#end_of_empire

Exhibition installation

The Technology Centre, Nelson
29.9 - 29.10. 2023
Opening times: Thursday - Sunday 10am - 4pm
Participatory concert: Saturday 30.9 at 4pm (BOOK HERE)

I have been working with a community in Nelson for over a year and the result of this commission will culminate in an exhibition installation entitled #end_of_empire.


#end_of_empire is an interactive, site specific large scale installation of knitted photographs with incorporated touch sensors and an AI generated interactive soundscape.
The project explores themes central to the artist, Eva Sajovic’s work: colonialism, the climate and ecological crises, the role of the artist in imagining alternative futures, and the need for collaboration with the “more-than-human”, including Artificial Intelligence (AI). 


By taking symbols of imperial power, commonly set in imposing stone, and translating them into soft fabrics to be interacted with, the project alludes to a future transformed.
#end_of_empire  is commissioned by In-Situ and the British Textile Biennial (BTB) for BTB23 in Nelson, Lancashire. Artist Eva Sajovic has been working with local participants and the musician Nicola Privato. During the exhibition (October 2023) a programme of events will be delivered around the project’s themes.


For more information you can watch my introduction here and listen to the podcast where I am in conversation with broadcaster Amber Butchart and artist Christine Borland.

Research & Development residency @iiL

I am spending a period of research at the Intelligent Instruments Lab (iil) in Reykjavik, Iceland. Collaborating with musician / composer Nicola Privato to develop a piece of haptic textile / sound work. Friday, 10 February we will be presenting this work-in-progress to the visitors at the Open Lab, engaging them in the participatory design of an interactive installation.


Friday 10 February, 3pm

iil, 4th Floor

University of the Arts Iceland

Þverholt 11, Reykjavik, Iceland


Supported by the CCW Research, University of the Arts London & the European Research Council

Plantscapes

Exhibition, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London 20 - 27 May

Plantscapes confronts the relationship between humans and the natural world, in the age of climate and ecological breakdown, through sound interaction with the plants the artist uses to dye textiles. This is a collaboration with sound artist Nicola Privato.

Short documentary of the exhibition, directed by Shona Hamilton, 2022


Hanging By A Thread

solo exhibition at Gallery Bozidar Jakac, 7 May - 31 July 2021

Eva Sajovic, Hanging By a Thread, 2021. Exhibition view at GBJ – Božidar Jakac Art Museum, Kostanjevica na Krki (2021). Photo: Jaka Babnik

Miha Colner, curator of the exhibition, in conversation with Eva Sajovic

EvaSajovic is an artist, educator and activist who has been primarily focusing on pressing social and environmental issues. Her artistic practice addresses important dilemmas of contemporary global society which is confronted by ever-faster climate changes, having direct as well as indirect consequences on the everyday lives of people, as they lead to migrations, ideological violence and changes in work patterns.
In GBJ – Božidar Jakac Art Museum she prepared an exhibition entitled HangingBy a Thread that revolves around three ongoing works, Ecology, PicturingClimate and All Rise for the Planet, which Sajovic has been developing since2015 with various visual art, performative and educational approaches focused on the phenomena of increased climate instability and environmental uncertainty. Furthermore, she also created an entirely new artwork for the exhibition, which is linked to the aspects of local ecology and cohabitation with the environment.

In her artistic practice she has been combining art, anthropology, independent reporting and ecology, with which she has been trying to draw attention to the unsustainability of the currently dominating principles of constant growth of production and consumption and the slump caused by the domination of economic interests over people and the environment. During the preparations of the exhibition we have been conversing about different aspects of her work – about her concepts, world views, artistic decisions, intentions, use of artistic media and role of art in the society.

You have always explored social issues, locally and globally, such as climate change, social injustice or migration. Why do you use art as a medium to address these issues?

I guess art is what I do; but it goes deeper than that. I initially studied and graduated in law completing BA level in Ljubljana, and later MA level in Paris and Utrecht. My subject was international law in relation to human rights issues but my MA thesis was on international protection of indigenous art, with case studies of Aboriginal,Indian and African art. However, I never felt comfortable and familiar in the area of law; on the other hand, issues of social justice are still present in my artistic work.

But to go back to your question: why using art as a platform? Art has an important role to play in changing people’s perceptions of the world. We learned that visual communication, design and advertising have the ability to shape our understanding of the world. People often read visual language of symbols and signs without deliberating much about its true meaning, but when it comes to advertising, this language has turned to planetary destruction because it is all about consumption. It is urgent for artists and others active citizens to provide a counter: a visual language that reveals what lies beneath the glossy veneer of consumption and which raises consciousness of the urgent need for transformative social and politicalchange.
Art is less limited than law, where one is bound by certain procedures, and inart there is more space to maneuver in order to expose certain questions.

Art has relative freedom ofexpression which is, on the other hand, very limited in the mainstream media.But art also has limited outreach. How do you cope with that?

When we change the way people see the world, already we change the world. Not the artist in isolation, but in the context of a wider ecosystem. Art may not reach a mass audience directly. But when it influences activists, journalists, young people and others it influences the broader culture indirectly.

Yes, it is important to avoid elitism in artistic practice. I like to work at the interface of political processes, working with local people and others on the frontline, exploring from one situation themes of wider relevance. An example was my work around the“development” of the Elephant & Castle area in London, which raised issues of displacement and neocolonialism.

What was the aim of the Elephant and Castle project?

The project was a response to regeneration plans in this area which, in other words, is gentrification.International financial capital invades with the aim to colonise the existing community to make profit according to its homogenised business plan. For instance, there is a shopping centre in the area, which is an iconic building, an architectural masterpiece, that has been used as a community space, despite being privately owned. However, vested interests portrayed it as an “eyesore”,paving the way for its removal. I started talking to local people, for whom the shopping mall was a community base and meeting place, photographing them and eventually the project became a portrait of the area and a counter to the negative portrayal. The shopping mall is going to be demolished. That particular battle has been lost. But by exposing the processes at work, the aim is to strengthen the resistance to the overall trend.

This issue of financial capital displacing communities is seen all around the world. The principle is generic.A developer comes in and builds something that doesn’t really contribute to the local economy because the new shops mostly belong to corporate chains, which find complex ways to avoid paying tax.

We started running People’s Bureau where people would learn about different models of economy from each other, sharing skills, from sewing to grief-counselling. We wanted to show the potential of an economy based on exchange of human capital as an alternative to the economy of ongoing growth, greed and exploitation.

How do communities survive in such a transient city as London?

That is the exact problem we have been facing. One of the issues is the way properties are built nowadays (not only in London) where flats are organised like boxes, to maximise profit, and are not spacious enough for a family or for any form of communal life; they are the building blocks of a rootless, individualised society, which works against the emergence of communities of resistance. But London still has many council estates, a reminder of the more idealistic visions of the 1970s, with lots of green spaces where people socialise. The fact is that architecture dictates the ability to create community and very often new buildings don’t have any communal or public spaces. In her book The Life and Death of American Cities the journalist Jane Jacobs wrote that communities don’t need interference and that they thrive when they police themselves.

But such communities are being driven out of London through the forces of “regeneration”. In these new gentrified neighbourhoods, the emphasis is on private property, reinforced by the police state, culture of surveillance and private security. London remains a diverseCity and a home to cultures and communities from around the world. But for many, life is increasingly precarious.

You also made a piece about homelessness which became a serious issue in London in the past couple of years.

Homelessness hasn’t been properly understood, largely because of mischaracterisation by the corporate media. I wanted to address it in my work because there is a lot of homelessness but very little understanding about what it actually means. There is a lot of misunderstanding who a homeless person is – it is not just somebody who lives on the street.

We worked with members of the public following a principle of sortition – a principle of random selection in order to gather a genuine cross-section of views. We worked with the Sortition Foundation and we sent out 1000 letters of invitation in the Southwark borough to get people to take part in the project. We then formed a group of 18 people including some homeless people. We invited professionals to brief us on different aspects of homelessness including legal. In the end the group took certain decisions that were later presented in the local parliament.

How important for your artistic practice is direct communication with people?

Direct communication is crucial; I call it socially engaged practice. On the other hand, I don’t like the idea of an artist who is independent or abstract observer of the world. Art is always political, sometimes even on an unconscious level. Therefore, I involve other people mainly for two reasons: because art is relevant to understand the political crisis that we are facing, and also to provoke a discussion about the role of art. I am not an expert on social issues and therefore I usually invite people who know better how to present problems that concern them. I can’t speak for somebody else and I reject the idea of giving people a voice which I find insulting. Instead I try to create platforms for people to represent themselves.

I can also identify with certain marginalised groups because I can connect myself to their stories; I have always felt an outsider, even on a personal level, because my family didn’t conform to what was normal, and growing up I was very self-conscious about my height. I have always felt myself to be outside of the mainstream and that also shaped my artistic practice.

There is a notion that no other thing had such a huge impact on society as individualism where everybody wants to be unique and special. In your practice you connect social and climate issues. How much does individualism as such affect climate change?

