Deeply Rooted: The Library Series

The project includes archivists, researchers, cultural workers and artists who preserve and provide access to the myriad knowledge systems shaping our societies. Together with audiences, we explore how knowledge can be formed, shared and challenged.

Complimenting the public programme is the work carried out at OCA to renew its library and make it more accessible to the public. OCA’s library will become a research space where discourse, critical inquiry, artistic practices and the public converge. As part of this work, OCA will add to and expand its broad collection of exhibition catalogues, artists’ books, monographs, journals, as well as books on curatorial practice, critical theory, art history and philosophy.

The title of this public programme is drawn from the term the deeply rooted, coined by artist and curator Sundus Abdul Hadi. She defines the term as “…communities who are connected not just through struggle, but through deeply rooted ancient identities, familiar spirits, and shared experiences of resistance…” The intention of the event series is to confirm and map the cultural experiences and interpretative frameworks that bind deeply rooted communities together, while simultaneously investigating both the production and consumption of knowledge.

'Deeply Rooted' is curated by Piniel Demisse, as part of her one-year position at OCA, which is supported by Arts Council Norway.