The Context Symposium, organised by tutors architecture tutors Mohamad Hafeda and George Epolito, was one of the best symposiums that I have been to during my time as a student either at masters or undergraduate level. There was a great range of speakers talking from different perspectives, but all united by a theme of giving agency to groups of displaced people.
One thing that was a shame was that Jane Rendell, who was supposed to be giving the keynote lecture at the end, was unable to attend. Some of her work, particularly 'Site Writing' has been a reference for my Stasis and Thesis work, so it would have been great to here her speak in person. To put a positive spin on this though, it did enable discussions around the other presentations to go on for longer and into more detail.
Poster advertising the symposium
Magazzino 18 and Rashidieh camp, suspended in time
Adam Ramadan is a human geographer, and offered interesting insight into refugee camps through two different case studies. One of the interesting points raised was that there is a "temporal dimension of displacement", as well as a spatial one, for refugees. Indeed, Ramadan noted that the UN definition of a refugee defines it as a temporary state. Therefore, refugee camps are notionally 'temporary' places, although the time periods can in reality be for decades.
This was particularly marked in the Rashidieh camp example, where 35,000 Palestinians live in a "permanent temporary reality." Ramadan showed us quotations from some of the people who live in this camp, with one stating that it is "a temporary city...where we stay until we can return to Palestine." Whilst the camps are based in Lebanon, they are not of Lebanon.
"This is a temporary city, the camps are temporary cities...where we stay until we can return to Palestine." ––– a 42 year old Palestinian living in Rashidieh
Upgrading: The urbanisation of humanitarian architecture
Romola Sanyal then talked about refugees who don't live in camps, but rather within existing cities. It was interesting to hear about this quite different situation, and the different opportunities and challenges that these refugees can face. Sanyal talked about "the aestheticisation of poverty", and how refugees mingle with the urban poor, with both groups being regarded as second-class citizens in society.
During the discussion that followed with both Ramadan and Sanyal, it was highlighted just how limited Palestinians are in the rights that they have in Lebanon – they are not allowed to buy property, and aren't officially or legally allowed to work in the public or private sector there. However, it was noted that rich, christian Palestinians would have been offered Lebanese citizenship as soon as they arrived. This emphasised a point which both speakers put across – that having refugee status does not necessarily equal being impoverished, and that there are class and wealth structures within refugee populations. The prevailing narrative, which overlooks this, needs to be redressed.
Cultural integration through Critical Play
The next talk was by an architect, Catalina Pollak Williamson. Williamson talked about her work with the "interdisciplinary collaborative research-based practice" that is Public Interventions. Their website is well worth a look at, offering lots of information, photos and videos on each of their projects.
Williamson began by offering a definition for Critical Play:
Critical Play (noun): "A voluntary form of active (playful) engagement that stands outside 'ordinary' life and suspends the relations of power that are in place"
Then, two projects were presented. The first one, 'PAN' is a communal, mobile bakery in Matera, Italy. The mobile bakery is on a tricycle, with an oven, and a typewriter. People are invited to come out into the street and make bread to their own recipes, then type out the recipe. In this way, a social archive is developed. Bread was chosen for a number of reasons, but particularly because there is a universality of it across cultures, but coming in different forms in each culture.
The second project was set in Ankara, Turkey, and is called 'Migrating Proverbs'. This aims to use language as a tool for engagement and culture exchange between Syrian refugees and local communities. By getting people to collect and share proverbs, people can open a dialogue about what they mean and whether they are found in other languages and cultures as well. They then had them translated, and they put them in both languages onto something of their choice, such as bags or scarves.
Migrating Proverbs film
Printmaking and play: Picturing togetherness in Leeds and Wakefield
The next talk brought us firmly back to our local context, with Keziah Berelson talking about projects in Leeds and Wakefield.
Berelson talked about the importance and power of integration through arts engagement for sanctuary seekers – people who have refugee status or are seeking asylum. One group that she works with is Mafwa Theatre, running dance groups at the Leeds Refugee Forum, with a focus on "having fun, developing creative skills and making new friends".
Mafwa Theatre
The other work that Berelson spoke about was printmaking workshops with sanctuary seekers taking place at The Art House in Wakefield, and she brought in a couple of beautiful examples of the work that had been created.
A fabric print made at The Art House, Wakefield
In the discussion with Berelson and Williamson which followed, the key message was about empowering these groups of people who can be quite often positioned at the fringes of society, and giving them agency. Williamson talked about how it is hard to be 'tactical' in public space with so many rules, but that it is through tactics, not strategies, that these interesting and empowering things happen. Berelson echoed this, opining that it is okay for large art institutions to get involved, and there can be clear benefits to this, but it it vital that things need to be led by the communities rather than being imposed in a top-down manner.
Another view that arose was on integration – that it needs to be about sharing but not assimilating and saying that everyone has to be the same.
Finally, Berelson emphasised the importance of us as designers adopting a broader understanding of what 'accessible space' means – not simply thinking of wheelchair users. Catering for people with different language skills, blind and deaf people, and neurodivergent people, is also very important, and currently not thought of enough.
Modern Heroes, Modern Slaves: Performance temporalities in the lives of migrant domestic workers
Ella Parry-Davies spoke next on her soundwalks project. This is another website well worth setting aside some hours to explore properly, as each soundwalk is a unique creation of a different person.
Presentation set up for this part of the symposium
The start of each soundwalk involves Parry-Davies meeting someone, a migrant domestic or care worker, at a place of their choosing, and walking around recording them talking. Then, the person spends around 16 hours editing the clip, curating it to be a piece that they want to put out into the world. They are paid for this time.
Parry-Davies made that point that this clearly gives people true agency over their own experiences and stories, in a way which contrasts sharply with an ethnographic interview. An example of this is in the kaya natin ito soundwalk – domestic migrant workers in Beirut are duelly identified as criminals and victims, but it is clear that Lina does not identify with either of these labels. Thus, the soundwalk typology and methodology respects each person's skills and agency.
105 Women, Leeds: Safe creative spaces as places of refuge, connection and empowerment
The final talk brought us back to our locality again, with Leeds Beckett senior lecturer and creative practitioner Liz Stirling talking about her work with 105 Women.
105 Women is a collective based in Chapeltown, and offers women a safe space for creativity. One of their channels of collaborative creative output are a number of zines. A great part of this talk was that Stirling passed around some copies of these for us to leaf through. This was really inspirational – to see what people can create as a team and then put out into the world.
One of the zines created by 105 Women
Later on, in the discussion, Stirling expressed that for them as a group, "the making was the art", and that they were less concerned with the end product and displaying and improving it. However, Stirling noted that this was where tension could arise between funding bodies and groups like this, as they are always wanting to see some kind of specific end product after they have parted with their money. If this can be worked around, then Stirling advised us that it's okay to either have or not have specific intentions, as it is a journey, and one should put oneself in a position and then simply see where you take yourself from there.
Reflection
As mentioned at the start of this blog post, I found this to be one of the best events that I have ever attended. Whereas in many other symposiums, there may be one talk that particularly stands out or resonates, in this case, every single talk was fascinating and brought my attention to lots of fantastic work that is being done both locally and internationally. I am really looking forward to looking more into all of this work through their websites and social media feeds, and I can see these being references that I return to in the future for inspiration to take on bottom-up, collective projects which can really make a difference to everyday people.
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