Individualism is having direct consequence in destruction of communities, and in turn, individualism becomes a cycle again. If by individualism we mean that everybody fends for themselves first, it is a no go strategy. On a very basic level I see it this way: “I make shoes, you grow rice; if we are not going to collaborate, it won’t work.”
We’re also seeing Governments and corporations embed the culture of individualism and consumerism to avoid accountability for climate breakdown. We are encouraged to think we can tackle the climate crisis by purchasing “climate friendly” products, and that it is just a matter of making the right consumer choices. That is a lie. We are in an extreme crisis, which cannot be solved by buying the right shampoo. We need a radical transformation of the entire political economy.

In the present society the principle is more like: »I am special, you are special, and now we compete«. Most of us were brought up in that way.

Back in the late 19th century,William Morris equalled capitalism to war. He said: “Capitalism at best means pursuing one’s own advantage at the cost of somebody else’s loss.” In short, according to Morris, competition is war, and the society is in the state of perpetual war. He also said: “there are certain definite obstacles to the real progress of man; we can tell you what these are, take them away and then you shall see.” But there is no real system behind that. Slavoj Žižek once said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.But this is now the urgent role of the artist – to fertilise the imagination around alternative ways of ordering ourselves. For most of human history, most advanced societies flourished without capitalism, something capitalism has made us forget.

True, popular culture is all about confirming the claim that this system doesn’t have an alternative.

I strongly believe the present system has an alternative. It is true, I don’t know what this alternative may be but I am sure that an alternative is possible. And if we want to continue to live on the planet we will have to find it because there is nowhere else to go. And there cannot be infinite growth on a finite planet.

In his recent book Down toEarth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime philosopher Bruno Latour claims that if all the people of the world started to live a lifestyle of the middle classes in the West, we would destroy the planet. So this very complex equation suggests that social equality and climate justice are somewhat excluding themselves?

We are already destroying the planet, even as things are. The pandemic is a symptom of the devastation of ecosystems.We are in the middle of the 6th mass extinction, the climate is already dangerously unstable, and people are already dying and being displaced at scale. The shit is hitting the fan and we would be made to carry on as we are.In the West, we must reduce our consumption and change the goal from growth to sustainability.
I have this conflict with my own art; is what I am making just creating more destruction, do we really need more things? I can also apply these concerns to everyday life and, for instance, to clothes we wear; how do we produce them, how do we look after them, how do we dispose of them, how do we acquire them?Before I started my research I didn’t even know that the clothes we wear are not only damaging the environment through the process of their production but also through their maintenance; every time we wash our clothes the synthetic substances leak into the water system, while it takes around two hundred years for a piece of clothing to decompose. When researchers analysed selected clothes and their fibres, it turned out that the chemical findings don’t necessarily correspond to what is written on the labels. It is very difficult to get clear information about what things are really made of. So I am interested in the surplus of production, where things are coming from, from source to product.

That is why I abandoned my photographic practice, the dark-room and the use of chemicals, and am reconceptualising photography through weaving and a process of natural dyes.

What about the impact ofoverpopulation which is very unpopular and politically incorrect issue? Nobody wants to talk about it but we know that human beings are the invasive species of today.

Of course overpopulation is part of the current crisis. But it is sometimes used to point the finger at Africa andAsia, which is a false and divisive way to understand what is happening. It is the West that has developed and exported a globalised economic model that demands more and more markets for their products and an ever expanding supply of cheap labour. In other words, it is the capitalists economic model which is the cause of the exponential growth in population. My observation of younger people that I am in touch with is that they are very aware of that issue. Many of them claim that they don’t want to have children which is an important consideration. Their common question is what would they bring a child into? And furthermore, there are already too many people on the planet. I’m not saying people shouldn’t have children. I have two children. Given the situation we’re in, having children, against such odds, may be seen as a radical act of hope.

Most of your works are made in collaboration with other people. It seems you are following the idea of the collective enterprise.

I often work with my fellow artists because we have more diverse skills together, and it is also more exciting and effective to make decisions collectively. I also work with people from other disciplines, academics, scientists, students, activists or general public. This is the ecosystem I talked about earlier and it is amazing to combine different skills. Of course, working in a group can also be challenging because nothing in this life is really straight forward; in a group it is inevitable to negotiate because we always have different views, but for me that is the only way to make sense out of all that. And also, if I am not part of a community I don’t have any integrity to speak about things that concern us all.

When I worked on the project about poverty, entitled The Roles We Play, it was powerful because the entire piece was constructed together with people who personally experienced poverty. They are the real experts on the subject, more so than social workers and other professionals dealing with poverty.

Recently you have been working on a couple of long-term projects about climate instability. The first one is called Ecology. What is your intention with this piece?

I call the Ecology project a body of work that is composed of different smaller pieces about ecology and constant changes in the environment. The aim was to have a conversation about nature and to decolonise our perspective of it; the West has this inherent attitude of exploitation towards nature that I think originates in our religion. Nature is something which is subdued to the human and humans can do with nature, including animals, whatever they want, just because humans have got consciousness and the natural world apparently doesn’t. I profoundly disagree with that. I thinknature has got consciousness and now we are starting to feel it as well. The objective of the project was to have a discussion about different perspectives of equality. We are part of nature but we shouldn’t anthropomorphise it; instead we should treat it as an entity with rights, equal to human rights, and in fact the precondition to the fulfilment of human rights. I was influenced by the works of Michael Marder and Timothy Morton but also with the changes in the environment that I was observing. I started thinking back to my childhood and how I lived with my grandmother who was much more integrated with nature; we farmed our garden and we ate from it.

The project started with the residency at Darat Al Funun, contemporary art centre in Amman, Jordan, where I became interested in the issue of Syria which is a neighbouring country.Between 2007 and 2010 there was a massive draught in Syria which researchers have suggested was a major factor contributing to the (still ongoing) civil war. As  a result of the drought, people moved internally and also across the borders. It highlights how everything is connected. What happens in Syria affects us in Europe as well because these people had to move because of war and climate change. That was the starting point and I continued to work with farmers in Jordan.

So, you are pointing at the fact that we can only act globally?

Yes, climate change is a global threat: the result of a globalised political economy, based on extractivism and the destruction of nature for profit. One way or another that system will change. The question is whether it collapses, with catastrophic consequences, or whether it can be transformed and repurposed before it’s too late.

On a more personal level, I try to use whatever platform I have at my disposal to support communities of resistance, whether this is my small artistic platform in London and my network, or my position in academia, however small it is. Things work as a chain. Every action counts as we aim for a political tipping point.

In your piece PicturingClimate, you showcased three case studies: Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cuba. However, you didn’t only show the downsides of climate issues in but also examples of good practice such as urban gardening. Can urban gardening be a solution for the probable food shortages in coming decades?

That can definitely be a solution. I will give an example from London. A former farmer who lives nearby centralLondon is looking for a piece of land to rent for farming because he believes that he can be 80% self-sufficient. So it is possible. The other thing is permaculture which is becoming a very important tool to green the desert inJordan which was part of my research. People there are starting to cultivate the desert by applying principles of permaculture, composting and particular kind of water systems, all natural, and they are now starting to green arid land. So there is a lot one can do but we need more time to do so, and in this system that runs so fast, nobody has got any time anymore because we are made to believe we don’t. But actually we are just running on a treadmill, like hamsters, not even having time to think about what we are doing.

I think one of the roles of art and the artist is to slow us down – to jam a spanner in in in the wheels of the juggernaut that is speeding towards the cliff edge.

Miha Colner

Eva Sajovic, Hanging By a Thread, 2021 (video still)


Testing Ground residency at In-Situ Pendle

Laser cut text on MDF board, woven pouch from paper yarn

As part of the In-Situ’s Testing Ground residency I stayed on a socially distanced, week-long residency at The Garage, Brierfield. Combining research, participatory social action and weaving, I set out to explore local people’s relationship with textiles and the area’s local plants.

To gain insight into properties and histories of local plants, I met with the herbalistDanielle Kay for a walk that introduced me to Pendle’s diverse offerings of herbs, roots and other plants. I collected samples of these plants to create and experiment with natural dyes. I was in particular interested in the nettles and ground elder. I experimented with these plants’ potential as natural dies and began weaving with nettle yarn.

After exploring the local mills, I also met with the local group Mums2Mums to talk about the group’s relationship with textiles, community and the future of work in Pendle. We discussed the contemporary relevance of weaving, shared work and industry in Pendle.

The result of these encounters and experiences led me to design and produce Pass It On game that consists of questions to encourage reflection on the theme of work in a community and instigates a conversation that might not have otherwise been had.


BAUHAUS: UTOPIA IN CRISIS

𝘜𝘛𝘖𝘗𝘐𝘈 𝘐𝘕 𝘊𝘙𝘐𝘚𝘐𝘚,created in collaboration between Nova Artspace and Camberwell Space in London will be on view in a window on campus of Bauhaus-Universität, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 7 / back yard, 99423 Weimar from 26 May 2021, accompanied by a large scale projection on the facade of the UniversityLibrary.

BAUHAUS: 𝘜𝘛𝘖𝘗𝘐𝘈 𝘐𝘕 𝘊𝘙𝘐𝘚𝘐𝘚was an exhibition and symposium at Camberwell Space, University of the ArtsLondon / Camberwell College in 2019, curated by Prof. Daniel Sturgis.  It focused on contemporary, international and multi-layered perspectives on the100th anniversary of the Bauhaus and the social, utopian and transgressive aspects of its history.

