Arts & Human Rights Exposition
Arts & Human Rights: Conversing Multiplicities, a multi-media arts exposition, held May 30-June 8 2023 at LeParc-Milieux Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, co-curated by Oonagh Fitzgerald, Ann Wettrich (Emergent Art Space) and Ramon Blanco-Barrera\233 (University of Seville).
The exposition was realized with the support of LeParc-Milieux Institute, the Human Rights Research and Education C
Contributing Artists and Academics
Co-curators
Oonagh Fitzgerald
Ramon Blanco Barrera \ 233
Ann Wettrich
List of participating artists in the order their artworks appear in the video:
0:01-0:13
Ramon Blanco Barrera \ 233, Design of Exposition Poster & Manifesto
0:19-0:32
Stanley Février, Sans titre
0:33-0:40
Susana Romero, Party
0:41-0:45
Catherine Heard, Redwork: The Emperor of Atlantis Comic Book
0:46-0:51
Ignacio Traverso, Barricades
0:52-0:58
Agustín Israel Barrera, Party
0:59-1:06
Manuel Fernando Mancera-Martinez, The secret words of the words secret
1:07-1:14
Omid Milani, Jester and Justitia
1:15-1:21
Teresa Díaz, Thank you
1:22-1:30
Maria del Mar Garcia-Jimenez, The possibility of reality checks
1:31-1:44
Elsy Zavarce, Silvia Martinez, Angel Leiva / Venezuela, Cocoon
1:45-1:59
Federico Guzmán, Intronaut
2:00-2:10
Bottom: Richard Lubben, Ai Collaboration
2:00-2:10
Top: Ramon Blanco Barrera \ 233, Abstract future
2:11-2:21
Gema Climent, Reflection, Musubi the living spirit
2:22-2:31
María Elvira Querol, The Girls' Long Journey to Water
2:32-2:46
Elizabeth Presa, Icons
2:47-3:30
Oonagh Fitzgerald, Amazonia: Goddess of Waste
3:31-3:49
Kenan Peter, Silence Word
3:50-3:56
Raka Panda, Man with Wishing Tree
3:57-4:08
Lilian Munuo, Mbessi
4:09-4:30
Top: Maame Marful, Women and Liberty
4:09-4:30
Bottom: Annah Nkyalu, Cyber Attack
4:31-4:43
Sai BLANK, Portrait of Father
4:44-4:55
Ignacio Cote Cordin, Not so sweet memories; Where death was
4:56-5:11
Aydin Matlabi, As the Wind Blows: Masha Becomes the Wind
5:12-5:29
Top: Anirban Mishra, Death of Heroes
5:12-5:29
Bottom: Caitlin Mkhasibe, All I Wanted for Christmas Were Anthracite and a Hail of Bullets
5:40-5:46
Jayeti Bhattacharya, Memories for Future II Handmade Book
5:47-5:58
Jiang Feng, Unwholesome Shelter
5:59-6:19
P.Cube Play, Life Behind Bars
6:32-7:08
Oonagh Fitzgerald, Ukraine with love
7:15-7:25
Ramon Blanco Barrera \ 233, Design of Exposition Poster & Manifesto
Video and sound recording contributors (works not shown)
Sheena Bernett
The crisis of the pre-figured: composing qualities as pathway to neurodiverse perception
P. Cube Play
Colors Are Dangerous
Ricardo Dal Farra
Decoding reality
Danielle Garrison
Abortion and women's rights to choose
Dirar Kalash
For Masafer Yatta
Juan Antonio Rodríguez
The protest
Tony Yap
Coda
Reflective Improvisational Scenario Enactment (RISE) participants
Sheena Bernett - Video
Oonagh Fitzgerald - Dance improvisation
Danielle Garrison - Video
Malte Leander - Music performance, technical set up\take down of exposition
Juanita\Jay Marchand - Music performance and moderator and speaker for Panel discussion on Reclaiming opera: Human rights issues in the classical canon
Katarzyna Musial - Dance improvisation
Philon Nguyen - Music performance and speaker for Panel discussion on Reclaiming opera: Human rights issues in the classical canon
Kofi Oduro - Music and light performance, video documentation, technical set up\take down of exposition
Valentina Plata - Music performance, photographic documentation, technical set up\take down of exposition
Eldad Tsabary - Waste Whisperer sound installation and speaker for Panel discussion on Reclaiming opera: Human rights issues in the classical canon
Additional panelists
Jabeur Fathally - Speaker for Panel discussion of Conversing Multiplicities: Relations between the arts and human rights
Andrea Fitzpatrick - Speaker for Panel discussion of Conversing Multiplicities: Relations between the arts and human rights
Kristin Franseen - Speaker for Panel discussion on Reclaiming opera: Human rights issues in the classical canon
Omid Milani - Speaker for Panel discussion of Conversing Multiplicities: Relations between the arts and human rights
Other contributors
Karl Biernath - set up\take down of exposition
Gabriel Fitzgerald-Biernath - set up\take down of exposition
Sophia Boyadjian & Catherine Heard, Emperor of Atlantis Armenian genocide redwork embroidery workshop
Patrick McMaster - laser, projection, and sound for the Radiohead dance party
John Roloff - Photographic documentation, and set up\take down of exposition
Bringing Video Production Studio to Life
A Celebration of Arts & Human Rights: Conversing Multiplicities at Concordia University
Over the course of virtual workshops, a symposium, zoom calls and emails, arts and human rights practitioners and advocates from around the world shared works, experiences, and ideas about what it means to be human in the posthuman cyborg Anthropocene. They developed a Manifesto on building positive relations between the arts and human rights which artists, dancers, academics, and musicians then animated through a multi-media exposition entitled Arts & Human rights: Conversing Multiplicities, held May 30-June 8, 2023, at the Video Production Studio (VPS), LeParc, Milieux Institute, Concordia University. The exposition was realized with the support not only of LeParc and Milieux but also the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa, Emergent Art Space of California, USA, and the University of Seville, Spain.
