Event Details
'Auf der Flucht 1945 / Fleeing in 1945', by Mara Loytved-Hardegg. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)
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| Exhibition and associated activities: | Suitcases: Telling Textile Travels /Maletas: Contando Viajes Textiles |
| Description: | A belief that arts can inspire social change and enhance inclusion and cultural integration of refugees & migrants is central to the mission of Counterpoints Arts (CA) a leading UK organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change. In partnership with other organisation across the UK, Counterpoints Arts manages Platforma, a network of groups and artists whose work examines the varied experiences of refugees. Beginning in 2011, a biennial Platforma festival has taken place in a different part of England. Platforma 6 will take place across Yorkshire in October 2021 with Conflict Textiles as a collaborating partner.
Conflict Textiles input is comprised of three core elements:
1) "Suitcases: Telling Textile Travels /Maletas: Contando Viajes Textiles" online exhibition incorporates 23 international textiles from the Conflict Textiles collection focused on global displacement, both historical and current, its multiple impacts and the experiences of refugees both before and after they arrive and settle in their host country.
2) A 13 minute film offers an in depth insight to these multi-layered textiles and emphasises their three dimensional, tactile nature. Exhibition Launch & Film Premiere, 2pm, 1st October.
Suitcases: Telling Textile Travels / Maletas: Contando Viajes Textiles (with English subtitles).
Maletas: Contando Viajes Textiles / Suitcases: Telling Textile Travels (with Spanish subtitles).
3) Online guided tour, 2pm, 4th October.
4) Presentation of selected exhibition textiles followed by a question and answer session, 4 - 5pm, Friday, 22nd October. This is part of a two-day programme of afternoon arpillera workshops (2pm, 22nd/23rd October) and associated activities, led by Tatiana Hernández-De Ceapóg, Leeds University Union, LS2 9JZ see programme details
An associated event Conflict Textiles and CAIN: Learning the Language of Textiles, provides a comprehensive background to the origins, development and mission of the Conflict Textiles physical collection and online archive, 2pm, 6th October. Webinar recording.
Several Conflict Textiles initiatives took place in the context of UK Refugee week 2021, (14 -20th June) and World Refugee Day, (20th June) which will feed into and enrich our contribution to Platforma 6:
1) WE CANNOT WALK ALONE – Refugee week 2021 - Online workshop programme (Limavady, Northern Ireland). Participants created arpillera dolls responding to the theme “We Cannot Walk Alone”. The finished dolls formed a collective banner which has since been displayed in two locations.
2)This 6 minute film was produced by ARK Refugee and Asylum seekers in Northern Ireland: Public attitude data from Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey illustrated through Conflict Textiles
3) Every Action Counts – Making arpillera dolls - Outdoor workshop, Letterkenny Amnesty group, (Donegal, Republic of Ireland). Participants made an arpillera doll for local refugee families, as a gesture of welcome and in the spirit of World Refugee Day 2021.
4) Similar solidarity events took place in Argentina Caminemos juntos (let us walk together), Germany Gemeinsam mutig!/brave together and Catalonia Caminem junts (In Catalan); Caminemos juntos (In Spanish); and Let us walk together (In English). |
| Commissioned by: | Counterpoints Arts (CA) |
| Date(s): | 1st October 2021 - 7th November 2021 |
| Venue: | Online
Yorkshire, England |
| Curator: | Roberta Bacic and Breege Doherty |
| Facilitator: | Tom Green, Counterpoints Arts |
| Outcome: | The film about the exhibition has been viewed more than 1,000 times, allowing people from across the world to view the textiles and learn something about their creation and context. The live tour also enabled people to ask direct questions and get a more in-depth understanding. The exhibition was connected to other online and live events in the Platforma 6 programme, that looked at both textiles and Latin American culture in other forms. These events included a creative textiles session with schoolchildren in Leeds, and an online seminar about the influence of refugee designers, including textiles designers, who came from Europe to the UK in the 1930s and 40s. |
| Documents: |
• Textile list, Platforma 6, July 2021 - view
• Platforma 6 programme, Oct / Nov 2021 - view
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