For the second part of this project, NOVA has invited the selected artists to contribute a limited edition or unique work inA3 format that relates to the 2019 exhibition. At the same time, NOVA is testing the format of the traveling portfolio exhibition, thus addressing issues of accessibility, visibility and international collaboration at a time when all of these seem to be impeded.

Participating Artists:
Juan Bolivar, Liam Gillick, Hopscotch ReadingRoom, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Ad Minoliti, Sadie Murdoch, Judith Raum, HelenRobertson, Eva Sajovic, Schroeter + Berger, Alexis Teplin, Ian Whittlesea

Curators: Prof Daniel Sturgis, Katharina Wendler
NOVA team: Felix Deiters, Coretta Klaue, ElenaKohnen, Fabian Reetz, Till Röttjer, Rio Usui

#utopiaincrisis #novaartspace #novaspace #camberwellspace #weimar #london #bauhaus #bauhausuniversity #bauhausuniversität #contemporaryart #contemporarycurating


^^^ At the beginning of May 2020, People's Bureau (Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies), along with writer Sarah Butler and film maker Shona Hamilton put out a call for artists to respond to the questions

What is home?
What might the future of living look like?
What is the role of the artist in today's political, economic and social context?

Please join the successful artists, Nicola Privato, Julene Robinson, Ryan Skelton, Luzmira Zerpa and Omar Rocha, Katrina Wilde and Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos to share the outcomes of their at-home-artist-residencies. A rich mix of music, poetry, performance and visual art, performed live online on May 15th 2020.


This Is A  Call – Online Event

Date: Saturday 16th  May 2020, 18:30

Location: Zoom  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82975137128

At the beginning of  May, Peoples’ Bureau (Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies), along with  writer Sarah Butler and film maker Shona Hamilton put out a call for artists torespond to the questions
·       What  is the role of the artist in today's political, economic and social context?
·       What  is home?
·       What might the future  of living look like?
We are using  funding from the AHRC best Research in film award, given to our latest project,  UnEarthing Elephant, a film exploring  and celebrating the value of the much maligned Elephant and Castle shopping  centre, to support this initiative.

Please join the  successful artists, Nicola Privato, Julene Robinson, Ryan Skelton, Luzmira  Zerpa and Omar Rocha, and Katrina Wilde to share the outcomes of their  at-home-artist-residencies. A rich mix of music, poetry, performance and visual  art. The works will be punctuated by work from Andreas  Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos. You are invited to join us on zoom at 18:30. We look  forward to seeing you there.
Please note that the performance will be recorded and turned into  a moving image art piece for exhibition purposes at a later point. Please mute  your audio and turn on speaker view.
You can choose to switch your video on or off. If you do not wantto  be identified please change your name.
Artist Katrina Wilde will be delivering a durational  performance/workshop during the performance. If you would like to take part  please prepare:
·       A  needle
·       Some  thread
·       Something  that needs mending that you've been putting off doing

A call to  question.

A call to  object.

A call to  say no. Enough.

There are  other ways of living.

There are  other other ways of moving forward.

Call-out for five at-home-artist-residencies

We  are Peoples Bureau (Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies), writer Sarah Butler and film maker Shona Hamilton, who  have worked together in Elephant and Castle, South London, since 2007. Our  latest project, Unearthing Elephant - a film exploring and celebrating the value of the much maligned Elephant and  Castle shopping centre – won the AHRC best early career film award in 2017.  Part of the award was a small pot of funding to continue to develop our film-making practice.

We are using this funding to invite five artists to take part  in short at-home residencies during the current lockdown, the results of which  will be performed online and made into a short film – continuing our  participatory/collaborative approach to filmmaking, which defined our process in creating Unearthing Elephant. We will collectively support the selected  applicants (should they wish) as part of their residency. 

The project is not about Covid-19, but is happening because of and in the context of the pandemic. We  are interested in artists who want to address one or more of the following  questions:

·       What is the role of the artist in today's political, economic and social context?

·       What  is home?

·       What  might the future of living look like?


We are asking each artist to:

·       Make  a new piece of work in response to one or more of the above questions

·       Take  part in a live, online performance/sharing of their work, which will also become  part of a short film and shared after the event.

We are offering a £400 fee to each  artist and expect each artist to spend approximately 4 half days making work and a further half day on  the event and any post-production queries, etc.

Timetable:

Call out                                     Friday  24th April

Deadline for applications           Friday  1st May

Successful artists informed         Tuesday  5th May

Residencies completed by         Tuesday  12th May

Final online event                      Saturday  16th May (evening)


Please send a brief statement (300 words max) to peoplesbureau.elephant@gmail.com by 12.00  Friday 1st May, detailing your interest in the call out and how you  would approach the residency.


I have been appointed as Creative Director of BottegheDigitali project that aims to encourage encounters between productiveand creative worlds.

The main objective of the project is to promote  training and action of young artists under 35, who will be working in  collaboration with businesses in Friuli Venezia Giulia. 

The intention is to give artists the tools and  support to develop new works that will narrate and enhance the businesses  sector with which they will come in contact. The project intends to offer the  involved entrepreneurial realities an opportunity for development,  reflection on their identity, promotion of their entrepreneurial philosophy and  innovative practices implemented through the creative arts.

With Chiara Perini (co-curator of the project) we set  the concept for Botteghe Digitali 2020 around sustainability, to include the  following areas: sustainability and growth; local versus global resources; the  use of new technologies with regards to sustainability; the new media and  languages of creativity and return to tradition. This will also be an  opportunity to explore the impact of corona virus within the field of enquiry.

Roles:

- Lead partner: Young for Fun Association

- Producers: Association  Quarantasettezeroquattro and Young for Fun Association

- General Director: Eva Sajovic (Universityof the Arts, London)

- Curators: Eva Sajovic and Chiara Perini


Partners:

Comune di Gorizia - Italy

- Confcommercio Gorizia - Italy

- UAL - University of the ArtsLondon - Great Britain

- University of Nova Gorica -Slovenia

- Università di Trieste - Italy

- Media Art Friesland -Netherlands

- PiNA - Slovenia

- Time's Up - Austria

- acquasumarte - Italy

- Quarantasettezeroquattro -Italy


Image above: 4th week of the residency

Image above: Anthotype using nettle to generate photosensitive emulsion win an imprint of a nettle, April 2020

Taking part in the Sustainable Darkroom  residency, an artist run research, training and mutual learning programme, to equip cultural practitioners with new skills and knowledge to develop an environmentally friendly and sustainable photographic darkroom practice. Organised and produced by London Alternative Photography Collective (LAPC).

24 creative practitioners from around the UK got selected and engaged in an exploration of four key topics over four weeks: Recycling, Removing, Repurposing and Reworking. The results of which will be presented in the form of 8 public workshops and a 1 day symposium.


Bauhaus: Utopia in Crisis, exhibition


16 September – 9 November 2019
Camberwell Space, Camberwell College of Arts

Above left: Hand woven tablecloth, linen, hemp and (Lidl and the corner shop) repurposed plastic bags.

Above right: Hand woven table cloth, hemp and linen, hand dyed with plants.

Tuesday 1 October at 6pm

As part of Bauhaus: Utopia in Crisis exhibition I will stage a performative discussion Imagining Dystopia: How we might live? which will take place around a hand woven tablecloth designed to facilitate a conversation about what sustainability means, what skills we need for the future and what materials to use in a world of climate degradation and breakdown.


Thursday 24 October: OurHaus festival: 

As part of the RESPONDING TO THE BAUHAUS ARCHIVES  symposium I will deliver a talk on The role of the artist in a world of imminent climate breakdown (11.15-11.40). Followed by a panel discussion including Sadie Murdoch, Judith Raum, chaired by Ben Luke).


+ + +

Bauhaus: Utopia in Crisis exhibition is taking place at Camberwell space. The exhibition is exploring how contemporary practitioners have been drawn to the social, utopian and transgressive aspects of Bauhaus history. The exhibition will be part of the UAL: OurHaus festival, which coincides with Bauhaus 100, the international celebration of the famous Bauhaus design school’s centenary.

The diverse collection of artworks presented in this exhibition will investigate the ways in which artists today are reframing the Bauhaus’s modernist legacy as one which includes political and subjective resistance. As such, Bauhaus: Utopia inCrisis addresses how artistic legacies intersect with contemporary concerns through understanding that the Bauhaus was a complicated interweaving of different positions and personalities and never a truly unified project. 

Curated by Professor Daniel Sturgis

Artists: Juan Bolivar, David Diao, Liam Gillick, Maria Laet,
Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Ad Minoliti, Sadie Murdoch, Judith Raum, Helen Robertson, Eva Sajovic, SAVVY Contemporary, Schroeter und Berger, Alexis Teplin, Ian Whittlesea


Tuesday 1 October at 6pm

As part of Bauhaus: Utopia in Crisis exhibition I will stage a performative discussion Imagining Dystopia: How we might live? which will take place around a hand woven tablecloth designed to facilitate a conversation about what sustainability means, what skills we need for the future and what materials to use in a world of climate degradation and breakdown.

Conversation chaired by Agnes Czajka, senior lecturer in politics and international studies with guest speakers: Clare Farrell, active citizen, Alice Fox, artist and Roc Sandford, farmer, environmentalist and writer.



