Mosque Manifesto

Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence is a hybrid book/art object offering a repertoire of ways in which creative forms of Islamic representation may foster a better understanding between cultures and generate a critical response to nationalism, xenophobia, and religious fundamentalism. Narrated in the form of a manifesto, the book postulates a new theory of the mosque as an ephemeral space that “takes place” through the ritual performance of the congregation. The work deconstructs essentialist expressions of identity in architecture as manifested by the frequent use of domes and minarets as the formal confines of mosque design. My visual critique rests on my decade-long theoretical and historical investigations into mosque architecture. I developed a set of five generative design principles that redefine the mosque in conceptual terms, rather than based on stylistic features. These guidelines allow for a critical playfulness and diversity in representation, which I probe and demonstrate through various artworks published in the book. Mosque Manifesto circulates in public in libraries and bookstores. It is sold and distributed as a book, and it is also exhibited as an art object, often using wallpapers with the manifesto text and the associated manifesto colors. The display is arranged to allow for book reading in exhibitions. 

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Concept, design, and artistic direction: Azra Akšamija 

Research: Azra Akšamija (book text and projects); Foreword: Finbarr Barry Flood; Afterword: Nebahat Avcıoğlu 

Production: Floor Van de Velde (layout, graphic implementation); Publisher: Revolver Publishing Berlin, DE; Printing: Offset Istanbul, TR 

Sponsoring: MIT Department of Architecture, ACT Program, partial support by the Council for the Arts at MIT

Book / object 

Published by Revolver, Berlin, DE 

Materials: cardboard, Munken paper 130g, color print, open spine binding, wall text, wallpaper in 10 colors 

Dimensions: 440 p, ills colour & bw, 11 x 19 x 3 cm

Launguage: English; run 800 pieces 

Wanderjahre #1

Wanderjahre #1 [Journeyman Years] speaks to cultural and political dimensions of labor migration, of which the post-war influx of Turkish migrants in Germany is a classic example. The hard hat references the heavy labor of the first generation of Turkish migrant workers, the Gastarbeiters (guest workers) who were invited to Germany during the economic boom in the 1960s and 1970s. These migrant workers brought cultural traditions with them, as indicated by the 16th century Iznik pottery decoration on the helmet. The hard hat is made out of porcelain to create a contrast between the toughness of a covering used in dangerous labor and the fragility of expatriates’ migratory experiences, especially given that many families chose not to return to Turkey. Today, these guest workers’ fundamental role in creating Germany’s economic miracle is forgotten by nativist protests over the construction of mosques and other markers of Turkish and/or Islamic identity. Controversies over the public visibility of the Turkish minority group in Germany—with echoes of the sinister history of marginal groups in the Nazi era—and increasing polarization over the presence of “Islam in the West,” speak to the old continent’s challenges in coming to terms with its own history of imperialism, colonialism, orientalism, and competing nationalisms. The aim of this project is to destabilize the misconstrued and essentialist perceptions of Gastarbeiters’ identity in Germany by linking it to contemporary global politics of migrant labor and exploitation, also in and through architecture.

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Concept, design, and artistic direction: Azra Akšamija

Production: Nurgün Yavuz (ceramic painting), Ayşegül Aras (assistant designer, ceramic painting), Selim Yazıcı (ceramic craftsmanship), Mahir M. Yavuz (communication), Nina Softić (project coordination).

Wearable device

Project commissioned by the festival New Hamburg by German Theater (DeutschesSchauSpielHaus), produced for the exhibition New Hamburg Gallery in Hamburg Veddel, curated by Adnan Softić

Materials: hard hat, 2 porcelain helmets, ceramic paint, glazing

Dimensions: 25 x 15 x 30 cm

Lace Mashrabiya

Lace Mashrabiya is an instantly recognizable assemblage of woodwork and window associated with Islamic architecture. This project reinterprets the mashrabiya motif to create a multi-sided experience for the spectator. Looking from the outside of the building toward the inside—that is, toward Mecca—the viewer can see the inscription “Allah.” The inscription is designed as a three-dimensional puzzle of individual lace pieces based on Kufic calligraphy. From inside the building, the viewer can see cross stitch-like motifs referencing local Austrian cultural traditions. The choice of lace references the textile history of Vorarlberg and points at the historical intersection between local tradition and global cultural flows. This global aspect continues as new customers from Nigeria and other African countries bring new tastes to Vorarlberg’s textile industry. The project’s superposing of motifs deconstructs the notion of static cultural identities, rendering them visible as an interactive process of cultural exchange.

