Art, Refuge and Resistance: exhibition and forum event

This was one of a number of CUPP forums that aim to bring together representatives from different groups to share different forms of knowledge: the knowledge that resides in practice, in personal experience or the knowledge that comes from academic research, in order to get a deeper more rounded understanding of a shared concern.

This particular event looked at the role of Art in refuge and as a tool for resistance, and was a real partnership activity involving the City Council, the community group Sanctuary on Sea, two research clusters at the university and a host of individuals and activists with personal insights and experience. 

Hannah Rose Thomas’ work with refugee children in Jordan

Refugee tents, Jordan

The exhibition and the forum provided an opportunity to share knowledge and understanding through images, dialogue, performance and film.

The project began last December when the university was contacted by the city council asking about the possibility of the university hosting an exhibition of the work of a Syrian artist.

Wissam Al Jaziary received a grant from the British Council to exhibit his work, had already taken it to a number of countries but needed also to exhibit in the UK.

The request came to the City Council via a family friend of the artist who had recently arrived in Brighton seeking asylum.

After some initial background research the Cupp team brought together a group of academics, students and Cupp representatives to plan an exhibition and a forum event. This involved booking gallery space, sending letters for visas, trying to access Wissam’s work that was left in galleries in New York and Japan, and collaboration with other partners from different parts of the world. 

However after six months of collaborative working it transpired that the gallery in New York that held Wissam’s work would not release it until he arrived, Wissam needed a new passport before he could get a visa, the passport was issued in Syria and sent overland to him in Turkey, but this was then lost en route.

Fidaa Ataya’s playback theatre performance 

Images of her work have been included in the exhibition alongside those of Hannah Rose, a young woman who has worked in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camps in Jordan decorating tents with children that their families now call home.

Both these two women presented their work at the launch event as well as having images of it exhibited in the Gallery alongside slides of the paintings of Wissam Al Jaziary.

A local group shared their experience of working on a collaborative tapestry, ‘Guernica remade’, revisiting the themes of Picasso’s Guernica in the present day and the event also included presentations from two University of Brighton academics on the role of art and image, and of documentary film making in resistance work.

Hannah Rose Thomas’ work at UNHCR camps in Jordan

PhD student Janina Moninska’s interactive piece of theatre

A representative from Migrant Help in Dover spoke more broadly about the cross cultural power of art and his work with theatre in schools in Brighton to raise awareness of diversity.

After the break a PhD student from the University of Brighton led an interactive piece of theatre looking at a real asylum court hearing, playing this out for the audience in the room and simultaneously screening it to two different groups in the West Bank.

The experience of being led through a court process, and hearing the things that influenced the decision and the decision itself generated different reactions in UK audiences who find themselves hosting such structures, and a Palestinian audience who identified more strongly with the people taken through them.

Making the technology work was a challenge, and the court case itself had a chilling outcome, but the experience generated some enthusiasm from both groups to continue to collaborate in streamed events which the Cupp team intend to explore.

All presenters came together on a joint panel to respond to audience questions in the evening and the event culminated with storytelling from a theatre maker from the West Bank.

With the help of some local actors, Fidaa took us through a traditional Palestinian story about a young girl who loved apples and was captured by an apple ghoul.

After transporting the audience from a room in Brighton to a Palestinian apple orchard, she then gave a demonstration of Playback theatre - explaining how playback is used to share experience and generate resilience.

The combination of speakers: academics, students, community activists, professional art makers, voluntary groups and council officers provided a vibrant illustration of some of the competing voices in the current context where tens of thousands of people are resisting oppression and seeking refuge.

Representatives from the Cupp team said that they were left with a richer understanding of the different perspectives involved and a renewed enthusiasm to work across discipline and sector lines to improve the lives of those affected in whatever way they can.

You can see Fidaa's talk and playback performance here.

The exhibition is on until 16th November in the café gallery at the University of Brighton's Grand Parade Campus.

Please contact our Helpdesk for more information on 01273 643 229 or email cupp@brighton.ac.uk.