All rise for the planet

13 & 14 July 2019, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern

The year is 2030. Scientists’ warnings from 2019 went unheeded and the consequences of climate destruction are now apparent. You are summoned for jury duty at the people’s court to decide responsibility for the ultimate crime against humanity and life on earth. Evidence will be presented on the role of Governments, industry, the media, academia, art institutions and the citizenry, and in all cases the jury will consider the same question: “In light of what they knew in 2019, did they do enough, and if not, what should they have done?“. Part-theatre, part-art installation, part-people’s court, this groundbreaking event about climate justice and accountability will present testimonies, along with visuals and video installations, bringing this trial to life in an immersive fashion. Overseen by a judge, it will then be up to you, the jury to decide whether each party is guilty or not.


Join climate litigation charity Plan B, Extinction Rebellion, visual arts organisation 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, People’s Bureau and True Name Theatre  for the trial of our lives.


New Publication - to be launched soon

Result of a residency at Danielle Arnaud Gallery - very proud to present an excerpt from the UnEarthing Elephant publication. Designed by Eilis Searson. Printed on indigo printer in GOLD by FE Burman. With thanks! Funded by the CCW Graduate school.


Register on www.peckham24.com eventbrite.



Unseen x LSE: Challenging Urban Change

Story by: Lydia Garnett

To celebrate the launch of Unseen Magazine Issue 6, Unseen will be hosting a special event in London on the 17th of May. During Photo London Unseen are teaming up with the London School of Economics and Political Science to delve into the phenomenon of gentrification and discuss the dynamics of urban change with artists and academics from our host university. The various conservations will shed light on the research conducted by artists, the powerful communicative abilities of photography, and the role of artists in society.


17 May 2019, 17.00 to 19.30

Programme : Unseen x LSE: Challenging Urban Change

17.15 Welcome by Emilia van Lynden, former editor in chief of Unseen Magazine 

17.20 Conversation 1: Eva Sajovic & TBC on activism and community 

17.40 Conversation 2: Max Colson & Dr. Alan Mace on capital and forgotten knowledge 

18.10 Conversation 3: Felicity Hammond & Dr. Nancy Holman on property and housing 

18.30 Reflections with Lewis Bush and Rhianne Clarke

Entrance is free, but because of limited capacity please let us know if you’re joining here

For more information about the artists, check out our Facebook Event.


Event will take place at: 

LSE Saw Swee Hock Centre

1 Sheffield St, London WC2A 2AP, UK



The Future of Living?

The Futureof Living?  was a residency undertaken by the Peoples’ Bureau at ParkRoyal and includes a week long stay at The Collective in Old Oak, London.Between 17 and 19 September 2018 we hosted lunch conversations from a communalspace at The Collective with different guests present each day. Thispublication shares moments from and some of our findings during this process. 


Commissioned by Create London and OPDC. With the support from HLF and GFA.


The Roles We Play: A Method of Genuine Participation

I am very proud to present The Roles We Play: A Method of Genuine Participation, in partnership with ATD Fourth World.

This new film traces the course of the project over the last decade and its attempts to provide a forum for people with experience of poverty to challenge the widespread negative stereotypes of their lives by giving participants the tools to speak out and have their voices heard.

In highlighting the different stages of the project, from photo exhibition and series of residential weekends and participatory film project to full-colour book and multimedia exhibition, the film explores the impact of genuine participation and the importance of recognising the ways in which people in poverty contribute to their own families, neighbourhoods and communities.

“Poverty takes away ownership of our own lives. Every agency we come into contact with has something to say about our lives as if we can’t speak for ourselves and are bound to fail. That’s why this project and this film are so important,” says Moraene Roberts, a member of the ATD Fourth World UK National Co-ordination Team and project participant.

“Full participation is more than just turning up; it means being involved as an equal partner at every stage from inception to conclusion. To be in control of the texts, the images and the concept behind it all means this project is ours and not just an attempt to shape us to meet someone else’s expectations. We own it and we are proud of it.”

The Roles We Play: A Method of Genuine Participation was made possible by support from The Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

An excerpt of the report is here and the full report can be downloaded at: The Roles We Play: A Method of Genuine Participation


Home (Lessness): Southwark Citizens for Spatial Justice, 2019

Above image: envelope containing invitation letters that will soon be posted to 1000 randomly selected citizens of Southwark.


Home(lessness): Southwark Citizens forSpatial Justice is the first stage of a three part  project addressing the urgent state of homelessness in Southwark. 

This firststage uses sortition - a process of random selection employed by the Ancient  Greeks to select political decision makers - by sending out 1,000 letters to  local people by randomising post codes. A representative group from the  responses are then invited to attend 5 briefings at the South London Gallery Fire Station by experts in the field on key issues such as access to  healthcare, affordable housing, immigration status and accessing support. In  this agenda-setting process, the citizens spend the end of each session weaving  in a skill share and de-briefing, deciding what they feel should be changed and  which issue to take forward for further research and then a future campaign in2020. 

You are invited to join Eva, Amy and some of the Citizens’ Action Group  in their final weaving de-brief session open to the public in order to recruit  for the next stage of the project: 26 May 2019, 3-6pm, The Fire Station, South London Gallery.

The final report will be presented to the MP Neil Coyle in a session taking place in the Houses of Parliament. Date TBC.

The project is done in collaboration with curator and researcher Dr Amy McDonnell, Prof. Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, with the support from the University of Westminster, Sortition Foundation and the Southwark Law Centre. Design by EuropaEuropa.


Picturing Climate, 2019

We have received funding from the AHRC to help set-up a new research network. It will bring together researchers and grassroots arts and culture organisations across four distinct socio-cultural and physical countries – Cuba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, and the UK – to explore the potential of arts and humanities based methodologies, specifically participatory photography and storytelling, for developing local and international educational capacity on climate change induced food and livelihoods insecurities.

In collaboration with :   Open University (Agnes Czajka); International Burch University (Dzeneta Karabegovic and Jasmin Hasic); Counterpoints Arts; grassroots organisations in Cuba (Riera Studio), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Most Mira), and Jordan (Douja Foundation); and the UK-based arts practitioner Corinne Silva).
We will come together to organise photography and storytelling workshops in Cuba, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Jordan using a variety of methods and approaches, as well as a final learning lab and showcase at the Tate Modern in London throughout 2019. 

Above: Research into the overlap between photography and weaving, both time based, binary mediums, to explore sustainability. Cuba, April 2019

Above: Documentation of an event during project delivery by our Cuban partner Riera Studio, Havana botanical gardens, April 2019.


The Future Of Living

a residency in Park Royal as part of commission by Create London

The Peoples Bureau (PB) has been ‘in  residency’ at Park Royal since May 2018, commissioned  by Create London (and with the support of OPDC) with the aim to engage with the  community around issues related to urban change in the area. Following a period  of meetings, walks and discussions with the locals we have decided to focus onthe  question of the Role of Participatory Art Practice and interrogate it  together with the locals and invited guests from the Collective* where we took  up a resident flat for a period of a week.

We  understand the role of art is to provide a space for agonism, mediation and  collaboration that can facilitate:

·       representation  through which citizens can express themselves and bring into visibility their  ways of seeing and

·       a  pluralist space from which a dialogical encounter can be facilitated.

There  were three particular questions we wanted to discuss:

1.  How to communicate/represent this way of working through image/visual as an artist/designer?

Unpicking graphic/visual communication and  Socially Engaged Practice.

(With our guests from Europa, Create London and local resident Ewa  Cwirko-Godycka.)

2. How this work is best communicated/represented democratically- by the collaborating community?

'really what should happen is that people should be able to  control the means of communication themselves...community controlled  communications networks, that's the long term objective'. (Kelly, O., 1984)

(With our guests: local resident Theresa Magee and artist NeilCummings.

3. How this work is communicated/represented by media and translated  by audience?

(With our guests: local resident Amanda Souter, community  filmmaker Andy Porter and activist Robin Browne.)

The  daily encounters (17 – 19 September) started with a lunch in the communal  kitchen on the 8th floor, followed up by a live broadcast of our conversation in one of  the spaces of the Collective. We also took our guests on a tour of the  building: the library, the spa, the pub, the roof terrace, the cinema.

Some  of the resulting materials were presented as an installation as part of the  Open House Weekend (21 and 22 September). A publication will follow later in  the year. You can access sound recordings of the three conversations recorded (and live broadcasted) by the artist Lucia Scazzocchio on soundcloud from here: peoplesbureau.co.uk


*a co-living space in Park Royal that offers ‘a  convenient and fulfilling lifestyle' experience.


Artistic forms of production for resistance

10 June, 12 -6pm, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern.


Hosted by Peoples Bureau, this day will be dedicated to exploring the role andethics of working in socially engaged art practice related to urban change anddisplacement.

‘What are the new forms of production that allow for new forms of resistanceand envisage the possibility of a revitalization of the emancipatory project towhich artistic practices can make a decisive contribution (…) Everycritical gesture is quickly recuperated and neutralized by the forces ofcorporate capitalism.’ (Mouffe, 2013)

This event will mark the start of Eva and Rebecca’s critical evaluation of 9years working collaboratively and will form part of a reflective manual, whichthey hope will serve as an instruction of and toolkit for a model of bestpractice.