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Concept and design: Azra Akšamija

Production: Karina Lia Penedo Silvester (drawings), Claudine Pachnicke (project management), VAI team (installation)

Sponsoring: HKG-Embroideries HOFER GMBH, Lustenau, Austria (lace materials)

Photographs: Azra Akšamija, Markus Gohm, Darko Todorovic

Textile installation (2013)

Project commissioned by the Vorarlberg Architecture Institute (VAI) for the exhibition INTERIOR VIEW SOUTHEAST: Investigations of Islamic Spaces, curated by Azra Akšamija, with co-curators Margit Greinöcker and Tobias Hagleitner.

Materials: Lace, wood, fish wire

Dimensions: 750 x 250 x 60 cm

Tempelmarke [Temple Tag]

Commissioned for the exhibition The Turks in Vienna at the Jewish Museum Vienna, the project Tempelmarke [Temple Tag] explores possibilities of activating history through the embodiment of memory. The exhibition explored the history of the Sephardic Jewish community of Vienna that officially existed under the protection of the Ottoman sultan. Its synagogue, designed in Moorish style and called Das Türkische Tempel [The Turkish Temple], was inaugurated in 1887 and destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. The project aims to remember this extraordinary synagogue through the use of small wearable objects called temple tags.

A temple tag is a hybrid of a prayer shawl (tallit) corner and a plastic admission tag that can be attached to clothes of museum visitors. The golden rectangular tag has a hole in its center, though which tzitzit threads (three white and one blue) are led. A simple geometrical pattern is printed on the visible surface of the tag, referencing Moorish/ Islamic geometry, Jewish symbolism, and a design element of the former Turkish Temple (i.e. patterns of the carpet). The tag is golden-metallic, reminiscent of the golden tiles that used to cover the interior dome of the synagogue. The tag occupies and transforms the visitor’s admission by combining it with the corner of a tallit, four of which can transform the visitors’ clothes into a Jewish prayer shawl. With this, the modular character of the work comes to the fore: while an individual tag stands for an admission mark of the museum, four temple tags can form the four corners of a tallit. Ten tallits worn by individuals form the basis for a minyan, representing an abstraction of a synagogue. Thus, the Tempelmarke marks the entrant as a bearer of a part of a Jewish prayer shawl and references the current existence of the synagogue as a ruin, existing only in pieces, in memory, dispersed as was the Turkish-Jewish community. In addition to the tag, the piece includes a video-text installation, which shows the process of knotting a Sephardic type of tzitzit, which informs the visitor about the Viennese synagogue’s history and part of the culture it housed.

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Concept, design, and production: Azra Akšamija and Dietmar Offenhuber

Photographs: Azra Akšamija

Wearable device

Co-authored with Dietmar Offenhuber

Project commissioned by the Jewish Museum of Vienna for the exhibition The Turks in Vienna, curated by Felicitas Heinman- Jelinek, Gabriele Kohlbauer-Fritz and Gerhard Milchram.

Materials: 10,000 plastic admission tags, 1 video

Dimensions: Tags, 3.8 x 7.4 cm each; Video: single-channel, 10 min.

Also see: Akšamija, Azra, and Dietmar Offenhuber. “Tempelmarke.” In Die Türken in Wien. Die Geschichte einer Jüdischen Gemeinde, edited by Felicitas Heinman-Jelinek, Gabriele Kohlbauer-Fritz and Gerhard Milchram, 194–195. Vienna: The Jewish Museum, 2010.

Flocking Mosque

Inspired by the geometric motifs of Islamic art, the Flocking Mosque juxtaposes these patterns with the five daily prayers of quotidien Muslim life. One “flower-circle” of this mosque can accommodate a prayer of twelve worshippers, by providing clean surfaces for those body parts that touch the ground during the prayer ritual. Each flower-circle consists of twelve pairs of slippers, twelve pairs of hand pillows, twelve head pillows, and a center bag with twelve prayer beads. The use of these pillows as “mini-prayer-rugs” is meant to create a visual analogy to religious rules of behavior, which in turn mystically represent the Islamic doctrine of unity in multiplicity, the al-Tawhid.

