Virtual Migrants

art, digital media, performance exploring race, migration, environment, global justice

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June 21, 2020 by koojchuhan

Refugee Week and Black Lives Matter fail to connect

Online film ‘Our Plymouth, This Land’ from our archives connected refugee week and black lives matter before they existed: WATCH NOW

Fifteen years ago Virtual Migrants were one of the few artist-activist groups producing challenging work exploring colonial legacies and their fundamental links with asylum and refuge, such as in this film. ‘Our Plymouth, This Land’ includes a specific critique of the monuments in the UK dedicated to people who profited from slavery, focusing on the slave traders Jack Hawkyns and Francis Drake who are celebrated on the streets of Plymouth. As we end Refugee Week 2020 taking place during both the COVID-19 lockdown as well as the widespread anger and protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and racial justice / Black Lives Matter movements, this film is completely relevant.

Our Plymouth, This Land

‘Our Plymouth, This Land’ stands among a number of testaments to the strong and bold critiques that drove the work of Virtual Migrants during our early inception. It was also created before the wider sets of refugee and migrant organisations developed a more standardised and expansive set of regular yet compromised activities. This year again I struggle with an ongoing depoliticisation within the ‘refugee sector’, in this case how there are almost no focused or substantial connections being made between refugee issues and Black Lives Matter. A quick scan of the hundreds of events during Refugee Week 2020 illustrates this, despite some protests managing to combine the two such as yesterday in Glasgow during World Refugee Day. Conversely, the dominant racial justice narratives surrounding Black Lives Matter appear to give low priority to linking with the incarceration of black and brown people in detention centres and the hostile policing of many refugee communities of colour.

Protest outside HOME arts centre in collaboration with These Walls Must Fall campaign: Refugee Week and Black Lives Matter

A similar scenario took place in 2018, when in March of that year the most significant piece of activism for a decade was carried out by around 120 black and brown women in Yarl’s Wood detention centre who sustained a hunger strike for a number of weeks. The subsequent Refugee Week of 2018 almost ignored that fact, people attending the many events would have been unlikely to register that the hunger strike had even happened. This realisation led me to propose a protest action ‘Hostile Detainment‘ dedicated to the women in Yarl’s Wood as an art intervention when Virtual Migrants were invited at the last minute to deliver ‘something’ for Refugee Week at Manchester’s HOME arts centre.

Looking back on our early work, we were setting a far more polemical, critical and radical tone than many subsequent activities that have developed within the institutionalised framework of refugee narratives. We made direct links between the arms trade, colonialism, deportation, systemic racism, racialised policing, public monuments and then also climate change and environmental justice. The full story of this critical development needs to be better documented but in common with the lack of capacity among most activism driven groups that project remains elusive.

We have always been wary of the domination of refugee issues by a focus on legal processes and definitions, and by artistic developments that focus on descriptive experiences, nurturing talent and the popular easy to appreciate art-as-social-work approach (unable to address the chronic systemic constructions of the issues being explored). More critical and challenging analyses and connections have been muscled out.

Still from the film 'Our Plymouth This Land, connecting Refugee Week with Black Lives Matter
Still from ‘Our Plymouth, This Land’

Some seven years after founding Virtual Migrants, I co-produced and directed ‘Our Plymouth, This Land’ in 2005 working closely with musician Aidan Jolly alongside local artists and communities in Plymouth. The production involves a combination of video art, third cinema and documentary approaches in tandem with a democratic production process alongside a parallel musical structure. Our approach was to facilitate a set of sub-narratives to emerge from the various community-based collaborators, and allow those to be presented alongside each other so allowing inherent resonances to become explicit. This creates a degree of montage approach rather than the usual imposed narrative framework generated to drive home a digestible statement.

At the time, ‘Our Plymouth, This Land’ was described as an “Art-film / documentary exploring the heritage of slavery and imperialism according to the experiences of young refugees and migrants, set to a fusion soundtrack involving Iranian-Kurdish Santoor.” Along with a set of other video and music works it was published on the EXHALE DVD-CD box set which also includes two booklets of writing, poetry and imagery, available at www.virtualmigrants.com/exhale .

