Dr. Adnan Madani
Staff details
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Contemporary South Asia and its diaspora, Islamic philosophy, race, curating, theories of justice, globalisation
Adnan Madani is an artist, curator and theorist, working on issues in contemporary South Asian and Muslim global and diasporic cultures, as well as on philosophies of globalisation, race, and intercultural encounter.
Academic qualifications
- PhD, Goldsmiths, University of London 2016
- MA Contemporary Art Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London 2006
Teaching and supervision
I am currently a co-convenor of Advanced Practices, an interdisciplinary postgraduate programme within Visual Cultures. I also teach "Curating and Justice: Race, Representation, Reparation" on the MA Contemporary Art Theory, as well as teaching across several modules on the BA History of Art, including "Contemporaneities" and "Space and Time".
My current PhD supervision topics include "The Post-photographic Image", "Images of Violence in Mexico's Visual Culture", "Evangelical Christianity, Art Activism and Political Care in Brazil", "The Leisure Archives of British-Indian Soldiers in the Second World War", and "Hysteria, Possession and Women's Bodies in Brunei".
Research interests
As part of the research cluster in Philosophy, Critical and Visual Theory, I work in the areas of continental philosophy, as well as in ordinary language analytic philosophy and non-Western (specifically Islamic and Indian) philosophy. A significant part of my research has drawn on Wittgenstein's later work, especially in relation to issues of incommensurability, culture, value and forms of life. I have also written on Jean-Luc Nancy, Talal Asad and on the philosophy and anthropology of religion more broadly. My current research explores the relation between the curatorial and ideas of justice, from spaces of transitional justice in conflict zones to contemporary exhibition making and forensic practices.
Featured publications
2024:
Visual Cultures as World-Forming
Book, co-authored with Jean-Paul Martinon
2022:
"The Frame as Borderland"
Book chapter, in "Bani Abidi: The Artist Who"
2020:
The Ghost in the Projector: New Pakistani Cinema and its Hauntings
Book chapter
2018:
Cloud Memories, Desert Dreams
Journal Article
2016:
Art Sabka? Pakistani Cinema Reflected
Curated Exhibition
Publications and research outputs
Book
Martinon, Jean-Paul and Madani, Adnan. 2024. Visual Cultures as World-Forming. Berlin: Sternberg Press. ISBN 9783956795374
Book Section
Madani, Adnan. 2022. The Frame as Borderland: Islam, Allegory and the DIstance from Here. In: Saira Ansari, ed. Bani Abidi: The Artist Who. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, pp. 134-149. ISBN 9783775752886
Madani, Adnan. 2021. Rana Begum's Abstraction. In: Anita Dawood, ed. Rana Begum: Space, Light, Colour. London: Lund Humphries, pp. 163-167. ISBN 9781848225329
Gaur, Meenu and Madani, Adnan. 2020. The Ghost in the Projector: New Pakistani Cinema & its Hauntings. In: Vazira Zamindar and Asad Ali, eds. Love, War & Other Longings: Essays on Cinema in Pakistan. Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press Pakistan, pp. 48-72. ISBN 9780190701857
Article
Madani, Adnan. 2020. On Reman Sadani's "Walkout 1". Jerwood/FVU Awards 2020: Hindsight,
Madani, Adnan. 2018. The frame as borderland: Secular gazes and believing bodies in Bani Abidi’s The Distance From Here (2010). Moving Image Review & Art Journal, 7(2), pp. 236-250. ISSN 2045-6298
Madani, Adnan. 2018. Cloud Memories, Desert Dreams. Hybrid, Journal of Visual Culture, 1(1),
Art Object
Madani, Adnan. 2023. The Gardener and the Terrorist.
Madani, Adnan and Alesworth, David. 2019. Phasmid Project, Fig.1 and Fig.2.
Printed Ephemera
Madani, Adnan. 2020. Terra Nullius.
Professional Activity
Madani, Adnan. 2024. Advisory Board Member, Suleman Annual Grant for Arts (SAGA).
Madani, Adnan. 2023. Member, Board of Studies of the Graduate Programme (MPhil in Art and Design), Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi.
Madani, Adnan. 2022. CHASE selection panel 2022.
Show/Exhibition
Rana, Rashid. 2021. Eart: A Manifesto of Possibilities. In: "Eart: A Manifesto of Possibilities", Manchester, United Kingdom, 1 - 18 July 2021.
Madani, Adnan; Abidi, Bani; Dadi, Iftikhar and Talpur, Mohammad Ali. 2016. Art Sabka?: Pakistani Cinema Reflected. In: "Art Sabka?: Pakistani Cinema Reflected", Foundation for the Museum of Modern Art, Karachi, Pakistan.
Thesis
Madani, Adnan. 2016. Formations of the Contemporary : Islam, Globalization and Art. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professional projects
I am an Academic Board Member for the Postgraduate Programme at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, and an Advisory Board member for the Suleman Annual Grant for Arts. I am also a regular visiting lecturer and examiner/juror at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi and National College of Arts, Lahore.