Together with Swedish PEN and Bildmuseet, Accelerator invites you to a conversation between artist Shubigi Rao, Hanna Nordell (Managing Director, Swedish PEN) and Anca Rujoiu (Curator, Bildmuseet). The talk revolves around topics such as banished books and strategies of resistance.

In this talk, Shubigi Rao will introduce Pulp—the artist’s decade-long project so far about censorship, destruction of books, assaults on literacy and libraries, erasure of women’s voices, and loss of languages. With her conviction that “paper will trump rock”, Rao examines the history of cultural obliteration while also sharing strategies of survival and resistance through her books, films, drawings, and photography.

Accelerator Café
Wednesday, 19 March
The talk begins at 18:00
Language: English
Free entry, no registration required

About the artist 

Rao has filmed and written about public and private libraries, as well as pirate and anarchist libraries in numerous countries across the world, with particular focus on regions that have suffered historical or contemporary conflict, from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Armenia to the Philippines. We encounter librarians, researchers, and activists who hide books, rescue damaged collections, publish banned manuscripts, create shadow libraries, and establish alternative networks for shared knowledge. 

This event is organised in collaboration with Swedish PEN and Bildmuseet on the occasion of Pulp I–IV,  Shubigi Rao’s exhibition at Bildmuseet, Umeå University.