'What If I'm Not Real' installation by the original Virtual Migrants artists' collective

The project was part of ‘The Next Breath’ outreach programme during the tour of our Terminal Frontiers exhibition. We had produced a prolific range of critical and ground-breaking work during the years 2001-2006 in collaboration with a wide set of people including those with experience of seeking refuge. Virtual Migrants have since morphed a few times and struggled with a combination of under-exposure, marginalisation and burn-out, yet despite the challenging times we are working hard in a new format focusing on performance-led activism.

As the world focuses on the way racial oppression and the often violent abuses of human rights play out particularly against people of African descent, the forces that drive those symptoms and the set of ideologies and wider process that they mutually feed off often remain hidden. There are a good many advocates for systemic change but the definition of what that is remains elusive for most people. Avoiding a gradual drift towards the status quo will not be easy, especially when there is such little crossover between parallel movements such as those around refugee advocacy and Black Lives Matter. Asylum, deportation and migration issues are central to both Refugee Week and the movements for racial justice relating to Black Lives Matter.

– Kooj Chuhan

December 23, 2019 by Sai Murray

Breathe! reconnect: recover: reclaim social space

Virtual Migrants and Numbi Arts presents:

BREATHE!
reconnect: recover: reclaim social space

 

artwork: Amber Perrier

 

“Breathe!” takes inspiration from Numbi‘s legacy of local/global art for change and Virtual Migrant’s methodology of protest performance, to explore the internal and external space of our communities, calling attention to the privatisation and commodification of social spaces.

The history of struggle, resistance and community in East London is rich and vibrant. Yet perhaps now more than ever, our communal spaces are under pressure. The whirlwinds of rising property prices, rents, gentrification, surveillance and over-policing are destroying connections with neighbours and breaking up long standing communities; spaces that we rely on for solidarity, health and conviviality; places where we can meet, connect, share food, dance, sing, breathe.

 

Through a FREE one day creative workshop (as part of Arts Admin’s #2DegreesFestival) with artist/ activists we will explore and create performance artworks on the themes of reconnecting to community and reclaiming social space, to be performed in a location the following week.

WORKSHOP – Sunday June 2nd 2019
12pm – 6pm
@ Rich Mix, 39-47 Bethnal Green Rd, E1 6LA

———————————————————————————–

PERFORMANCE – Sunday June 9th 2019
– meet at 11am  – location tbc (3 hours)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 

Virtual Migrants connect art, digital media and performance with new aesthetics and perspectives exploring race, migration and global justice. They create, exhibit, perform and distribute work that can be installed in galleries, performance venues, public or community spaces.

www.virtualmigrants.net | @VirtualMigrants (Facebook) | @VirtualMigrants (Twitter)

Numbi Arts CIC is a non-profit organisation based in London that creates cross-art projects and works collaboratively with artists, educators and peer organisations, providing a range of inspiring opportunities for communities to engage with local/global art for change, contemporary arts and heritage. Somali-originated African-centred, with globally inclusive programming and outlook. 

Numbi.org | @numbiarts (Facebook) | @numbiarts (Twitter) | @numbiarts (Instagram)

To sign up please send us your details via this online form

#2DegreesFestival

This event is also part of #NumbiFest 2019.

October 15, 2019 by Maya Chowdhry

Interplay Now crossover music with webcasting

A project developed by Virtual Migrants in Sheffield (UK), Interplay Now enables new musical collaborations across different cultures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZtMsb7Jzfw
The final 2019 performance by Interplay Now, titled ‘Greater Than The Sum’

Interplay Now a new project bringing together very different musical genres, cultures and communities to create new music, and to encourage deeper understanding of the background to that music both artistically and socially using educative journalism. The UK is rich in having a very diverse range of cultures and the innovative possibilities through bringing us together are mostly underused. The project involved a significant training programme – in music, video, webcasting and journalism (also to a lesser degree, photography).

Webcasting with training for Interplay Now
Webcasting with training for Interplay Now

Interplay Now has it’s own website www.interplaynow.org – head over there for all up-to-date information with full details about the project. The project aims to bridge divides, generate artistic innovation and develop organisational skills among local people. We have also developed three micro-commissions connecting unusual pairs of Sheffield based musicians. Interplay Now hopes to catalyse the future evolution and understanding of musical crossover. We aim to use educative webcasting to develop audiences and influence musical and creative practice.

