The World is Our Corner: Neurodivergent Homelands and Landscapes
Hamja Ahsan

In his book “Shy Radicals: Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert”, Hamja Ahsan envisions a transnational liberation movement and a utopian homeland—Aspergistan—for neurodivergent, quiet people and introverts. His presentation will explore the expansive practice of Shy Radicals, which extends beyond the book through film, installation, zine archives, and, more broadly, as a decentralized curatorial culture.

Hamja invites İpek Burçak, the first artist to bring the concept of Aspergistan and its coined terms into another space through her risograph book “The Autistic Turn” and its accompanying multidisciplinary practice in sound, publishing, film, and performance.
Joining the conversation, artist Sarah Browne will present her film project “Echo Bones: A Parallel Play”, which reinterprets Samuel Beckett’s fiction by working with a community of autistic young people in the landscapes of Ireland.
These practices speculate on a shared future within real and imagined worldscapes, beyond the pathological, medical, and corporate frameworks.

Hamja Ahsan is a London-based artist, writer, curator, and activist. He is best known for the book “Shy Radicals: Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert”, which envisions a utopic homeland for quiet, awkward, and neurodiverse people. Based on the language and formats of liberation movements, he imagines a Black Panthers for introverts struggling against extrovert supremacy. His artwork “Aspergistan Referendum” won the Grand Prize at the 2019 Ljubljana Biennial. His transdisciplinary practice extends into social justice movements, mental health institutions, and Muslim diasporic spaces. He was shortlisted for the Liberty Human Rights Award for the “Free Talha” campaign in 2013, which opposed extradition and detention without trial under the War on Terror. He co-founded DIY Cultures, a festival of zines and creative activism, which ran from 2013 to 2017 in London, UK.
In 2019, he participated in Art & Protest: What’s There to Be Mad About?, curated by Dolly Sen at Bethlem Gallery, London. Recent group exhibitions include Documenta 15 (2022) with the Halal Fried Chicken project – which forms the basis for his forthcoming book Radical Chicken; Absenced (2024) at Malmö City Library, Sweden; The Possibility of Not Having Been: Seven Decolonial Interferences (2023) at Santa Mònica, Barcelona.

Hamja Ahsan is part of the editorial collective for “Asylum: The Radical Mental Health Magazine”.

Website: https://www.hamjaahsan.com