MIGRATION LAB: ART/HUMAN RIGHTS/REFUGEES

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Migration Lab Partners: Counterpoints Arts, Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Immigrant Council of Ireland and the Irish Film Institute

Supported by:  The Community Foundation of Ireland, British Council, Creative Europe Desk Ireland – Culture Office
 and Arts Council of Ireland

Artists communicate what is often difficult to put into words, saying with clarity and directness through imagery or making something that shows urgency and purpose. It is these qualities that Artists can bring to bear on one of the biggest crises of our times, as a catalyst for action and for the assertion of human rights.

This Call to Action for Artists and for Civil Society lies at the heart of this gathering in Dublin, standing in solidarity with Refugee Week UK and beyond.

RSVP: artadmin@firestation.ie

For further information: hello@counterpointsarts.org.uk/artadmin@firestation.ie

To access and circulate Migration Lab programme, click here: Dublin Learning Lab programme

PROGRAMME: 

We citizens should pay attention to the artists and push back against politicians who are trying to hold us back into 19th Century fantasies about who “we” are. Francois Crépeau, Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants

Are artists and cultural practitioners leading the way, making bold, creative interventions where others are constrained by the fields of policy and politics? What can the arts and culture contribute to what is, arguably, one of the most pressing issues of our time? How can we work together to bridge the gaps between arts, advocacy, activism and policy?

Migration Lab Dublin explores the current humanitarian, forced migration crisis from a cross-sectoral and partnership perspective. It aims to connect people and projects working primarily within the creative arts and culture yet in dialogue or collaborating with development and NGO agencies, academics, cross-sector practitioners, activists, policy influencers and technology innovators.

Date: Tuesday 14 June

Venue: Irish Film Institute, Eustace Street, Dublin 2 Time: 18:00

Screening: Fire at Sea (Rosi, 2016) – Post-screening discussion, Chaired by broadcaster/journalist, Norah Casey, in conversation with journalists Razan Ibraheem, Ismail Einashe and Calais activist, Karen Moynihan.

The European migrant crisis has found its cinematic Pietà in Fire At Sea, Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s powerful, at times shocking but also intensely human documentary about the life of Lampedusa, a small, windswept Mediterranean island of around 6,000 people, which in the last 20 years… has seen 400,000 sea-borne migrants pass through – and off whose coastline 15,000 more have died. (Lee Marshall – Screen Daily, 2016)

Date: Wednesday 15 June

Venue: Octagonal Exhibition Space, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2: Time: 9.30 – 6:00 pm

9:30 – 10:00: Registration and tea/coffee

9.30 – 10.15: Tour of Calais Builds installation with architect Grainne Hassett, who works directly in the Calais Refugee Camp. Grainne will install an iteration of her work in the Octagonal Exhibition Space, showing what direct action produces – architecture as a mode of collaborative design in landscapes shaped by human displacement.

10:00 – 10:15: Welcome and Introduction to Migration Lab by Áine O’Brien, Co-Director, Counterpoints Arts, London and Helen Carey, Director, Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Dublin.

10:30 – 11.15: Public Interview with architect Grainne Hassett, Director of Calais Builds. Conducted by Niels Righolt, Director, Danish Center for Arts & Interculture.

 11.30 – 12-15: Open Discussion:

chaired by Áine O’Brien and Helen Carey.

Rapporteurs: Ismail Einashe, Sally Labern (the drawing shed), Brian Killoran (Immmigrant Council of Ireland), Marta Wallander, R.M.Sanchez-Camus.

12:15 – 1:00: Refugee Week UK: Art, Networks, Public Engagement, presented by Almir Koldzic, Co-Director Counterpoints Arts.

1pm – 2pm: Light lunch

2.00 – 3.30: Creative Europe: Working Together and Challenges/Opportunities of Cross-Border (Mis)Translation – exploring the creative opportunities and challenges of pan-European co-operation and shared partnership values; and the reality of different (country-specific) understandings of ‘integration’, histories of migration, civil rights and citizenship.

Chair: Monica Corcoran, Strategic Development Manager, Arts Council of Ireland
– Panel Discussion with questions from the floor.

Panelists: Chrissie Tiller, Voice of Culture – European Expert; Niels Righolt, Managing Director, Danish Center for Arts & Interculture, Copenhagen; Maureen Freely, President, English PEN; Ailbhe Murphy, Director, CREATE, National Development Agency for Collaborative Arts, Ireland; Jumana Al-Yasiri, Middle East and North Africa Manager, Sundance Institute Programme and IETM Network.

3.30: Break

3:45 – 5:15: Where Art and Activism is Found

Refugee Rights Data Project, Marta Wallander;  Altered Landscapes, Juan delGado
Art Refuge, UK, Bobby Lloyd; Art Spark, R.M. Sanchez-Camus

Rapporteurs: Maureen Freely, Dijana Rakovic (Counterpoints Arts), Denise Charlton (Denise Charlton & Associates), Almir Koldzic and Jillian Edelstein (Photographer)

5.00 – 6:00: Open Forum:
Creative Calls to Action – possible provocations and cooperative actions across borders, practices and organisations.

6:00 – 7:00: Closing Reception:
– Light refreshments to finish the day.

Lab Information desks include: Creative Europe Desk Ireland – Culture Office; and Refugee Week.

The practical format and design for Migration Lab follows Counterpoints Arts’ Learning Lab programme, allowing different actors to engage and work together on a topic or challenge. The emphasis is on peer-to-peer learning/sharing, thinking/doing and partnership building.