In association with the Migration Museum Project
16 June: 3:30 – 6 pm
The Ditch, Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London

Artists are often astute observers of the intricate – idiosyncratic – processes of place-making. They are able to document the everyday minutiae shaping the cultural diversity of local places. Yet artistic practices of place-making demand deep collaboration, encouraging (interdisciplinary) methodologies of trust, participation, and democratic/experimental modes of representing ‘voice’ and collective agency for communities of place.

This Learning Lab focused on the work of artists who are engaging in place-making practices through the prism of migration, memory and the lived realities of the global city.Using video, still photographs, maps, sound and text, Haim Bresheeth and Reza Tavakol’s installation ‘Convivencia’ (co-existence) explores the mixed cultural heritage and everyday life on Turnpike Lane, North East London, where more than 100 languages are spoken and people from all parts of the world live in close proximity.

James Russell Cant’s collaborative photographic portraiture series, ‘Home Cooking’, uses food as an anchor for refugee memories and place-making – wherein shared recipes, cooking and eating enact a rich performative site for cross-cultural exchange and engagement.

Respondents: Bobby Lloyd, ‘The Drawing Shed’; Marcia Chandra, ‘Everyday on Canalside’; Reem Charik, Febrik; Alice Sachrajda, The Young Foundation; Professor Phil Marfleet, University of East London

Image (top):’Wedding in Park’ – Convivencia: The Turnpike Lane Project, Haim Bresheeth and Reza Tavakol, 2015.
Image (in text) Home Cooking, James Russell Cant 2012.

Learning Labs form part of the Out of Place Action-Research Platform (a project led by Counterpoints Arts’ Learning Lab, in partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London and FilmAid).