​No place like ​      

 20/06/2023
The Exchange, Birmingham (UK)

No place like       was a series of live art performances and installations especially created to mark World Refugee Day on June 20th 2023. Disseminated through The Exchange, they formed a dispersed constellation of images and actions that could be experienced in any order and which offered poetic and associative spaces to reflect on the rights and plights of refugees.

The event was a collaboration between Jennifer Escott, Haleemah Farooki, Amber Gollay, Rebecca Kibuuka, and Felix King, with guidance and artistic direction from Pablo Pakula and production assistance from Victoria Anthony and Isabella Ashley. The work was made possible thanks to funding from the Sir Barry Jackson Endowment Fund and University of Birmingham Public Engagement, as well as key production support from the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts and Linda Muirhead. It was documented by Connor Pope.

I would like to thank Sandra Hall, co-director and lead artist at Friction Arts, for putting me in touch with Soheila Javaheri, an Iranian award-winning filmmaker and artist living in Birmingham. As well as thanking Soheila for sharing her visual poetry practice with us, and for introducing us to members of Birmingham’s Iranian community.
     ​We thank Sara Teimoori and the children of Nahal Music Group for the joy they brought into the building (they rehearsed in one of the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts' studios whilst we rehearsed in another). Unfortunately, due to safeguarding reasons the chilren were unable to attend the final event. However, they made a special contribution via a projected film (see below), for which we are very grateful. We also thank Ardeshir and Damon for their generosity in attending our first creative meeting, and the insight they offered.

The music featuring throughout No place like       was very carefully curated by drawing on different vocal traditions from across the world, as well as a cover of 'Somewhere over the rainbow' played on a home made glass harp (which was overlaid with a special recording of Haleema's younger sister reading the UN 's 1951 Refugee Convention). You can listen to the soundtrack playlist here.

For safeguarding reasons the video Nahal Music Group created for the event has been visually redacted, but you can still hear them play.

As part of No place like      I created a video piece using found footage of a ship's wake [see 2nd video below]. But for the event I also deliberately repurposed two video pieces created in 2020 [WINDARD and LEEWARD (a refugee requiem) - see 1st and 3rd videos below]. Since both that previous project and this one focus on the experiences, rights and plights of refugees and migrants the three videos pieces now form a kind of triptych.