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A new programme aims to support artists’ responses to conflict. Michaela Crimmin explains

Big rifle leaning against a tree

This spring a network and programme, ‘Culture+Conflict’, will be launched, at a time of increasing global instability. This new venture aims to amplify and further support the responses of artists to current conflicts, just as the opportunities for more violent confrontations are increasingly stoked. The murder on 4 April of the inspirational director, actor and film-maker Juliano Mer-Khamis generated a response that was testimony to the profound importance of the relationship between the arts and conflict. The Freedom Theatre he directed in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is a model for social change, providing opportunities to challenge present realities and work for a better, freer, more peaceful future.

There is currently no international agency connecting the activities of artists and arts organisations working in war zones; no-one connecting and sharing the accumulated learning of these projects; and not enough people making the case for artists’ involvement to the various agencies involved. The Culture+Conflict inquiry has been established initially to gain a better critical understanding of the capacity of artists and performers, as they frequently work in isolation and in situations where opposing values and ideologies prevail. A group of us have come together to research current cultural activities, to promote these in a series of events and to build a website to show the work of artists and cultural organisations who address the subject of war and those who are subjected to it. We aim to bring people together to share interdisciplinary perspectives, to build greater awareness of artists’ work and to gain a better understanding of the extraordinarily challenging contexts. Do the arts and culture matter in countries where security, health and the social fabric have broken down? What do artists provide that may not be achieved by other means? Our purpose is to aggregate the learning and extend the opportunities for projects, working in partnerships with a range of organisations.

We are already convinced that projects by artists have frequently had a profound effect on the participants, the practitioners and their audiences. Nevertheless, they remain relatively unknown, especially beyond the arts sector or a particular geographical context. Culture+Conflict will capture some of the activities that have taken or are taking place – the work of artists, film-makers, performers and writers who have been fascinated and revolted by conflict, have borne witness to wars, or have brought many perspectives and persuasions to discourage further conflict or reduce the trauma of those affected. Eugenie Dolberg’s ‘Open Shutters Project’, as just one example, centres on the reality of war as told by nine Iraqi women.

Despite being a telling indictment of the deterioration of the country after years of war, this project and countless others are ultimately about empowerment and looking to better futures. They invariably include humour, the sharing of food, story-telling, determination and altruism: cultural exchange as a way of building empathy.

Each one of the three co-directors has their own reasons for wanting to start Culture+Conflict. Jemima Montagu has spent the past three years in Afghanistan with the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. Peter Jenkinson is the international lead on Derry-Londonderry Capital of Culture 2013, working in the aftermath of conflict in Northern Ireland. I initiated the RSA Arts & Ecology Centre and, as a result of looking at environmental issues and their social ramifications, became increasingly concerned with human rights and what happens when oil, land, water or minerals are in increasingly short supply.

We launched Culture+Conflict at the Free Word Centre in March with an oversubscribed event featuring artists’ responses to the 2007 bomb in Al-Mutannabi Street in Baghdad, the booksellers market and symbolic cultural centre of the city. The audience included Iraqi refugees, curators, staff of non-governmental organisations, artists and students. Our next event takes place in June, and further events are being programmed for the summer and autumn on Palestine and Afghanistan, and we are programming the keynote and main panel discussion on culture and conflict for EUNIC London’s (the umbrella organisation for 12 European cultural institutes) annual conference in July. Throughout the year we are holding smaller meetings with artists who have been working in war zones to garner their experiences and advice and these will be documented for the website.

What obstacles have we encountered? Actually, we have received nothing but encouragement so far, from the generosity of artists to individuals at Imperial War Museum, Index on Censorship, the British Council, Tate Modern, Autograph and the Free Word Centre. Do we need funding? Sure we do! But we pledge to remain light on administration (no office, minimum overheads) and put everything we can directly into amplifying and extending the role of culture. We welcome readers’ suggestions of inspirational work taking place, partnerships and potential venues. We welcome everyone’s involvement. Please email us and we will include you in the development of what we are determined will be a useful, inspirational and active enquiry and programme.

Michaela Crimmin is a curator, Co-Director of Culture+Conflict, an RSA Associate, and is on the academic staff of the Royal College of Art.

e info@cultureandconflict.org.uk
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