Spreading CreaActivity: With Venice Art Factory and UNHCR.
I chaired a panel exploring refugee experience and creativity to mark the closing of Rothko in Lampedusa - an inspiring exhibition of artwork by refugees.
The Rothko in Lampedusa exhibition ran from May to November 2019 and featured work by established international artists and younger refugee artists. I’ve worked with the event’s curators Venice Art Factory for a number of years, and we’ve often discussed the issues around migration and artistic practice together. So I was keen to support them on this particular project, which was organised in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The closing event ‘Spreading CreActivity’ consisted of two panel discussions exploring refugee experience and creativity. I was delighted to be joined on my panel by my colleague Sue Clayton, filmmaker and Professor of Film and Television at Goldsmiths; Lina Abirafeh, Executive Director of the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University; and Carlotta Sami, Spokesperson for Southern Europe at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Our discussion focused on the human experience of refugee women and girls: Sue Clayton set the scene with a clip from her award-winning film Calais Children: A Case to Answer, and explored the journeys taken by refugee women and girls to reach safety. Sue explains: “Women know the secret and less dangerous places – the women’s route – far from riot police, tear-gas and violent confrontation. Not taking the risks that young men do, they take a long view, with patience, persistence and female comradeship as their tools. These qualities, I argue, support their resilience: their most creative act is their own survival.”
Read the full post on my blog.