We invite you to join us with your questions which will help form part of apublic discussion (1 - 2.30pm) led by Eva and Rebecca (Peoples Bureau) with Ele Belfiore(Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University whohas published extensively on the belief in the transformative power and thepresumed ‘social impacts’ of the arts) who will share lunch round a table withother invited socially engaged artists and practitioners.

The discussion will take place around Join – a table designedand installed by artist Michael Giambrone.

The day will include an installation of work made during Peoples Bureau’sUnearthing project at Tate Exchange (Taking place in 2017 in collaboration withShane Waltener and Stave Hill Eco Park) which was recently reworked as part ofa residency at Danielle Arnaud Gallery.

There will be performances by Zoe Gilmour (3pm) and ShaneWaltener (2.30 - 4pm) . A soundscape will be delivered by sound artist Lee Berwick (4pm onwards).


About Peoples Bureau

Peoples Bureau is a programme ofartistic actions that enable community representation and empowerment,delivered by artists Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies.

Peoples Bureau was set up in 2014 andbased at the Elephant and Castle shopping centre - one of the most contestedsites in the capital, currently undergoing a vast development that has been andwill continue to permanently displace thousands of people who live and workhere. Peoples Bureau collects and makes visible the diversity of cultures,skills, networks and resourcefulness present in an area (eg long-term inElephant&Castle). Peoples Bureau occupies a unique position in the contextof community art, by engaging with a multitude of stakeholders including localresidents, the developers, universities, Southwark Council, art institutions,activists and the media, thus creating a vibrant platform for contestation,negotiation and representation.

Through skill exchanges and otherinteractions, Sajovic and Davies act as community catalysts, activatingindividuals, communities and local organisations. Their collaborative practicehas seen them work with Whitechapel Gallery, LCC, Chelsea College ofArt, Tate Modern. Peoples Bureau is a Tate Exchange Associate.

In Elephant&Castle they have workedwith over 20 local groups, regularly and actively engaging with over 200 localresidents from Latin American, Bangladeshi and British communities. The projecthas been piloted at the Bootle Library in Liverpool and is currently working inPark Royal as part of a commission from Create.

Rebecca and Eva, with writer SarahButler recently completed the film ‘Unearthing Elephant’ which won the ResearchIn Film award at the AHRC film awards, 2017.

***

Mouffe, C (2013) Agonistics. Thinkingthe world politically London/New York: Verso


The O Show

Pleased to be invited to take part in Oriana Fox's O show. June 27th, 7pm..


UNEARTHING ELEPHANT at Danielle Arnaud Gallery

Opening  Wednesday 23 May   6 - 9pm (discussion led by Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos and performance by Zoë Gilmour)


Continues:
Friday 25th May  12-6pm
Saturday 26 May  12-6pm
Monday 28 May  12-6pm

Closing event  Tuesday 29 May 6-9pm (Clay In Common w/Clayground Collective) 

Artists Eva Sajovic, Rebecca Davies, and Shane Waltener invite you to visit them ‘in residence’ at Danielle Arnaud. The artists will be sharing findings from their two-year project, Unearthing Elephant, over five days at the gallery. Participate in talks and workshops and help produce a small publication that will be launched on the closing night.

Unearthing Elephant is a project devised by the artists People’s Bureau (Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies) and Shane Waltener in partnership with Tate Exchange and Stave Hill Ecological Park in 2017. It addresses themes of regeneration, development and ecology, with an initial focus on communities within the Elephant and Castle area. It has resulted in talks, interviews, a presentation at Tate Exchange and an award-winning film.

The project was originated in response to a major regeneration scheme planned for Elephant and Castle, which included the proposed demolition of the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. Although halted by Southwark Council earlier this year, the plans raised issues that have become universal across the UK and internationally, namely the division between public and private space, the rights to one’s city, social justice and community agency.


Human Library project at Bootle Library, Liverpool

To celebrate all that we have achieved as part of a series of workshops and residencies at the Bottle Library  we are organising a celebratory event: Tuesday 1 May, 1 - 3 PM.

All Welcome!

Taking the ceramic. A skill in stages, shared by Sue at Bootle Library #peoplesbureau #humanlibrary


HOLD ME TOGETHER, 

a project made for the Elephant Atlas exhibition and book.

Together with writer Sarah Butler* we were commissioned by Sophy Rickett and Judy Atkins to make work in response to the Cuming Museum collection, which since the Cuming Museum burnt down in 2013 does not have a home.

We decided to revisit and expand on the work we created  together in 2012 as part of our residency at the Cuming Museum. 

At the time we explored ideas of home, material culture and the ways in which meaning is constructed through image, stories and conversation. Working with museum objects and objects temporarily donated by local people, Eva and Sarah curated a series of exhibitions, workshops and conversations, under the title Collecting Home, questioning how objects operate in our lives and what difference it makes when an object exists in a home or behind glass.

For Elephant Atlas, Eva and Sarah have revisited Collecting Home,and considered the changed reality of Elephant and Castle: the Heygate Estate gone, and new luxury flats springing up in its place; the Cuming Museum closed; the Shopping Centre next in line for demolition. Their new work, HOLD ME TOGETHER, meditates on the importance of the Cuming collection to a place undergoing dramatic gentrification and the concomitant losses that involves. It argues for the value of these eclectic objects and exhorts the viewer/reader to consider what they might offer and how they might be cared for in the future.   

*Eva and Sarah have created work together in Elephant and Castle for over a decade – exploring themes of home, identity, community, participation, regeneration and gentrification. 

Exhibition documentation photographs by Lewis Bush.


Our project at Bootle Library, Liverpool written up in the Big Issue

In the summer 2017 we have been commissioned by curator Maria Brewster to make work for The Human Library at Bootle library, Liverpool.

The participatory project work that started around skill exchange led into a more in depth engagement with clay and photography, looking to bring the two together and always with community, conversation and sharing at its core. 

Thank you The Big Issue for the write up.


Elephant's Trumpet at Taking Part exhibition at Photofusion

22nd Feb – 17th March 2018
Private View Wednesday 28th Feb 6 – 8.30pm

End of my residency at Photofusion (September 2016 - march 2018) is celebrated by a group exhibition of socially-engaged photography by Eva Sajovic, Gemma-Rose Turnbull, D. Wiafe, and Wright & Vandame, curated by Anthony Luvera.

By making publicly available a selection of materials produced in collaboration with the community in Elephant&Castle for the Elephant's Trumpet and documentation of the process of production (meetings, making, disseminating) this installation hopes to reach out, connect and share with other communities facing similar challenges.

Coinciding with the exhibition A DAY OF TALKS, exploring how issuesrelated to representation and engagement, intentions and benefits, ethics andaesthetics, and process and product play out in socially engaged photography will take place on the 10th March 2018 10am - 4:30pm at Brixton Community Base, Talma Road, SW2 1AS.

Featuring:
 

  • Sophie Hope, Birkbeck

  • Eva Sajovic, Artist 
  • Gemma-Rose Turnbull, Artist 
  • D. Wiafe, Artist

  • Wright & Vandame, Artist 
  • Mariam Zul qar, UPProjects

Free but limited places, register at: www.photofusion.org/exhibitions/taking-part/

Exhibition still, Photofusion gallery. Photo by Becky Warnock.


The Elephant’s Trumpet

The Elephant’s Trumpet is a collaboratively produced community newspaper inElephant & Castle that aims to organize, promote and share resources, ideas andconcerns about Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, at the heart of an areaundergoing a massive regeneration. The newspaper brings together the voices oftraders, local organisations, residents, local artists and users of the shopping centre inmutual support and solidarity. 

PICK YOUR COPY of the current issue at 56a INFO SHOP and at PHOTOFUSION.


Taking part in the Discussion Series Winter 2017 HOUSING AND REGENERATION STRUGGLES IN SOUTH LONDON


Organizer and moderator: Ana Vilenica (Marie Curie Post-doctoral Research Fellow at LSBU)

November 29th 5PM, LSBU

How to stay put?

Loretta Lees (Professor of Human Geography, University of Leicester)

Antony Iles (writer and contributing editor of Mute)

Rebecca Davies and Eva Sajovic (artists)

Southwark Notes Archives Group (Chris)

Sapphire Mcintosh and Maggie Bridge (Sisters Uncut London)

For the full programme please see here.



A manifesto for unlearning

AGNES CZAJKA and EVA SAJOVIC 20 November 2017

How can we use participatory photography as a tool for emancipation, unlearning assumed hierarchies between artists, subjects, and audiences? 

Full article accessible from: https://www.opendemocracy.net/agnes-czajka-eva-sajovic/manifesto-for-unlearning


“How do we work together?” as part of symposium on Nationalism, Migration and the Arts


I will be participating in the roundtable on practices of working together:

Roundtable discussion “How do we work together?”, 1 December, 3-4.15pm, Loughborough University

Participants: Aine O’Brien, Counterpoints Arts

Eva Sajovic, independent artist

Kevin Ryan, Charnwood Arts

Chair: Ele Belfiore, Loughborough University

The last session of the symposium explores what collaboration between academic researchers, cultural professionals and artists entails in reality. there are many challenges that stand in the way of genuine collaboration: from ever diminishing resources, to the mis-match between the times of academia and the much faster pace at which arts projects run, between the REF requirements for measurable impact and the partners’ desire to experiment and trying out new things. The panel members have a longstanding experience of working collaboratively, and in moving across the boundaries of academia and the arts world. Starting from their personal experiences of collaboration, the panel will offer the chance to explore challenges and opportunities in arts-university collaborations, and why, in spite of the difficulties, they remain committed to this mode of working.