Interplay Now Collective rehearsing and developing new music

Interplay Now Collective

Interplay Now first full concert performance 1st August 2019 at Theatre Deli

Our project’s starting point was with a diverse group of people mostly who arrived as refugees, who created original material to perform, talk about and webcast a range of music created during the weekly project sessions. This is the Interplay Now Collective. The first live presentation on 20th June 2019 at Theatre Deli preceded a performance by Avital Raz at Sheffield’s Migration Matters festival during Refugee Week, more details at www.migrationmattersfestival.co.uk/full-programme-2019-b/my-jerusalem . The next was a dedicated performance of their own at Theatre Deli on 1st August 2019 – InterplayNow Collective LIVE with Arash Sabet.

Artist Commissions to create original crossover music

Six artists were commissioned to create new music in three pairs crossing over their very different genres and cultural backgrounds in unusual ways. The final presentation of the commissioned pieces took place at an event ‘Greater Than The Sum‘ on 9th October 2019 – a truly spellbinding and exhilarating event.

Greater Than The Sum - header image for final Interplay Now concert on 9th October 2019

In 2019, the commissioned artist pairs were:

Kate Griffin and Mina Salama
Mina Salama and Kate Griffin Two musicians grounded in their traditions, Arabic, UK folk and Bluegrass, playing instruments derived from some of the oldest in the world. With Oud, Nay and Kawala flutes, Qanoon and Armenian Duduk, Guitar, Banjo and voice as their palette.
Shu Jiang and Dirty Freud
Shu Jiang and Dirty Freud A Shangai trained musicologist and expert player of Chinese zithers meets a British DJ and electro-dub producer of Caribbean heritage. Possibly the most radical combination of the evening combining delicacy and drive, grace and guts.
LNA and Avital Raz
LNA and Avital Raz A Scandinavian in Yorkshire making melancholic electronic sounds meets experimental folk music from a Sheffield based singer via Varanasi and Jerusalem . Two voices and an array of instruments including guitar, tanpura, and keyboards.
 

PLUS… The Interplay Now Collective

The original Interplay Now trainees

Music inspired by refugee members’ roots and journeys from Sudan, Syria, DRCongo, and the UK. Expect uplifting narratives, sung in a variety of languages, and media journalism creating a vivid cultural context through video projections. >> More about Interplay Now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YQsG6hDsaE
Example of our developing a webcast format through training people from refugee backgrounds

We need your support to build this new project further – please SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ujhN7adteCnU7Fa9g4WvQ and also please like our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Interplay Now is an amazing project run by Virtual Migrants in collaboration with Sheffield Refugee Council. We are also generously supported by SADACCA Studios who provide a fantastic space for us to work in. Other partners include Theatre Deli (Sheffield) and Koni Music, we are also grateful for financial support from Awards For All and the Arts Council England.

Interplay Now - logos of funders and supporters

May 13, 2018 by

Migrant Frontiers, Hostile Detainment: creative activism

Two FREE events before and after a screening of ‘Human Flow’ by Ai Weiwei: ‘Migrant Frontiers’ and ‘Hostile Detainment’, both with a strong political agenda and dedicated to the hunger strike at Yarlswood detention centre by over 100 detainees just two months ago.  They are taking place at HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, M15 4FN Manchester, on Thurs 21st June 2018.  More info, plus GALLERY of images from the protest event:

 

Migrant Frontiers

Migrant Frontiers8.30pm – 10.30pm, the café-bar at HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester M15 4FN

In conversation chaired by artist-filmmaker-activist Kooj Chuhan with guests veteran migrant rights campaigner Tony Openshaw, Mariam Yusuf who is currently seeking asylum, and the ‘These Walls Must Fall’ campaign.  Live poetry from Sai Murray with musical backing will punctuate the discussion.  The panel will reflect on the Human Flow film, the injustice of immigration detention, the history of migrant justice and the work of Virtual Migrants who are marking 20 years of art and activism.  [Read more…]

