Programme
Sean Dockray
26 Mar 13
The Uncommon: A gathering for migrant artists on the island of Ireland
23 May 23
Artists
Bojana Janković, Marta Dyczkowska
Info
CCA is delighted to present The Uncommon: An online gathering for migrant artists on the island of Ireland, on Tuesday 23 May 2023, from 1-3pm. Book via our shop: CCADLD.org/Shop
What does it mean to be a migrant artist living on the island of Ireland?
Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry, and artists Bojana Janković and Marta Dyczkowska are inviting fellow migrants living in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to join us for an online event dedicated to thinking about what migrancy means within the cultural sector of the island.
How are migrant artists represented within the cultural sector and what exclusions and obstacles do they face? How do cultural institutions on the island support migrant artists or how are they contributing to their invisibility or marginalisation? What does ‘shared island’ mean for migrant artists - when most are legally prevented from working in both countries? The Uncommon... is a space for migrant artists to meet, organise and plot; to share ideas and frustrations.
This event will take place online via Zoom. Book your free place here: CCADLD.org/Shop
What will happen
The gathering will open with short provocations from migrant artists working on the island, offering a way to articulate some of the individual and collective preoccupations we harbour and an invitation to respond, add, or counter. Then we will spend time mapping the landscape of migrant-led art on the island: we will pool our knowledge of allies, support mechanisms that exist and work, and share our ideas about what the migrant artistic communities in both countries need.
Who is this gathering for?
Artists at any stage of their practice, working in any art form, living in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, and who identify as migrants. ‘Migrant' refers to people who have lived experiences of migration in their lives and people profiled as migrants because of the colour of their skin, their accent or other characteristics, regardless of their legal status. Migrants can have a variety of legal statuses, including as visa nationals, temporary or permanent residents, refugees or asylum seekers, traveller communities, those undocumented or otherwise illegalised, or citizens.
You can find out more about Bojana's previous iteration of The Uncommon that was part of Ballads of Rhinestones & Newcomers at CCA in summer 2022.
Bojana Janković is a Belfast-based artist working at the intersection of performance, participation and migrant rights. Her performances, installations, texts, and non-denominational works have appeared in physical and digital spaces in the UK, Serbia, and internationally, including in Tate Modern (London), Center for Art on Migration Politics (Copenhagen), and in collaboration with Home Live Art (Hastings) and Performing Arts Hub (Norway). Bojana thinks/writes/performs about borders and internationalism as part of Critical Interruptions, a Serbo-Romanian critical cooperative, and works as part of Migrants in Culture, a migrant-led organisation building radical imagination and capacity to live without borders. She is a 2022–2023 Research Associate at the Centre for Contemporary Art.
Marta Dyczkowska (b. 1980, Poland) is a visual artist who predominantly works in video, photography, installation, and live performance. Her work explores themes such as identity, memory, loss, trauma, and migration. Marta often links past and present producing multiple narratives. Although highly personal in nature, her work also serves as social commentary.
Marta is a keen collaborator and advocate of socially engaged art. She is a former co-director of Catalyst Arts, and a current member of Vault Artist Studios, Belfast.
Her solo exhibitions include Shut The Front Door (Imagine Belfast Festival, Vault Artist Studios, Belfast, 2021), and A 7th Woman, (Platform Arts, Belfast, 2019). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including The Lay of the Land, (at Cavan Townhall Gallery with Array Collective, 2023), The Lord Mayor's Parlour exhibition(Belfast City Hall, curated by Array Collective and Jane Morrow, 2021); Portrait of Northern Ireland: Neither an Elegy Nor a Manifesto (Golden Thread Gallery, curated by Shan McAnena, 2021); Janet Mullarney Open Submission Exhibition and Competition (Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 2020) and numerous iterations of the Belfast International Festival of Performance Art. Awards include Bridging The Gap Programme (Scottish Documentary Institute), 2022; Belfast School of Art Artist Residency, 2018; Platform Arts Graduate Residency, 2018; and the Artist Moving Image NI Graduate Award, 2018.
Supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Derry City & Strabane District Council.
