Professor Millie Chen along with Arzu Ozkal Present Silk Roads Songbook

We are very excited to share with you the soft launch of our project, SRS (Silk Road Songbook), to take place at the OCAT Museum in Xi’an, China next week within a larger exhibition entitled, “Songs of a Futile Journey: Silk Road Songbook Songmingyan.” We will show a work-in-progress version of the SRS immersive audio-video installation.

SRS is a socially driven, interdisciplinary, multilingual project, led by Millie Chen and Arzu Ozkal, that weaves songs into the land, broadcasting unruly voices on a major ancient Eurasian migration route, challenging Orientalist exoticism, cultural tourism, and censorship. The songs were created in collaboration with participants in communities along the route.

Since 2017, Chen and Ozkal have been traveling along the Silk Road meeting and workshopping with artists, musicians and scholars. https://www.silkroadsongbook.com/journey

Ironically, since being confined by the pandemic, we more easily traversed the invisible lines of national borders by working remotely with one another. And sadly, due to travel restrictions, we cannot be in Xi’an to attend the exhibition, but are still very happy to be sharing information about this long-term project with everyone.

• Ontario Arts Council: The Ontario Arts Council is a publicly funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians, awarding grants and services to Ontario-based artists and arts organizations. https://www.arts.on.ca/
• The American Turkish Society: The American Turkish Society is the oldest non-for-profit, apolitical organization based in America dedicated to building bridges between the United States and Turkey in order to achieve common goals of peace and prosperity. https://www.americanturkishsociety.org/
• Department of Art, College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo: University at Buffalo is a premier, research-intensive public university and a flagship institution in the State University of New York system.The Department of Art is dedicated to developing creative and academic skills in studio art, post-studio art, graphic design, aesthetics, critical theory, and art history, integrating innovative approaches and new practices within contemporary culture. https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/art.html
• School of Art & Design, San Diego State University: SDSU is the largest university in San Diego and the third largest in California. The School of Art and Design is dedicated to educate, support, and empower a diverse student body to become active participants in the evolution of art and design, and create positive change in local and global communities. https://art.sdsu.edu/
• Humanities Institute, College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo: University at Buffalo’s Humanities Institute is one of the most important entities supporting the humanities in Western New York. It provides a forum for conversations among humanists of all disciplines, supporting scholarship in the humanities in questioning, comprehending, and transforming an increasingly complex world. https://humanitiesinstitute.buffalo.edu/
• United University Professionals: United University Professions is the largest higher education union in the USA, representing the faculty and professional staff of the State University of New York system.