VPS is an empty, windowless, white box of potential that can be transformed into an immersive and exciting performance and exhibition space with imaginative use of lighting, projection, and sound equipment. With visual artworks, dance and art videos, and soundscapes contributed by 46 artists from around the world, co-curators Oonagh Fitzgerald, Ann Wettrich (Emergent Art Space) and Ramon Blanco-Barrera\233 (University of Seville) were able to arrange a congenial space to contemplate and explore human rights from a multiplicity of perspectives.
The visual artworks were displayed along all four walls of the studio, with a sculpture by Stanley Février (Sans titre)arranged on the floor and works by Kenan Peter (Silence Word), Oonagh Fitzgerald (Ukraine with Love) and (Amazonia, Goddess of Waste) and Raka Panda (Man with Wishing Tree) suspended from ceiling bars at either end of the studio. A table and display at the entrance to the studio provided information about the Arts and Human Rights project and the Manifesto. Across from this, another table and display provided information about Emergent Art Space and its Call to young artists. Two large televisions, one on either side of the studio, showed art videos in continuous loops. A Marley dance floor was laid out in the middle of the room as a place to perform music and dance works or to gather for discussions. Chairs were arranged on the perimeter of the dance floor to facilitate viewing of the artworks.
Artworks revealed individual preoccupations with human rights related to identity, statelessness, genocide, racism, gender, mental and physical ableism, neurodiversity, poverty and marginalization, migration, police brutality, military dictatorship, freedom of expression and censorship, cyber exploitation, children and workers’ rights, access to water, protection of marine biodiversity, and the now internationally recognized right to a healthy and clean environment.
There were two panel discussions, an opening one on Building Positive Relations Between the Arts and Human Rights with Andrea Fitzpatrick, Jabeur Fathally, and Omid Milani, and a closing one on Reclaiming Opera Despite Human Rights Issues in the Canon with Eldad Tsabary, Juanita\Jay Marchand, Kristin Franseen, and Philon Nguyen. Throughout the eight days of the exposition, a wide variety of multi-media activities assured lively community engagement and diverse conversations about relations between arts and human rights. These included a workshop on embroidering about human rights violations with Catherine Heard (Redwork: The Emperor of Atlantis) and Sophia Boyadjian; live music and projection compositions and dance performances by Judith\Jay Marchand, Katarzyna Musial, Kofi Oduro, Malte Leander, Oonagh Fitzgerald, Philon Nguyen, and Valentina Plata; a noon hour focus on dance and art videos and soundscapes by Danielle Garrison (Abortion and women's rights to choose), Dirar Kalash (For Masafer Yatta), Juan Antonio Rodríguez (The protest), P. Cube Play (Colors Are Dangerous), Ricardo Dal Farra (Decoding reality), Sheena Bernett (The crisis of the pre-figured), and Tony Yap (Coda); and at the John Molson Building, a companion sound installation made of discarded and recycled sound equipment entitled Waste Whisperer, by Eldad Tsabary with visual and sound contributions from the RISE[1] micro-opera team, and a closing night laser, video and sound dance party by Patrick McMaster.
It was extraordinary to experience the wide range of perspectives and visions of visual artists, musicians, videographers, dancers, lawyers, academics, and students about what human rights mean to them and how this meaning can be expressed through conversation, law, and the arts. The art exhibition, discussions and performances were documented through video and photography with the object of producing a film about the project on arts and human rights to continue expanding the conversation. After the exposition, the co-curators sent certificates to thank all participants for their important contributions to its success, and the enthusiastic responses indicate continued interest in conversing about art making and human rights.
With the show fully dismantled, the artworks were sent back to their makers, and the co-curators returned home, leaving the studio once more in its dark, quiet, blank state, ready to be reawakened by the imaginations of the next crew of dreamers.
[1] Reflective Iterative Scenario Enactments of Futuristic Cataclysms through Collaborative Mini-Operas or RISE is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and led by Eldad Tsabary. The RISE team includes Antoine Bellemare, Oonagh Fitzgerald, Danielle Garrison, Malte Leander, Juanita\Jay Marchand, Katarzyna Musial, Philon Nguyen, Kofi Oduro, Valentina Plata.
(This article was originally published on the Milieux Institute website)