Full programme of the day:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/crcc-symposium-nationalism-migration-and-the-arts-tickets-39475092063



Unearthing Elephant WINS the prestigious Research in Film Awards by AHRC.


Launched in 2015, the Research in FilmAwards celebrate shortfilms, up to 30 minutes long, that have been made about the arts and humanitiesand their influence on our lives. 
Judges for the 2017 Research in Film Awards included Richard Davidson-Houston of Channel 4 Television, Lindsay Mackie Co-founderof Film Club and Matthew Reisz from Times Higher Education.
A special awards ceremony was held at BAFTA, on Thursday 9 November, where the winner of each of the categories was announced. Writer and broadcaster, Danny Leigh hosted the event. 
The winning films are shared on theArts and Humanities Research Council website and YouTube channel. 

You can follow the fortunes of the shortlisted films on Twitter via the hashtag #RIFA2017.


Where is the People's Bureau going in September:

+ Commissioned to work At The Library in Bootle, Liverpool. First session 25 September, then monthly.
+ Taking part at Tate Late, Tate Modern, 29 September, 6-10PM
+ Screening (with Q&A) of the Unearthing Elephant film at Arts Admin, 27 September, 7.30PM.



Premiki / Photographic (Communities of) Displacement

Media Nox Gallery, Slovenija

Exhibition 13 July - 31 August 2017

The exhibition explores issues related to participatoryphotography, including questions of voice (whose voice is represented,recognized and heard?), and the dynamics imbued in the process of workingcollaboratively, including questions of authorship and relations ofhorizontality. Specific attention is given, first, to participatory photographyas a tool of agency and emancipation through which a different kind of citizenshipand community can be enacted, and second, to plants as catalysts for theactivation of such citizenship and community.

As part of the exhibition the artist, in collaboration with Counterpoints Arts, Agnes Czajka, Chiara Perini and Terra Vera, organised the Learning Lab, Part 2: Unlearning the Role of the Artist. Drawing on the exhibition, theoretical engagementswith photography, and personal practice of participatory photography, theLearning Lab interrogated the often taken-for-granted distinction betweenphotographer, subject and viewer and challenged traditional conceptions of theroles, responsibilities and power relationships that emerge in this tripartite relationship. In doing so, it explored the possibilities forrethinking and re-contextualising photography and the photograph as critical,emancipatory practice that can engender a community grounded not in theself-sameness and closure of essentialised national identities, but in therecognition of unity in difference.

Further screenings: Mini -Festival Amsterdam, 17 June 2017 (organised by Failed Architecture); Milton Keynes, 29 June 2017 (in collaboration with the Open University and MK gallery); Southwark Playhouse, July 2017; Liverpool, September 2017; Airspace gallery, Stoke on Trent, Autumn 2017.


Observing Displacement? Interrogating the role of art in the politics of displacement

A conversation between

Agnes Czajka (http://www.open.ac.uk/people/ac26598);

Chiara Perini, InVisible Cities: Urban Multimedia Festival

and Eva Sajovic.

Chaired: Aine O'Brien (http://counterpointsarts.org.uk/team/)

21June 2017, 6 — 8 pm

Migration Museum

What is the role of art and artists, particularly those using participatory practice, in the politics of displacement? What questions does such work raise? What possibilities does it open up? Focussing on Eva Sajovic’s work with displaced populations in Jordan and Italy, the talk will engage with some of these perennial questions. 


WISH YOU HAPPY NEW YEAR NEW YEAR DREAMS COME TRUE

An exhibition of a series of hand printed photographs and an installation of newspapers in newspaper holders in local cafes around the town of Gorizia. As part of In/Visible Cities Festival, Gorizia, Italy, May 2017.

Surrounding programme of events: 17 - 21 May 2017

Un progetto in partecipazione che attraverso auto/ritratti fotografici e brevi scritti intende esplorare il ruolo dell’auto/rappresentazione e dell’identità in un luogo di immigrazione.

Sajovic e Perini hanno collaborato con un gruppo di giovaniuomini immigrati dal Pakistan e dall’Afghanistan accolti aCormons da ICS-U cio Rifugiati Onlus in tre appartamentidel circuito dell’ospitalità di usa. Esperienze e preoccupazionireciproche sono state condivise attraverso un dialogo partecipato.

L’auto\ritratto fotografico è stato usato come interfaccia per esplorare la percezione del sé e l’interpretazione che gli altri danno di noi. Le fotografie sono state realizzate in modo collaborativo sfumando il con ne tra il professionista e il dilettante, facendo emergere interrogativi sull’appartenenza e le potenzialità della fotografia come mezzo democratico di rappresentazione del sé e degli altri. 

+ + +

An exhibition of photographs and short writings, created through participatory sessions, exploring representation and the role of identity in a place of immigration.

Over a number of sessions Sajovic and Perini collaborated with a group of men, who immigrated largely from Pakistan and Afganistan, housed in hospitality board appartements in Cormons. Through conversation ideas, experience and concerns were shared and photo portraiture used to explore the image as an interface between the self and how others see us.

The photographs were taken collaboratively blurring the border between the professional and the amateur, thus raising questions around authorship and potential of photography as a democratic tool.


Residency at Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

Image caption: (left) microscopic image of a palm tree | (right) Khoshkhash tree in the Darat al Funun garden.

Working with Corinne Silva during our second trip to Jordan to instal the work and complete our research as part of the project Open Lab: Plant / Lives.

The project is looking at the human and plant mobility, past, present and future, at a time when climate change and conflict over land and resources make many futures uncertain.

Artists talk, Saturday 25 March, 6.30 pm

Exhibition 25 March - 12 April 2017.


Learning Lab: Unlearning the Role of the Artist with Eva Sajovic

Tuesday, March 14, 2017
15:30 -  17:00
Southwark Room, 5th Floor of the Switch House at Tate Modern, London

Unlearning seems like a daunting task. How willing are any of us - arts practitioner, academic or activist - to peel away received ways of thinking, methodologies, or secure sets of knowledge?


Join us for a Learning Lab with artist, Eva Sajovic, when she practices the art of ‘unlearning’, whilst posing questions about the politics of representing others in an age of global displacement.


Sajovic:
Artists often speak from the position of the privileged. They have the means to move, look, collect and display stories, metaphors, and visuals, which often confer on them an obligation to act. But are the stories artists tell the ones subjects want to tell? Whose voice is being heard? To whom are these stories told and what can they achieve? How can artists support subjects and work to affect change through participatory practice; what are the limitations?
These are urgent questions when engaging with displaced communities through the lens of participatory arts practice.
What is the role of artists using participatory practice when working in areas of displacement?
What methodologies can artists use to create platforms for subjects to represent themselves, acknowledging that artistic work is always a translation and that change of context might change the perception of the work?
What support can artists expect from commissioning organisations when using participatory methodologies, knowing that the boundaries between the artist-as-professional and artist-as-friend in process-based participatory work is fluid, blurred and prone to misinterpretation?  
What modes of representation might challenge stereotypes and activate audiences to see the world as an interconnected entity?


Learning Lab will take the form of a performed auto-ethnography by Sajovic, together with contributions from critical respondents, rapporteurs, lively open debate and the collective/creative production of a ‘manifesto for unlearning’.

To register for this Learning Lab, please contact dijana@counterpointsarts.org.uk

Eva Sajovic is a socially engaged artist photographer. In her work Sajovic explores the drivers of global displacement such as regeneration, poverty, trafficking, culture and climate change.
Her practice includes Participatory social action projects (for example, a skills exchange project, The People’s Bureau, based in Elephant & Castle) and Photographic social portraiture, where she collaborates closely with subjects to construct images.
Sajovic exhibits internationally and has had her work commissioned by the Tate, Whitechapel Gallery, The National Archives, Fotogallery, the Cuming museum, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, 47/04, PARC, Siobhan Davies Dance. She has been supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England, the European Commission, Darat Al Funun Foundation, University of The Arts and the Ministry of Culture Slovenia.
She is an Associate Lecturer at UAL’s Central Saint Martins and Theory Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art.


Spatial Justice with the People's Bureau at Tate Exchange
Tate Modern, 4 March 2017, 12 - 6 PM


As part of the Spatial Justice day at the Tate, we will be hosting Prof Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, whose work is the leading force behind the day’s activities.

Prof Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos defines spatial justice as the conflict that emerges when one body wants to move into the space of another body. This opens up questions of symbiosis, creative confluence and regeneration, but also issues of power imbalances. The interview will elucidate some of these issues in his work, and the ensuing discussion will attempt at situating ourselves in the ongoing move of regeneration but also displacement of local communities.
We hope to explore ideas about the role of developers, art institutions, and artists in dealing with issues of spatial justice and productive ways of reflecting them in their practices.