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Concept and design: Azra Akšamija

Production: Azra Akšamija (prototypes), Ismeta Kratovac (prototype development), “Plasman” d.o.o. Sarajevo (sewing)

Photographs: Azra Akšamija

Textile Installation

Project commissioned by Manifesta 7, for the group exhibition manifeSTATION, curated by Andreas Spiegl and Christian Teckert.

Materials: Textile pillows, prayer beads, qibla compass

Also see: Azra Akšamija, Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2015.

Kunstmoschee [Art-Mosque]

The KUNSTMOSCHEE is an interactive installation that was temporarily located on the external grounds of the Secession at Vienna from July 20th through September 30th, 2007. The project explores the interrelationships between architectural, territorial, and visual manifestations of religion and pluralism in Western Europe. KUNSTMOSCHEE is an attempt to create a hybrid of the religious and the secular space. This architectonic rug-landscape consists of 120 individual modules that together create an ornamental pattern. While the rugs can be used for daily prayer, they also provide a platform for socializing and cultural events. KUNSTMOSCHEE events include lectures, discussions, a carpet-weaving workshop, and screenings of contemporary Iranian films, in order to question cultural biases and focus on cultural diversity through play and sensory engagement. KUNSTMOSCHEE becomes thus a space for gathering and communication between visitors with different cultural needs.

The rugs for this installation were created by supervised groups of over forty Viennese from various age groups who were invited to participate in carpet-weaving workshops, with a premium placed on their diverse professional, religious, or cultural backgrounds as well as personal interests. The individual rugs were distributed among their makers and the program participants at the closing ceremony of the exhibition, disseminating the project to a demographic sample of the Viennese.

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Concept, design, and artistic direction: Azra Akšamija

Research and development: Adelheid Pretterhofer (architecture), Christina Nägele (outreach)

Production: Adelheid Pretterhofer (architecture, production), Christina Nägele (project manager), 60 citizens of Vienna (participatory carpet creation)

Sponsoring: Secession, Vienna; Kodak Austria (material sponsoring); with a partial support by the Council for the Arts at MIT

Participatory project in public space, wooden carpets

Project commissioned by the Secession Vienna for the outdoor exhibition, curated by Barbara Holub and Anna Mayer.

Materials: 120 carpets made of wooden triangles, paint, used ski-poles, rubber ropes, cable binders, screenings, readings, panel discussion, social gatherings

Dimensions: 1 carpet: 80 x 120 x 1 cm; ski-poles: 120 cm

Also see: Azra Akšamija, Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2015.

Dirndlmoschee

Dirndlmoschee is the second project in wearable mosque series (see Nomadic Mosque project description below). The concept is based on assimilating cultural characteristics of a place into one’s own context. The Dirndl, a traditional Austrian dress, is still worn as everyday wear in such places as the little town of Strobl at Wolfgang Lake. The Dirndlmoschee can be transformed into an Islamic prayer environment that provides a prayer space for three people. The dirndl’s apron is made out of a water-resistant material that can be unfolded into three connected prayer rugs. In the mosque configuration, the traditional shoulder scarf opens up into a veil. The silk decoration at the scarf edge playfully references a person’s hair, which is actually hidden by the veil. The belt carries a compass with a carabiner attached, from which prayer beads on ropes are hanging. The prayer beads are decorated with Swiss knives, from which the crosses were not removed, but re-symbolized as a decoration. The project involved discussions in various public spaces, including a communication with local Turkish immigrants, who showed interest in the Dirndlmoschee as a product. The project video documents my Islamic prayer at a pre-existing landscape sculpture in the shape of concentric circles, which provides a reference to Mecca. This piece also references the famous unfolding renaissance Pacher Altar located in the neighboring town of St. Wolfgang.

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Concept and production: Azra Akšamija

Photographs: Rahkeen Gray

Spatial thanks to: Major of Strobl, Veronika and Peter Hitzl, participants and organizers of the symposium Ortung 2005

Wearable device, 12 photographs, video (2005)

Project commissioned by the Cultural Department of Salzburg Government within the International Artist Symposium ORTung 2005 in Wolfgangsee, AT, for the exhibition at the Gallery 5020 Salzburg.

