition: Occupation and Democracy between the Sea and the River (Stanford, 2012). Among her films are Un-Documented: Unlearning Imperial Plunder (2019) and Civil Alliances, Palestine, 47-48 (2012). Her exhibitions include Errata (Tapiès Foundation, 2019; HKW, Berlin, 2020), Enough! The Natural Violence of New World Order (F/Stop photography festival, Leipzig, 2016), and Act of State 1967-2007, (Centre Pompidou, 2016; Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa Fotográfico, 2020).
About Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Ariella Aïsha Azoulay holds a dual appointment in the Department of Modern Culture and Media and the Department of Comparative Literature at Brown University. She is a film essayist and independent curator of archives and exhibitions. Her research and recent book, Potential History (Verso, 2019), concern key political concepts/institutions: archive, sovereignty, plunder, art, human rights, return and repair. Potential history, a concept and an approach she has developed over the last decade, has far-reaching implications for the fields of political theory, archival formations, and photography studies as well as for the reversal of imperial violence.
Azoulay studied at the Université Paris VIII and received her DEA from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and PhD from Tel Aviv University’s Cohn Institute. Her books include Civil Imagination: The Political Ontology of Photography (Verso, 2012), From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950 (Pluto Press, 2011), The Civil Contract of Photography (Zone Books, 2008), and (with Adi Ophir) The One State Condition: Occupation and Democracy between the Sea and the River (Stanford, 2012). Among her films are Un-Documented: Unlearning Imperial Plunder (2019) and Civil Alliances, Palestine, 47-48 (2012). Her exhibitions include Errata (Tapiès Foundation, 2019; HKW, Berlin, 2020), Enough! The Natural Violence of New World Order (F/Stop photography festival, Leipzig, 2016), and Act of State 1967-2007, (Centre Pompidou, 2016; Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa Fotográfico, 2020).
In collaboration with:
