In his video work Metamorphosis Chat, on view at UMMA through March 27, Turkish artist Ferhat Özgür offers a warm and intensely personal experience of what has become a complex moral debate within Turkish culture: wearing the headscarf. Two women, clearly dear friends, decide to swap clothing—one woman is wearing a headscarf and no other adornment, the other more modern attire—and experience what it's like to literally and figuratively walk in each other's shoes. Their expressions of friendship, compassion, and respect for one another, are symbolic of the potential for human kinship and understanding. Join U-M Institute for the Humanities Curator Amanda Krugliak, and Professors Gottfried Hagen (Turkish and Near Eastern Studies), Christiane Gruber (History of Art), and Heidi Kumao and David Chung (School of Art and Design), for an informal and dynamic discussion that will consider Özgür’s piece from cultural as well as artistic points of view.

5:30 pm Metamorphosis Chat (9:25 min), Media Gallery
6-7 pm Discussion, Multipurpose Room