Less than a week after re-opening ARTCRY awarded the first grant of this new funding period. Statement of Asylum: Remix was created by Undertow.
"While asylum seekers are asked to report the details of their stories over and over again in forms for the government, including an Asylum Statement, and some of these stories are shared with the media, the public rarely feel any connection or shared personhood with asylum seekers. We don’t hear from them in their own words. This othering and psychic distance allows many members of society to support or simply ignore inhumane action being planned and taken against Asylum Seekers. At sunset on the Kings Steps of Margate's main sands on Friday 21st June, for Refugee Week 2024, Undertow attempted to jolt people into paying attention by projecting a message onto the Turner Contemporary. At a frightening time of crisis, this disruptive display will communicate to asylum seekers and refugees across the UK that there is space for them to be heard. Statement of Asylum: Remix is made of the anonymous words spoken by asylum seekers that were formed into a collective poem." - Undertow
WATCH THE STORY HERE
A Blog from Kat Lewis, Undertow
On Tuesday 23rd April 2024 the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 was passed in a big move forward to deter entry of asylum seekers to the UK by threatening to deport them to Rwanda.
On Thursday 16th May 2024 I stood in the spitting rain with my son on my shoulders and watched as a van the Home Office had sent took seven asylum seekers from Margate, where they had become part of a community, to the Bibby Stockholm. I could not stop thinking, ‘so many people don’t understand what this means.’
On Thursday 23rd May 2024 I got sent a link to Artcry’s fast response political artwork funding. I texted Dan Thompson, DO YOU THINK I CAN PROJECT A POEM BY ASYLUM SEEKERS ONTO THE TURNER? He said, yeah.
On Saturday 27th May 2024 I submitted an application to Artcry for STATEMENT OF ASYLUM: REMIX.
On Thursday 30th May 2024 I got a call from Kathryn Bilyard from Artcry saying my funding was approved.
On Tuesday 11th June 2024, Connor Sansby who I sit next to in the Writers Room of Marine Studios, opened the front door of our building to a stream of asylum seekers. With Dr Lucy Williams by my side, making her way around the room from person to person making sure everyone was okay, I worked with 35 asylum seekers in a writers workshop where we explored their ideas and how they’d like to communicate them. Pizza 2 Night sent us a comedy high stack of pizza boxes.
On Wednesday 12th June 2024 I met Jon Spencer, our graphic designer, at his studio with a bundle of paperwork and notes as well as voice memos from the workshop. I composed a draft and he laid it out on his computer against a picture of the building.
On Friday 14th June 2024 I heard from the discreet force of good that is a group of technical geniuses who facilitate for Led By Donkeys and put activism-led graphics on the most prominent buildings in the world, who said they wanted this job.
On Saturday 15th June 2024 before the sun was risen my eyes were wide open.
On Monday 17th June 2024, refugee week began. While Jon and the techs discussed how to maximise impact with animations, I put out the word for more hands to help. I interrogated the budget, I negotiated skills swaps, I was supported by Co-relate Communication CIC and Kent Poetry in negotiating all my existing deadlines, I spoke to Jenni Regan at IMIX and lots of local people. I posted a flyer on our teeny tiny Instagram account. People shared it.
On Wednesday 19th June 2024 a Dad on the school run asked me if I’d heard about the thing at the beach for refugees happening on Friday night.
On Friday 21st June 2024 at sunset more than 100 people gathered around the Turner Contemporary to see it be lit up by the words of Asylum Seekers. Jack Chute filmed and edited the moment into a video so beautiful that you might watch it without any concern for the cause.
This is art responding to the world in real time.
*an extreme abbreviation of events
Statement of Asylum: Remix was created by Undertow and supported by
and many more local people.
WATCH THE LIVE FILM OF THE LIVE EVENT HERE
We're thrilled to have funded this project.
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