At this week's Fridays@4, photographer and writer Tom Schutyser will share his research and photography on the topic of the caravanserai, a roadside inn found along ancient caravan routes in the Muslim world.
For centuries, the caravanserai served as staging posts in the Middle East and Central Asia, providing accommodations to traders, pilgrims, and other travelers along the Silk Road that connected China, India, and Europe. The caravanserais were vital nodes in what was, in effect, the first globalized overland network and trading system. Thousands of these caravanserais were built and successfully operated. They survived empires, caliphates, and wars until the demise of the caravan trade. Those that have not vanished have become crumbling ruins or survive as hotels, museum shops, storage spaces, living quarters, or military outposts. In the tumultuous state of relations between the Western and Muslim worlds today, caravanserais are evidence of ancient multicultural exchange and trade. They inspire the quest to find such new platforms of multicultural dialogue for the future.
About Tom Schutyser:
A European national born in Belgium, Tom Schutyser has lived, traveled, studied, and worked in Europe, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. While his professional career in international business has led him through various disciplines and expertise, he has been a traveler, researcher, nomad, restless mind, critical thinker, humanist, and multiculturalism. He, his wife Drieke, and their two kids live in the USA. A documentary photographer and writer with a profound interest in architecture, culture, and history, Schutyser became intrigued by the caravanserais and fascinated by the connections between these centuries-old structures and current international affairs in the Middle East, the West, and the East. His first series of photos from northern Iran resulted in an art collaboration with Gilles Neuray, a series of gallery exhibitions in Portland, USA, and his first solo exhibition in Paris, France, in collaboration with l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture (ENSA) of Paris-Val de Seine. In 2009, another four-month road trip through Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan led to a second visual documentary on the caravanserais. The photographic series “Caravanserais in the Levant” has been exhibited in Lebanon at Silk Factory in Beiteddine and at Art Lounge in Beirut, and a group photography exhibition at Springbox in Portland, USA. The book “Caravanserai, Traces, Places, Dialogue in the Middle East” was published with 5 Continents, Milan, with the support of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Learn more about Tom Schutyser's work.
What is Fridays@4?
On most Fridays at 4 pm during the academic term, PSU School of Architecture students and faculty gather to hear from professional designers and architects, academics, visiting artists, innovators, and students in the program. Fridays@4 is a perfect way to wrap up each week of intense creativity in the studio and get inspired for the productive weekend ahead.
Free and Open to the public. All are welcome.