Materials: Local dirndl-dress textiles, 3 carabiners, black rope, 3 Swiss mini-knives, prayer beads, headscarf, single-channel video

Dimensions: dress size, 38 (EU), video, 5 min

Also see: Azra Akšamija, Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2015.

Nomadic Mosque

Nomadic Mosque explores various ways of negotiating spatial relationships between Islamic traditions and modernity in the United States and Western Europe by creating wearable mosques, clothing that can be transformed into prayer rugs. While respecting religious restrictions, Nomadic Mosque aims to redefine traditional forms and functions of mosques in the contemporary context. The intention is to represent identity and religion as a dynamic process that allows change in time and place. The project reinterprets the concept of the mosque based on the Prophet Mohammed’s phrase, world as a mosque, as wearable architecture. The Nomadic Mosque is a minimal-volume mosque, whose design is based on individual needs and experiences. It is a device to transform any secular space into a prayer space. Not only does the wearable mosque accommodate the liturgical necessities, but also acts as a prosthetic device for the worshipper communicating his or her prayers, problems, needs, and desires. The project combines a prototype design for a wearable mosque and a five-minute video that shows ritual prayer in various public spaces. Allowing for the new young Islamic community to speak out, Nomadic Mosque operates as a provocative statement to claim a right to visibility and speak out against marginalization.

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Concept and production: Azra Akšamija

Research and development: Andreas Mayer, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Interrogative Design Workshop (conceptual contributions)

Video: Azra Akšamija (script, editing); Andreas Mayer (camera), anonymous participant at Revere Beach (prayer)

Photographs: Jörg Mohr (photographer); Martin Zoigner, Andreas Mayer, Reno Rieger (light); Dopplinger Light & Grip Vienna (studio and equipment)

Special thanks: Rahkeen Gray, MIT Muslim Students Association

Wearable device, 12 photographs, video (2005)

Project produced as part of the Interrogative Design Workshop at MIT; Project advisor: Krzysztof Wodiczko

Materials: Textiles, qibla compass, prayer beads, zippers, single-channel video.

Dimensions: suit size, 38 (EU), video, 5 min

Also see: Azra Akšamija, Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2015.

Generic Mosque

Generic Mosque proposes a conceptual architectural grammar that can be adapted and changed for mosque designs, defining the mosque as a performative space, and moving away from stylistic parameters. While reinterpreting historical elements of a mosque, this project suggests ways to synthesize learning and interacting between Islamic and non-Islamic contexts, subcultures, and religious practices. The modular structure can aggregate into a hypostylistic mosque. The honeycomb-like floor plan can be infinitely expanded and adapted to any site. The overall system is derived from an Islamic geometric pattern. The roof, façade, and walls consist of hexagonal elements in three different sizes, depending on the spatial use. Each roof hexagon is supported by three steel columns forming an “umbrella.” The conical formation of the columns directed towards Mecca emphasizes the prayer direction. In this way, the entire space takes on the function of the mihrab. In profile, the columns shape the crystal-like formation of differently-sized patterns nested in each other. The roof-hexagons carry differently-colored light and shading elements, which can project patterns onto the floor. Prayer rugs are hung on the façade, which allows for varied use of the interior. By using the prayer rugs, worshippers transform the façade, thus creating different levels of transparency. The ritual act of placing the rug on the floor would stimulate sensors in the roof and affect its color constellation. In this way, the entire roof and façade becomes a reinterpretation of a minaret, here literally shaped as the “bundle of light.” The different visual barriers between male and female prayer spaces would be created through textiles. This allows for fluid spatial arrangements (be it parallel, behind one another, or even zigzag) depending on the community size and its gender arrangements.

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Concept and design: Azra Akšamija

Materials: 40 hexagonal posters on wooden frames, wire models

Dimensions: hexagons with 60 cm diameter; models variable

Production: David Rhöse (graphics, frames); Jason Anderson, William Hartzog, Mathew Haseltine, Ash Lettow, John Morrison, Beth Stryker, Mersiha Veledar, Michael Young, Leslie Witt (models, design, and conceptual contributions); Brian Melcher (video)

40 Drawings and models

Thesis project for M. Arch degree at SOA Princeton University; Advisors: Jesse Reiser, Thomas Leisten

Also see: Azra Akšamija, Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence. Berlin: Revolver Publishing, 2015.