Saturday 4 March

12 - 4 pm
CLAY WORKSHOP with Shane Waltener

TEA TROLLEY DANCES with Sally Child ( Director of bMoSo Academy of Song & Dance, Founder of The Society for Tea Trolley Dancing), Helen Morse Palmer, accredited Tea Trolley Dance Instructor and Tanztheater Adrian Look (Choreography: Adrian Look. Music composition: Stevon Russel. Dancers: Alessio Cappelli, Morena de Leonardis, Durassie Kiangangu, Songhay Toldon, Haeyeon Lim, Taylor Thompson, Maria Ines Sousa, Daniel Potter and Amy Chambers).


3.30 - 4 pm
TEA and CAKE

4-6 pm
SPATIAL JUSTICE with Prof Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos
Interview by Yoriko Otomo followed by a discussion with an invited panel.


Scale MODEL of the current Elephant&Castle shopping created in collaboration with Hester Buck will be on display.

ALL EVENTS FREE and OPEN TO ALL.


Too Close To See

Contributing with a talk and discussion. Event organised by the School Of The Damned.
Saturday, 24 February 2017, 5 PM


Commune Project, 10 February 2017, 10.30 AM - 3.30 PM


Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies delivered a day long workshop with the 136 Foundation students at Central Saint Martins College, exploring 'community, rules, breaking free' to launch their Commune Project.

Commissioned by Timothy Meara and Lucy Alexander.



Why do artists collaborate?  

Monday 30thJanuary, 11 am-1pm,

Banqueting Hall, Chelsea college of Art

With Dr. MarshaBradfield, (Artist, Researcher, Lecturer and collaboratorextraordinaire), and Eva Sajovic (Artist and Lecturer) and more.  Introduced by Katrine Hjelde, Graduate Diploma CourseLeader

A talk and discussion as part of a Graduate Diploma KEY practices-ideas-debates-moments-words event.

These events aim to intersect key aspects of the FineArt curriculum across the Fine Art Programme at Chelsea, with on-going concernsin the art-world and the wider community. 

Sitting uncomfortably: the future of socially engaged practice, 2 Feb 2017, 7 PM

Panel discussion with Rebecca Davies, Eva Sajovic, a representative from Keep it Complex, Anna Francis and Arts Admin rep, chaired by Marijke Steedman. 


Taking an idea for a walk

With Ayisha De Lanerolle as part of UNITE AGAINST DIVIDERS, 14 January 2017, 3-4 pm

A participatory walk and talk to explore the connections between climate change and displacement through ideas of Home, Belonging and Host.


People's Bureau working with Tate Modern

We are pleased to have become Associate of Tate Exchange (TEX) and will be working from Tate Modern during Spring 2017. The PB cart will move to Tate on the 16th January 2017 and remain in residency until June 2017. Visit HERE for a more detailed programme.


Residency at Photofusion

Very happy to have been awarded Taking Part residency at Photofusion London to develop work around the drivers of displacement. The project will result in a number of outputs including a series of talks and an exhibition in 2018.


Residency at Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan, October 2016

Together with my collaborator and friend Corinne Silva (aka Silva+Sajovic) we had an artist residency at the Lab, October 2016 to start research and development. We will be returning in the Spring to continue with production and produce and exhibition and events at the Darat-Al-Funun Lab.


Talking on the panel at Dreamers or Builders, 29 June 6.30PM

South London Gallery, SE5
Organised by Rebecca Davies and The Oasis Social Club - an evening of discussion, screenings and performance looking at participatory arts practice and how it is used and abused in the shaping of our cities. Accompanied by bingo, beer and Wigan salad.
This event is part of the 2016 London Festival of Architecture programme.


Beating The Bounds, 3rd Iteration, Elephant&Castle

with Danny Hollowell, Tuesday 28 June, 5.30PM


Elephant & Castle doesn’t exist as a political ward, yet it exists in the imagination of people who live and work in the area. Participatory walk in its 3rd iteration, this time led by Danny Hollowell, who was born and still lives and works in the area. 
Danny will walk us around his personal boundaries of Elephant&Castle whilst sharing memories and stories related to those locations, 28 June, 5.30PM

Beating the Bounds is an ancient English custom in which a priest and members of the community, armed with willow boughs, would beat the parish boundary markers, lest they be forgotten.

This and further walks will be digitally traced using an app. Resulting drawings will be superimposed to identify a collective boundary of the area, which will be produced as a map including participants' photographs and incorporated into a multi-media art installation.

The walks last approximately one hour followed by drinks in a local pub.

This is the third in the series of walks organised and produced by Silva+Sajovic. With the support of LCC Public Programmes Fund.

Photo by Jake May


Turkish Sauna Conversation event, 14 June

Pasha Spa, Camberwell, SE5

A conversation related to the coming up referendum in a relaxed environment to help you destress.
Organised in collaboration with Rosalie Schweiker as part of EU-UK, info.


Opportunity Area - panel discussion, 6 June 2016

Elephant&Castle shopping centre
An open discussion with an invited panel to discuss ethics, tactics and place-specificity in artistic practice, with particular reference to Elephant and Castle and its labelling as an ‘opportunity area’. Panelists include: Jane Rendell, Barbara Steveni, Isaac Marrero Guillamon and Andres Mendez (La Bodeguita), chaired by Sam Trotman.
This event was organised as part of Unearthing The Elephant project, led by Eva Sajovic, Rebecca Davies and Sarah Butler. Building on more than 10 years of work in Elephant and Castle, Unearthing The Elephant is a response to the demolition and reconstruction of Elephant and Castle’s shopping centre. 

Opportunity Area is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2016. 


Large Floral Cyanotype at Chelsea Flower Fringe, 5 June 2016

As part of Chelsea Fringe Sajovic collaborated with Corinne Silva (@Silva+Sajovic) and Melanie King to create a 15mx1.5m cyanotype using discarded plants from the New Covent Garden Market and our gardens.

The work will be used as part of an exhibition and produced as a concertina artist's book.


Ri/Costruire Insieme (Re/Construct Together), May 2016 

Exhibiting: 3 Screen Video Installation, Window display and Roundtable event. As part of In/Visible Cities Festival, 

Italy (2016)

MORE

^ Ri/Costruire Insieme, installation view, via delle Monache Gorizia, In/Visible Cities, May 2016


CURRENT:

PAST:

