Refugee Week 2022 in Dublin
A collaboration between Fire Station Artists’ Studios Dublin & Counterpoints Arts London.
Artist-to-Artist Interdisciplinary Practice: Language/Memory/Displacement
FSAS with its proud legacy of social engagement, works with artists who catalyse conversations between people and places. Never has this been more important.
Working with Counterpoints Arts London, alongside artists and curators, we ask you to join us for a roundtable about refugeeism and displacement and the boundaries of language, identity, history and memory. The conversation will take place in the context of Refugee Week, which in 2022 explores the theme of healing as a form of mutual, civic and collective care.
It will be navigated through the prism of two intergenerational, interdisciplinary practices: the poetry, performance and curated events of Caroline Bergvall, and the hip hop dance, theatre and fashion/design work of Tobi Balugun. Our aim is to open a space between artists, art forms and other cultural actors to speak to the urgent issues of our time.
Moderator: Áine O’Brien, Curator of Learning and Research and Co-Founder, Counterpoints Arts
Please RSVP to: helen@firestation.ie with the subject Refugee Week Round Table by 10 June 2022
Artist-to-Artist Interdisciplinary Practice: Language/Displacement/Memory is associated with Hip Hop Pedagogy and Power – Reclaim the Archive, an intergenerational place-based programme initiated by Counterpoints Arts in 2019 with artists, educators, digital producers, curators, archivists and activists. http://www.reclaimthearchive.com/
Biographies
Caroline Bergvall
Photograph credit: Thierry Bal
Of French-Norwegian heritage, based in London, Caroline Bergvall is an award- winning poet, artist and performer. She works across languages, artforms and media. Widely recognised for her contextual performances and writing practices working from contemporary audio-visual modes, multilingual and queer identities and histories. Her performances and installations are shown internationally: Tate Modern (London), John Hansard gallery (Soton), Callicoon (NY), Jewish Museum (Munich), Fondatio
Tapiès (Barcelona), Khoj Art Centre (New Delhi), Pompidou Centre (Paris), Listening Academy (Berlin), Dublin LIFF, Audiatur Festival (Oslo). Awarded multiple fellowships and commissions and a Cholmondeley Award for Contribution to Poetry (2017) and the Art-Literary Prize Bernard Heidsieck-Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Her current cycle Sonic Atlas explores languages in/out of context and includes the sunrise performance Ragadawn (European tour 2016-18) and the nocturnal Nattsong (Turner Contemporary Gallery, 2021), with composer Gavin Bryars, and sound-designer Jamie Hamilton. Her online Night & Refuge (2020- ongoing) is a live collaborative writing event across timezones. Books include: Alisoun Sings (2019), the final volume of a trilogy exploring medieval and contemporary languages; and source materials include: Meddle English (2011) and Drift (2014).
Tobi Balugun
Photograph credit: Owen Behan
Tobi Balugun is a Nigerian born, Dublin based, Multidisciplinary Movement Artist working primarily in Dance and Fashion. A professional member of Dance Ireland, Tobi has performed for and created community-led performances and projects with many artists/companies such as CoisCeim, Cathy Coughlan, Story of the Sei, David Bolger and more. He was the recipient of the Create AIC Scheme Bursary Award 2020: Collaborative Arts and Human Rights. This period of research and critical reflection stemmed from an interest in delivering high quality arts engagement to Black-Irish communities
and in expanding points of access for young Black Artists. A recipient of the Agility Award 2021, he carried out a residency in Dance Ireland to begin the research process for ‘Ára’, a theatrical dance piece portraying masculinity through a fusion of Hip-Hop cultural styles, Afrobeats and traditional Nigerian dance.
As a curator, Tobi has partnered with Smashing Times to produce, ‘Eascair – A Black Irish Renaissance’, as well as Dance Ireland for Black Canvas Curations, a month packed with urban classes. Both events highlighted local teachers from diverse backgrounds. Over the last 5 years, Tobi has established himself as a new voice in sustainable Irish clothing, creating bespoke pieces for specific events and commercial video work, as well as made to order designs for his own clothing line – SELF MADE.
