Between Trenches

About

   “You move through me like rain heard from another country. Yes, you have a country. Someday, they will find it while searching for lost ships... [...] ” - To My Father / To My Future Son, Ocean Vuong.

   How does each individual delve into their inheritance, selfhood and overall identity? How does each of us see the relevance of such questioning? In what way can we cross-examine these structures and create new pathways of understanding?

   The idea is not to create a set and finished proposition in our thinking. Especially when identity itself can change. As we all have a different way of seeing ourselves and our experiences are diverse, we are looking to catch a glimpse of each person’s uniqueness while finding overlapping and meeting points.

   Construction, reconstruction and disintegration of home, of language and belonging, in respect to displacement, generational trauma and family dynamics, can lead to a volatile rebuilding of oneself, or a joyous celebration of character. Perhaps a bit of both.

A heritage can be unstable, inconsistent, sumptuous, abundant, multi-faceted while full of patterns.

   How do these matters shape or reshape memory and culture? What is transmission and how do we translate survival? Can we explore these subjects independently from a familial setting or an imaginary motherland, if there is any? Where does the understanding of the diaspora fall short in relation to a “foreign” homeland? Where does it not?

In Riz Ahmed’s words in “Where are you from”: “The question seems simple, but the answer's kinda long [...] [we] know that there's no place like home and that stretches us”.

   From collectives to poets, musicians to filmmakers, painters to performers and all those navigating between disciplines, we are presenting POC artists examining multiple axis of identity. Through the exploration of historical events, community, immigration, mixed-heritage, urban development, culture, care, childhood (and more!) we want to make something worthy of our time, involvement and celebration.

This exhibition includes performances, a poetry reading and music along with permanent works.

“My tribe is a quest to a land that was lost to us, and its name is dignity” Where are you from - Riz Ahmed

Programme :

Opening Thu 26th  Jan 16:00 – 21:00 with a performance by Unamed  @unamedcollective at 6pm 

Fri 27th Jan 13:00 – 21:00 

Sat 28th Jan16:00 – 21:00 with poetry readings by Honeyjamn @honeyjamn , Heiko Thandeka-Ncube @heikothandeka , Philmon and S.K. Ying at 6pm 

Thu 2nd Feb 16:00 – 21:00 

Frid 3rd Feb 16:00 – 21:00 with a music performance by Simran @simsingh22 and Elodie @etherbaby999 at 6pm 

Participating artists :  

Temitope Adebowale, @temitope.artist 

Polam Chan, @polamchan 

Melody Yat Wan CHAN,  @melody.chan_art 

Elodie @etherbaby999

Amine Habki, @enima_hbk 

Honeyjamn,  @honeyjamn 

Yasmin Idris, @teniolastudio 

KWONG, @_kw_gg 

Duong Thuy Nguyen, @duonguyen.thuy 

No Man’s land  @n.m.land, with Eleanor Sanghara @eleanor.sanghara , and Natalie Sasiprapa Organ @natsasio  

Simran @simsingh22 

Heiko Thandeka-Ncube, @heikothandeka 

The Shadow Sun 

Unamed @unamedcollective with Henri Affandi @henri.affandi , Jordan Chan @whynotjordan , Kimberly Chuang @kimstrash , Alya Hatta @alyahatta , Victoria Kosasie @victoria.kosasie and Nurin Yusof @tengku_nurin  

S.K. Ying  

Curators :  

Lead Curator : Amandine Vabre-Chau, @a_y_v_c

With : Tatiana Tati-Modé @tatianaamode , Philmon Art @lensedbrushart , and Heiko Thandeka-Ncube, @heikothandeka