Reading group
Close Readings: LIFE AS POLITICS

Close Readings is UKS’ monthly, no-preparation-needed reading group. We kick off a new season with the first of three reading groups hosted by Afrang Nordlöf Malekian as part of his social practice commission Dance Party Revolution: Oslo.

In this session Nordlöf Malekian invites us to dive into Asef Bayat’s Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East. The book examines how dispersed individuals and families enact subtle, everyday actions that challenge authoritarian systems without organised protests or centralised leadership, to realise collective endeavours – a concept Bayat refers to as ‘social non-movements’.

The project developed at UKS by Nordlöf Malekian, Dance Party Revolution: Oslo, engages with the concept of mehmani – Iranian home parties. In this session of Close Readings, Nordlöf Malekian invites readers to think with Bayat about the potential of these gatherings as everyday covert resistance – a ‘quiet encroachment of the ordinary’ – where dispersed, yet shared, embodied practices might subvert tradition.

You can find the text here. You are welcome to read it in advance but do feel very welcome to come unprepared.

All levels of engagement and questions are welcome. With this series, we aim to create a safe and open environment for reflection and learning, even when the reading material is challenging.

Everyone is welcome to join!

Access

The event is spoken in English.

UKS is wheelchair accessible.

We do not have sign language interpretation. Please contact Maria Stephansen at m.stephansen@uks.no if you require sign language interpretation and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Further information about visiting UKS can be found in our access note here.

Image above: Afrang Nordlöf Malekian, Keeping up with the Iranians, 2022, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. Photo: Malin LQ.

Image below: Cover of Asef Bayat’s Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East. isim / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2010