Symposium II: Movement and Identity

This is the second symposium that brings together perspectives from research and arts to interrogate movement and identity through experiences of migration, citizenship, participation in the contexts of climate change, creative interventions into citizenship, violence and solidarity with refugees in a range of geographical and political contexts.
All welcome to drop in for one session or the whole day! Free to attend. For more information visit whoareweproject.com.

Programme

12:15 - 1:15pm: Movement and Immobility: Catalan Political Prisoners

Georgina Blakeley, The Open University and Joan Soler - Adillon, Royal Holloway University in conversation with Clara Ponsatí, Saint Andrews University

This panel reflects on the situation of Catalan political prisoners, through Joan Soler - Adillon artwork ‘In Pieces VR’, an experimental documentary on the effects of political imprisonment and ex ile, based on case of the current Catalan political prisoners in Spain and in conversation with Clara Ponsatí who was the Minister of Education in the Catalan Government during the 2017 referendum. She exiled to Belgium and then moved back to Scotland.

1:30 - 2:30pm: Desire Lines

Robert Herian, The Open University and Lucy Atherton

Interweaving poetics of longing and bureaucracy, artist Lucy Atherton and legal scholar Robert Herian explore the phenomenon of desire lines within a landscape of post - ind ustrial regeneration. Through film, photography, maps, and writing, Atherton and Herian describe how desire lines exist as more than direct or efficient ways around planned space , but as psycho - political imprimaturs, functions of recognition, and means of escape.

2:45 - 3:15pm: Tales of Precarity

Tim Butcher, The Open University

Precarious workers are defined by the International Labor Rights Forum as those who fill permanent job needs but are denied permanent employee rights. As labour markets tran sform, precarious work increases. To be seen to be independent and successful is becoming a necessity for many, but significantly affects worker wellbeing. Such precarity is something that artists have long experienced. Yet this does not necessarily mean t hat precarity is any easier for artists to live with or discuss. In this session Tim will present visual stories of seven socially engaged artists generated from discussions about their artistic practices in the context of their sense of precarity. During the presentation, Tim will discuss with two of the artists their experiences of the project, what they contributed to and gained from the research process, what might be learned from this study about how to pursue important work in increasingly precarious labour markets, and how and why we might seek to better understand precarious work.

3:15 - 4pm: Talking Transformations: Home on the Move

Manuela Perteghella, The Open University, Ricarda Vidal (KCL & Translation Games), contributing artist Kate McMillan

A talk and pop-up exhibition exploring the changing notions of ‘home’ through poetry, translation and film art. How do we conceive of ‘home’, how do we define it? And what happens to this definition when people migrate, what happens to the memory of the o ld home they have left behind and to the new one they have made for themselves? How does ‘home’ travel? And how does it ‘arrive’? And how is movement received by those who ‘stay put’? The project is intended to be a platform for a positive debate around mi gration. Manuela Perteghella and Ricarda Vidal will present the project and walk through the exhibition, followed by a conversation with contributing artist Kate McMillan, whose work incorporates a range of media including sculpture, film, sound, installa tion and photography ( www.katemcmillan.net )

Convened by Umut Erel and Agnes Czajka, Justice Borders Rights Research Stream, Citizenship and Governance SRA, The Open University.