  • Talk Matter and Materiality: An Insight Through Photography, with Melanie King and Corinne Silva, UAL Philosophy Society, April 2016.
  • Talking at Jumping The Barrier, seminar organised by engage Wales, 15 March 2016, the National Museum of Wales Cardiff. 
  • Memory and Place, durational public performance, Elephant&Castle shopping centre, 19 March, 2-5PM. In collaboration with Siobhan Davies Dance and Entelechy Arts. 
  • Beating The Bounds, participatory walk, 15 April 2016, 2PM, Elephant&Castle. Supported by LCC Public Engagement Programme. As part of TCCE, 2016 season. 
  • A set of 6 films commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Autumn 2016. 
  • Five Hundred Flowers and The Mother Plant, Lower Ground Gallery and PARC, London College of Communication, 4 February - 4 March 2016 Beating The Bounds, participatory walk, 9 February 2016, 2PM, Elephant&Castle.
  • Eating The Bones, performance (commissioned by WILD as part of the Green Week), 10 February 2016 One Thousand Flowers From A Test Tube198 Contemporary Arts and Learning exhibition, 13 November - 19 December 2015Eating the Bones - performance, 19 December 2015Photography Wall, exhibition, Tate Britain (Tribe Festival), 30 October and 1 November 2015.
  • Hidden Presence - 2 year long project commissioned by Ffotogallery and Chepstow Museum exhibited at Custom House, on 20 bus stops around town, Cardiff (1-31 OCtober) as part of Diffusion Festival. A2 poster is another platform and can be taken away from the exhbition space. Project also exists in the form of an interactive dedicated website (incorporating the education pack developed in collaboration with Ffotogallery's education team).
  • Artist talk, 13 October 2015, 2-4PM, BayArt, Cardiff.
  • Walk - visiting the installation at a selected number of bus stops and talk, 14 October 2015, from Milgi, Cardiff.
  • Exhibition travels to Chepstow Museum 4 February - 4 May 2016.
  • In partnership with Siobhan Davies Dance and Entelechy Arts we are working on a dance/movement piece to be perfomed by the members of the People's Bureau at the E&C shopping centre, March 2016. 
  • Working with Critical Practice we organised #Transacting: A Market of Values, 11 July 2015. Publication published by Intellect, June 2017. 
  • Age of Plently - contamination between artists and citizens, 3-7 June, Gorizia (IT) as part of In/VisibleCities. Commission by 198 COntemporary Arts and Learning. Off-spin exhibited at 198 CAL November 2015. 
  • With Corinne Silva we set up Silva+Sajovic, based at Photography Archive Research Centre (LCC). The purpose of the Studio is to create discussions, interventions and artworks using the vitality and agency of flora in the urban space as a catalyst for rethinking current power structures between humans and the environment. We are also working with international partners, initially in Amman, Havana and Slovenia. 
  • With thanks to the Arts Council Funding currently creating new work in Elephant and Castle (Unearthing Elephant) in response to the imminent demolition and reconstruction of E&C's shopping centre. Through a process of mapping people's movements, use of the space and a series of conversations we are creating a multimedia model, narrative film, a time-map of the E&C shopping centre.
  • The People’s Bureau is continuing. Working with the Latin American Women's group, the Rockingham Women's group, ATD Fourth World. 
  • People's Bureau in residency at LCC as part of Moose on the Loose, Research Biennale by PARC (Photography Archive Research Cetre, based at LCC) - May 2015.
  • Talk and workshop at 'If you got them by the archives (sic), their hearths and minds will follow' as part of Discovering Communities, Discovering Collections, commission by The National Archives, The Birmingham Library, 30 October 2014.
  • The Roles We Play - book and website published. Exhibition opening, 17 October 2014, 6.30 - 9pm. For more information about the exhibition and associated events (Collaborative Practice and Social Justice talk/seminar, 4 November 2014). VIEW HERE> Work also published in 'A UK Without Poverty', Joseph Rowntree Foundation, September 2014.
  • Artists as Learners - commission from engage and Ffotogallery, working in partnership with the Prince's trust Fairbridge centre. I was mentoring two emerging artists to develop their socially engaged practice. We worked with a group of young people from the Prince's Trust. The work culminated in an exhibition and opening at Turner House. 
  • The People’s Bureau - a space (and a network) of exchange of skills and needs, based in the unit 306 of the Elephant&Castle shopping centre set up by Eva and Rebecca in partnership with Latin American Women’s Rights Service and supported by Tate Modern. The aim is to create a pool of collective local knowledge through exchange, a supporting network of different skills and to draw attention to diversity and existence of different economies in the Elephant and Castle. Pilot project dates: 30, 31 May & 2 June, 11am - 5pm. Open to all to come and join in sharing and exchange of skills and needs. For a more detailed programme please visit HERE> This is a pilot project hoped to lead to a longer project later in the year.
  • The Amazing Movie of Life, participatory short animated film created with the young people at The Jack Hobbs Centre, managed by Petra Cox and produced by the Cuming museum. The film uses sequences from 'Some Activities of Bermondsey Borough Council' [1931] from the Southwark Council's film archive. 
  • The Roles We Play, an initiative done in collaboration with ATD Fourth World, showcasing the contribution individuals living in poverty make to their surrounding community, friends and families. Originating from a photo exhibition that toured the country in 2010, the participant-led Roles We Play project is set to reappear in 2014 in the form of a poignant multimedia book and DVD. The upcoming Roles We Play publication features portrait photographs and self-written biographies that focus on what people do to combat poverty and social exclusion in their everyday lives and in their communities and to confer visibility to the voices of people living in poverty. Book and website published, June 2014. 
  • As part of Critical Practice Eva was involved in facilitating a group conversation during Not Knowing: A Collaboration Between CCW, APG, The Chelsea Salon Series, Friday 8 Nov 2013 VIEW PROGRAMME HERE> 
  • New commission Hidden Presence project from Ffotogallery and Chepstow museum; start October 2013.VISIT BLOG HERE >
  • DreamMakers project is being collated in a book, currently being designed.
  • DreamMakers talking at ACERT conference, 28.September 2013.
  • The Roles We Play has received support from the Arts Awards and is, together with ATD Fourth World and, families and friends, currently being developed (towards a book to be published in Spring 2014). 
  • Talking about artist practice with the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities, focusing on the notion of collaboration, in its different forms, with the people she has been working with. Hackney museum, Thursday 2o June, 6.30 - 7.30 pm.
  • DreamMakers final exhibition and events @ 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, 14 June - 20 July 2013. PRESS RELEASE. Citizenship and Belonging symposia, 25 June 2013, 10am - 5pm: MORE INFORMATION HERE. Representation and the Media seminar, 2 July, 1-4.30 pm. Film night, 12 July, 7-9pm:Young voices, a selection of shorts. Blog: www.dreammakersuk.com
  • Caribbean Through A Lens, a collaboration with the Cuming Museum and The National Archives. Eva worked with local people and members of the museum’s Youth Panel. Together they have produced A FILM and a set of dominoes which have been installed in the museum’s Southwark gallery.
  • Growing Map of Southwark, a collaboration with the Youth Panel of the Cuming museum and resonance FM, broadcasted on Resonance FM in February 2013. The project consists of a booklet and soundpiece, tracing a narrative of memory and memories through Southwark; from Peckham through Camberwell, Elephant&Castle and Borough to Bermondsey.
  • Speaking at The Brixton Exchange, Friday 1, 2-4pm. Event organised by Anchor&Magnet. Info event and programme available on: :http://anchorandmagnet.wordpress.com/the-brixton-exchange/ 
  • Speaking at Symposium: Participation, Photography & the Politics of Space, 12 March 2013, 11am-4.30pm, The Sir Duncan Rice Library, University of Aberdeen. Symposium hosted by the Special Collections Centre, University of Aberdeen in partnership with NEPAN, (an artist-led North East Participatory Arts Network) and engage Scotland. More information and programme here.
  • Speaking on the panel at "Openness: Exploring Artist Practice in the City", an event at Tate Modern, as part of the South London Black Music Archive exhibition. November 19, 7-8.30 pm, Starr Auditorium. Booking: call 02078878888 or visit www.tate.org.uk 
  • Caribbean Through a Lens project Participatory project in collaboration with the National Archives and the Cuming museum Part of a national initiative of the National Archives. 
  • The Heart of the Elephant, film (work in progress) screening. As part of Studio at the Elephant work, Eva and Rebecca produced an edit of the 'film in progress', screened at the Elefest and Fotosynthesis's photography symposium (Participation in photography: Memory, Archives and Authorship). 
  • Whitechapel collaboration: FACTORY OF CONFESSIONS Family Trail and Family day (4 June 2012) as a response to Gillian Wearing work exhibited at the Whitechapel gallery BLOG 
  • DreamMakers: UK-wide project with young Roma, Gypsy and Travellers (locations: Glasgow, Bolton, Peterborough, Walthamstow, London)In collaboration with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning. Supported by the PAUL HAMLYN FOUNDATIONBLOG 
  • Artist residency at the CUMING museum, October 2011 - February 2012. Supported by the ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND BLOG 
  • EXPLORING THE ELEPHANT / a collaboration with the (3-5 year old children of) SRC nursery and the Cuming museum. Supported by the MINET Trust BLOG 
  • WEALTH AND POVERTY MAP, 17 October 2011 (International Day for the Eradication of Poverty). A collaboration with Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre and ATD Fourth World 
  • MAKESHIFT: Seeding Communities // PROVIZORIJ: Sejanje Skupnosti / ONGOING /A seed and plant exchange project across national boundaries. Plants and seeds are transplanted from one environment to another, in collaboration with individuals from diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds. EXHIBITED at the REZIDENCNA CETRT, Trubarjeva hisa Literature Ljubljana, 9 September 2011 BLOG 
  • Participating in:Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion, 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2011 as part of the ROMA MEDIA ARCHIVE Launch: UNESCO, Palazzo Zorzi, Castello 4930 – Venezia. 3rd June 2011 at 13:00 OFFICIAL LEAFLETPRESS RELEASE
  • STUDIO AT THE ELEPHANT, Unit 207/208, Elephant&Castle shopping centre. A space for locals to engage in conversations through the Arts and a place for artists in residency to work with and from within the community. Founded by Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies. Launched 4 March 2011http://studio.homefromhome-online.com/studio.htm 
  • The Roles We Play: Recognising the contribution of people in poverty. A project in partnership with ATD Fourth World Charity through photography, written word and sound. Touring Exhibition, UK and Europe: Community Links, 10-25 Aug // Bishop Stortford School, 3-13 Sept // Bevan Foundation Wales, 23 Sept // Pearce Institute Glasgow, 27-30 Sept // Poverty Alliance Scotland, 2 Oct // Spark In The Park London, 2 OCt // European Parliament Brussels, 17 Oct // TUC, 18 Oct // EY2010 event with Southwark Council and EAPN England, 16 Nov // European Economic and Social Committee Brussels, 20-27 Nov // Birmingham Regional EY2010, 25 Nov // RBI, 29 Nov - 4 Dec // 
  • Home From Home Book and website published, July 2010 (available from the Cuming Museum or the artist) www.homefromhome-online.com 
  • Be-Longing: Traveller's Stories, Traveller's Lives Exhibition and events, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning Gallery, 4th Feb - 20th March 2010 Exhibition touring to Hackney Library, West Norwood Library and Brighton, June 2010 Catalogue published, edition 50, July 2010 (available from Amazon, 198 Gallery or the artist) Selected by curators of the 'Call The Witness' / 2nd Roma Pavilion Enisa Emirovska and Suzana Milevska to participate at the Venice Biennale 2011 Blog - VIEW HERE Holocaust Against Roma and Sinti and Present Day Racism in Europe
  • Commission by the GRTHM to curate the exhibition and events 31 May - 20 June 2010, the Arts Pavilion Surviving History: the Bock Family A collaboration with Damian LeBas exhibited at the Holocaust Against Roma and Sinti and Present Day Racism in Europe exhibition 31 May - 20 June 2010, the Arts Pavilion 
  • Pavee Widden (Travellers Talking) Book and exhibition launch by the Irish Ambassador Bobby McDonagh, 160 Tooley Street, 17 June 2010Film screened, Hackney Museum, 27 May 2010 - VIEW HERE -



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