Freedom Lecture: Khalid Albaih

Khalid Albaih takes you on his personal journey that has led to becoming an international recognized artist and political commentator. In his lecture he sheds light on the importance of art in society and his mission to use art for social change in the world.

Dutch ambassador in Sudan Karin Boven shares her experiences in a country that has faced much hardship over the last years, and sheds light on the contributions of the Netherlands in Sudan.

With Pravini Baboeram, artist and activist, Khalid Albaih speaks about the function of art for social change. Why is it important to express political views through art, how is that received and in what way is there actual social change visible?

“Art is about disturbing the comfortable. Cartoons are the best way to accomplish this because you don’t have to be a professor, an intellectual, or attend a museum to understand the meaning of a cartoon.” – Khalid Albaih

Albaih’s cartoons have had a massive impact over the past decade. His art spares no one, criticizing and commenting on everything from the Syrian civil war, to Charlie Hebdo and the United States. His images became icons of the revolution during the Arab Spring. Spreading his message through social media, his cartoons were often re-created as graffiti on the streets of Cairo and Beirut.

Speakers

Khalid Albaih grew up in Sudan but has lived with his family in Qatar since 1990 due to his father’s political views. He publishes his cartoons on social media under “Khartoon!,” a word play on cartoon and Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. His works have been exhibited throughout Europe, U.S., Canada and the Middle East. He has been awarded various art residencies and followships as with the Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights at Colby College where he’s been selected as the 2016 Human Rights Fellow, inaugural Soros Art fellow 2018 where he worked on building the Space sharing platform getfadaa.com. He currently lives and works in Denmark where he is the 2018 – 2020 ICORN/PEN Artist in residence for the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Karin Boven is the ambassador of The Netherlands to Sudan, Eritrea, Chad & CAR. Karin lives in Khartoum (and sometimes in Rotterdam). She studied Cultural Anthropology in Utrecht and began working for the ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague in 2002. She has been focusing on themes such as conflict, global development and human rights.

Pravini Baboeram  is an artist and activist, creating art to contribute to social change. She is co-founder of action committee Holi is not a Houseparty, a campaign against cultural appropriation of the Hindu spring festival Holi, and initiator of the Anti-racism Voting Guide. In 2019 she released her new album and documentary “The Uprising”, a film about the anti-racism movement in Europe.

The Freedom Lecture

Freedom is something that we in the Netherlands often take for granted. Four times a year, De Balie invites someone who knows from personal experience what it means not to be free. We want to share their stories, spread their message, and learn from their struggle. In the series, De Balie has welcomed freedom fighter like Egyptian writer and activist Nawal el Saadawi, Ugandan LGBT activist Frank Mugisha, Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats, internet activist Esra’a Al Shafei from Bahrain and Patrisse Cullors & Janaya Khan from the Black Lives Matter-movement.

The Freedom Lecture is made possible by Stichting Democratie en Media en vfonds