The role of art in keeping civic space open

Event details

Artists and activists will discuss the role art has played in keeping civic spaces open in the pandemic.

Throughout 2020 the Arctivism project from the Human Rights Defender Hub supported collaborations of activists and artists across the world responding to the outbreak of Covid-19 and its implications for human rights defenders, activism, and shrinking civic and political space.

Through film, music, spoken word poetry, story telling, zines, theatre, drag performance, murals, painting and sculpture 26 projects from 21 countries countered restrictions to civic and public space, limitations to rights and freedoms, and the stifling of dissent.

In a new series of Arctivism Conversations artists and activists will discuss the role art can play in promoting human rights and in affecting social change.

Chaired by participatory film-maker Emilie Flower, the first conversation will explore the role art can play in keeping civic and political spaces open in times of emergency, and in particular how artists and activists have responded to the recent pandemic. The panelists will discuss the ways in which artists and activists can push back to promote and protect human rights.

Joining Emilie are:

Pamela Enyonu is a multi-disciplinary artist who recently collaborated with Emilie on the project Development Alternatives which explored how the arts can expand civic space, political imagination and development alternatives.

Rochelle Porras is from the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER) in the Philippines and led the Arctivism project ReImagining Resistance.

Wezile Mgibe is an art practitioner whose interdisciplinary practice encompasses performance, film and installation as a a tool for social change; his Arctivism project is The Politics of Displacement.

WE WILL SEND YOU A LINK TO THE WEBINAR THE DAY BEFORE THE EVENT

Please send any queries to hrdhub@york.ac.uk