MIGRANT CAR
HOSTED BY KUNSTHALL 3,14
16.10. - 29.11.2019
LOCATIONS:
FESTPLASSEN 16.10 - 21.10.2019 v/Meteorfestival
USF VERFTET 21.10 - 26.10.2019 v/Meteorfestival
TORGALMENNINGEN 26.10 - 26.10.2019 v/Antikrigs-Initiativet
VÅGSALLMENNINGEN 26.10 - 16.11.2019 v/Kunsthall 3,14
VÅGSALLMENNINGEN 16.11 - 17.11.2019 v/The Soups & Stories
DOMKIRKENPLASSEN 17.11 - 24.11.2019 v/Domkirken
HF-BYGGET 24.11 - 09.12.2019 v/Institutt for lingvistiske, litterære og estetiske studier
The project Migrant Car/Migrant bilen by Ed D´Souza was completed in Oslo earlier this year and was part of osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019-2024 with a public program, and is now preparing for the trip across the mountain from Oslo to Bergen. The first stop in Bergen will be at Festplassen, then we will parade it to USF Verftet, Vågsallmenningen, and in front of the newly renovated church, Domkirken, well known for its bullet on the facade, said to have been fired by an English canon in 1665.
ABOUT:
Migrant Car is a moving sculpture, a 1:1 artistic rendering in wood and fabric of a Hindustan Ambassador, a British-Indian car with a post-colonial history.
The artist Ed D´Souza made the fabrication of this car into a moving sculpture with an extended public program for and around the sculpture as it would move throughout spaces. He leaves the car to us for a period wanting and hoping that people will engage with it. D'Souza considers the project a catalyst for dialogue around (multi)cultural identity, migration and shared human values, but also public space and public spheres and cities. How the project has been moving and relating to people and context has shown broad appeal and it has instigated many informal, heartfelt and unexpected meetings and conversations. As part of the journey around the city of Bergen, Kunsthall 3.14 will collaborate with The Meteor Festival, the University of Bergen, The Soups&Stories project, and Domkirken Congregation in Bergen.
PROGRAM / COLABORATIONS IN BERGEN:
The moving sculpture Migrant Car can be experienced near central venues during Meteor 2019. Meteor 2019 is a biennale curated by BIT Teatergarasjen, focusing on international impulses and tendencies within theatre and performing arts. Humanism is one of the core values of the festival and institution as such, constantly being highlighted through ways of curating interesting social foras that may challenge established perspectives. As part of the official program of Meteor 2019, Migrant Car stands side by side with performances and a discourse program that in a multitude of ways looks upon urgent, contemporary issues. The moving sculpture will be a public meeting point throughout the festival, both for international guests, artists and the local inhabitants of Bergen.
For more information and a full list of credits, see bit-teatergarasjen.no/program/arrangementer/migrant-car
3,14LIVE will do a speculative mashup between the Migrant Car, the national terror exercise KRISØV17 translated by artist Peter Voss-Knude and the dead tree from the Hybrid TV-Series ‘Are You Ready?’. And that meeting will unfold itself through a voice coming from the car and a workshop on the 6th of November when the poet CA Conrad is in town.
voss-knude.com
The dialogue art project Soups&Stories are invited to join the Migrant Car while it is standing outside Kunsthall 314. Soups&Stories have clubbed together with the Eritrean Women’s Union and the organization Arawelo. They have named their event 'MY THOUGHTS ARE FREE' and the purpose is to exchange thoughts on important questions of our time.
The main purpose is to facilitate meetings and get people to meet across social groups. Make people talk to each other in real-time and together share a warm soup.
One of their statements goes as follows: 'We are all the result of having grown up and lived in specific realities. We often move in social circles where people believe and feel similarly about important issues. Dialogue across social groups allows us to take part in realities outside our own. In this way, we can get a higher consciousness about our contemporary situation and our common history.
www.meisfjord-satre.com
Ed D´Souza sculpture Migrant Car has pushed it selves as close as it can get to the medieval cathedral in Bergen; Domkirke.
Placed where nothing is supposed to be, especially not this thing. And by doing exactly that a dialogue between contemporary issues and medieval symbolic power immediately triggers our mind. We stop, we look again at this surprising framework and start to think about things we don’t normally think about. And when you get closer you discover that the congregation has relinquished a gift to the car, the turnover consists of recorded sound from the cathedral where their choir sings fourth coral. The music may seem kind and reassuring, but it is taken from John's Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach - a powerful portrayal of the dramatic passionate story of Jesus' suffering and death on the cross.
AFTER BERGEN:
Migrant Car will move on, to extend its life-span and reach. After Bergen, the car will go to Trondheim Kunsthall, Pikene på Broen in Kirkenes and over the Russian border, into Russia, and potentially from Russia to another country. You can follow the project on the blog: https://mcprojects.blog
Ed D’Souza (Robert E. D’Souza, 1969, UK) is a London-based artist and designer. He is also a Professor of Critical Practice at Winchester School of Art at the University of Southampton. He is known for his temporary, site-specific and participatory/collaborative art and design projects many of which connect to his Indian heritage. His work explores critical practices that engage with a variety of production processes and producers and is supported by his critical writings around social, political and cultural change. Recent projects have been shown in art institutions, biennials and public spaces in China, India, Spain, and the UK. www.robertedsouza.com
Åshild Kristensen Foss & Ed D’Souza
Beyond Participation Into Art >>>
LINKS:
www.oslobiennalen.no
Country crossing! Ed D'Souza's Migrant Car
K. Kristiansen / © osloBIENNALEN
Video produced and edited by Lumopolar
© osloBIENNALEN 2019