Hamja Ahsan at the art residency in Ljubljana

In March 2020, Hamja Ahsan, the recipient of the Grand Prize of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, had a residency in Ljubljana. He was selected by the International Jury, consisting of Emily Apter, Jaroslaw Lubiak, Ištvan Išt Huzjan and Pablo Larios for his project Aspergistan Referendum, and will traditionally be presented at the next Biennial of Graphic Arts with a solo exhibition.

Hamja Ahsan (b. 1981) is an artist, writer, activist and curator based in London. He is the author of the book Shy Radicals: Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert. In 2013, he founded the DIY Cultures festival of creative activism, zines and independent publishing, and has been its co-curator ever since. His recent writing was anthologised in No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990. He was shortlisted for the Liberty Human Rights Award for the Free Talha Ahsan Campaign on US extradition, prison and the War on Terror. He is currently working on a project about the role of zines in the Hillsborough Justice campaign, Britain’s largest known police cover-up. He has been a guest lecturer at various UK and US universities.

A referendum on secession asked the Biennial venues of Ljubljana in the summer of 2019 to join the breakaway Aspergistan Federation: the national homeland of Shy, Introvert and Autistic spectrum peoples as constituted in the book Shy Radicals. From ballot boxes to a national anthem, to social-media hashtags, the Aspergistan Referendum continues Ahsan’s interest in what he calls a “global Introfada struggle against Extrovert-supremacy”.

The national anthem of the Republic of Aspergistan is the murmuring sound of a shell. Everything suggests, however, that the concept of the book and the project that followed is much louder. A short film based on the book was also made.