January 2009

Stories from Bela Rechka

Thanks to Radmila Mladenova, who sent in translations of a selection of interviews from The Bell Project in Bela Rechka, along with the prize winning essay produced for ‘A Personal Story With A Bell’. You’ll find them posted in the Dialogues section as pdfs to download and read at your leisure.

Laundry Bursary Artists

Laundry has awarded bursaries to four artists to participate in elements of the project in Birmingham & the Black Country and the international exchanges, thus ensuring a development of skills, knowledge and capacity building in the West Midlands region.

Each artist will work for 20 days on the project, participating in the programme and will visit one international partner. They will be given a mentor from our team to assist with induction to the project, and the planning, delivery and evaluation of activity. The mentor will act as a sounding board for their ideas and will work alongside them as appropriate. This will influence the delivery of the project activity, allowing them the opportunity to experience something new, collaborating with a group they may not normally be associated with as well as their skills set. The specific international partner they will visit is both determined by individual particular needs and desires and by the relevant activity of the partner group. Each bursary artist has submitted an outline idea to develop with us.

This element of the programme is supported by Arts Council England.

The artists:
Naz Koser will collaborate with a musician, Ian Chapman to develop artistic/performance work as ‘Sufi Punk’. In order to do this they will be looking at two communities in Birmingham, talking to people they normally don’t talk to, explore a series of questions along the lines of: Who do you want to talk to that you have never spoken to before? Why haven’t you spoken to them before? What do you think they will be like? This work will be presented back as a short performance in the West Midlands and in one of the partner locations.

Jo Loki will work on an International Memory Café, collecting stories and memories in exchange for her memories and coffee and cakes/snacks.  She will use objects associated with her own history to stimulate dialogue so that people will bring their own objects and photographs to the conversations.  She will gather the material for an exhibition/installation and hopes to establish an internet group (on a medium such as Facebook) where people can add subsequently their memories.

Simret Cheema-Innis will use videos and photography skills to tell a story about marketplaces, looking at these as spaces for dialogue and intercultural exchange. She also plans to make a series of motion vignettes interacting with local people to hear their stories and even myths from those who currently live and work for the market stalls, alongside some performance poetry.

Simon Walker will explore the idea of “Intercultural dialogue” in Birmingham, focusing on cultural days of significance to add a celebratory element. He will start by engaging with groups in Highgate (residents associations, young people, schools, police, businesses) and using street interventions to initiate a dialogue. Simon has posted some documentation on his street inventions in Dialogues.

Process

Bev Harvey had posted some thoughts and images about the Birmingham Open Laboratory in the Process section.

Open Lab, Hania:

In December , Brendan and Bev from Laundry visited Hania to negotiate and plan a Creative Laboratory with the Etz Hayyim Synagogue.

We first met with Alex Phoundoulakis (the administrator) in Athens for a few hours during our stopover en route, who briefed us on progress to date. In Hania, we then met with Nikos Stavroulakis, Director of the Synagogue, to gain an understanding of what he hoped to achieve and with Anja Zückmantel, a historian who is working on a PhD Jewish History, and with Konstantin Fischer, who runs a group called Young Citizens of The World (who do multicultural education activities with young people, with an emphasis on culture originating in the African continent). We spent most of the time discussing the ideas and practical issues with Anja and Konstantin. We also met with Nia Foes, a young theatre director who wants to help with the project.

We agreed to help them organise and deliver a week of workshops involving young people (aged 15+)  in April 2009, culminating in a two day open exhibition/event. The aim is to bring together young people from Hania, to make a creative exploration of the centre of the city. This Open Laboratory will function as as Creative Academy which consists of practical workshops with artists, examinin the rich cultural heritage of Hania through a young persons perspective.  The week will culminate in a small exhibition of their artistic responses and findings.
Participants will be drawn from the local high schools and youth organisations as well as the University. The programme will be facilitated by four artists from Laundry UK, and supported by local artists and volunteers from Etz Hayyim Synagogue. The process will use a range of artistic media to gather and present impressions of the city.

Benefits to the groups include: learning new skills and greater awareness of Hania’s cultural past and present. It will be an opportunity to work with international artists who have expertise in the use of creative methodologies within the context of art and heritage.

Outcomes: The project will act as stimulus to develop ideas and further discussions for a longer-term project for the host group and to help them establish relationships with a wider audience.  The work will be a documented and a publication which is planned as part of the overall Intercultural Dialogue project.