October 1, 2015 by Maya Chowdhry

90 Degree Citizen – keynote exhibition for Platforma 2013

an exhibition by Virtual Migrants + performance / discussion events
on show at the Manchester Museum 10th October – 17th November 2013
90DC-A5flyer-back
migrant art – alternative connections – cultural boundaries
A rare exhibition of work by a new wave of visual artists whose experiences include life as refugees in the UK engaging with objects from The Manchester Museum

Opening event:
In Conversation with artists and curators plus live music from Emmanuela Yogolelo
Thursday 10th October, 6.00 – 8.30pm
FREE to attend, but please register at www.90degreecitizen.eventbrite.co.uk

Produced in partnership with Street Level Photoworks (Glasgow), Manchester Museum and GM Immigration Aid Unit.  Part of Platforma 2013 national festival of arts and refugees.

Special performances / discussions on 10th and 30th October, starting at 6pm.

90 Degree Citizen presents artworks that resonate with experiences of migration and refuge. They represent a sample of a new wave of expression in the UK outside of the limitations of western art schools and markets, often with a greater interest in symbolism, narrative and cultural hybridity.

Exhibiting artists include [Read more…]

October 27, 2014 by koojchuhan

‘Doh Mix Meh Up’ exhibition in Oxford presents video art ‘Buy This (v3)’

This weekend on 1st Nov 2014 the ‘Doh Mix Meh Up’ Exhibition in Oxford presents video art titled “Buy This (v3)” on race-migration-climate issues by Kooj Chuhan / Virtual Migrants.

The ‘Doh Mix Meh Up’ exhibition

More info:

‘Doh Mix Meh Up’ – Diaspora and Identity in Art

A free one-day exhibition and performance programme exploring the role of the arts in understanding, expressing and experiencing diaspora.

1st November 2014, 3pm – 10pm

Panel Discussion:
‘Exploring Diaspora through [Read more…]

September 4, 2014 by koojchuhan

Unlawfully shooting working #migrants in #Greece #racism

Important story from the Guardian this week about farm guards shooting working migrants in Greece at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/greece-migrant-fruit-pickers-shot-they-kept-firing .  Some extracts here:

Greece’s migrant fruit pickers: ‘They kept firing. There was blood everywhere’

Last year, Greek farm guards shot at illegal migrant strawberry pickers, wounding 35. When a court acquitted them this summer, there was outrage. At the camp, where they continue to live like slaves, the workers share their stories

Is a man worth nothing when he is branded illegal? Tipu Chowdhury has spent the past 17 months wondering. The answer has not been easy. Even now, after being forced to endure subhuman living conditions, after being starved and worked like a slave, the Bangladeshi does not speak ill of Greece. Instead of anger, there is resignation, an almost fatalistic acceptance that this is the life meted out to those who go “undocumented”.

Had he and his fellow strawberry pickers not been shot at – had the case not reached the courts and the men who did the shooting not been scandalously freed – he might not have pondered the question at all.

“When they pointed their guns at us, and there were around 200 of us gathered in that space, we thought they were joking,” says Chowdhury of the April 2013 attack. “After all, we hadn’t been paid for more than five months. We couldn’t believe it when they actually began shooting.”

This week, unions, anti-racist groups and peasant workers’ associations will launch a solidarity campaign in support of the Bangladeshis, starting with a mass demonstration timed to coincide with a speech the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, will give on Sunday outlining the government’s economic policy at the international trade fair in Thessaloniki. As preparations get under way, 33-year-old Chowdhury has found himself reliving the events of that day, one that would go down as the worst assault in Europe on migrant workers in living memory.

(full story continues at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/greece-migrant-fruit-pickers-shot-they-kept-firing )

This website mostly features our work from 2013 onwards, for previous work go to: www.virtualmigrants.com

on sale: EXHALE box set of DVD & CD

on sale: EXHALE box set of DVD, audio-CD, booklets – socio-art exploring asylum/refuge

5 years of video, music and digital art engaging with asylum and migration in a new world order, now on sale

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Virtual Migrants refuse to take any oil, coal, or gas corporate sponsorship for our cultural work.

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