Sans Papiers? Video screening and Tanja Ostojić in conversation with Katarzyna Kosmala on the other side of migration and politics of representation

Saturday 16 March 2013

5:30pm - 7:00pm: FREE (ticketed)

Venue: CCA 4 (cinema)

Ages: all

Call the CCA Box Office on 0141 352 4900

Sans Papiers (2004), a 14 min video by Serbian artist Tanja Ostojić (collaboration with David Rych), addresses the questions of the restrictive asylum laws and comments on detention spaces in a deportation center in Berlin-Kopenick, Germany, through the conversations with ethnic African, Middle Eastern, former Yugoslavian and Turkish men. ‘Otherness’ refers to a migration status, an access to citizen rights across the border of ‘no origin’.

Prof Katarzyna Kosmala critically engages with Ostojić’ practice in her new book Imagining Masculinities (Routledge, 2013), addressing politics of representation, migration and gender. By marking the parallels between national borders and the boundaries of gendered bodies, Ostojić’s work opens up spaces for rethinking of the ‘other’ through mobility and resistance. After the video screening, Prof Kosmala will discuss with Ostojić her approaches to art activism, drawing on the video Sans Papiers and her most recent work Misplaced Women? The event is presented by the University of the West of Scotland.

Tanja Ostojić is a Serbian-born, Berlin-based artist working predominantly from a migrant woman’s perspective, combining political engagement and art activism with performance and humour. She holds an interdisciplinary fellowship at the Graduate School of UDK, Berlin University of Arts. Ostojić presented her work internationally, including the Venice Biennale 2001 and 2011, Škuc Gallery Ljubljana, 2012, KUMU Art Museum Tallinn, 2011, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest  2011, ASAB, Bogotá, Colombia, 2010, MUMOK, Vienna, and Zacheta gallery Warsaw, 2010,Kusrpavillon Innsbruck 2008, ICA London 1999, Manifesta 2 Luxembourg 1998. Her videos have been screened at a number of festivals such as IFFF Dortmund /Kölon  2010, Globale Berlin 2008, Oberhausen Kurzfilm und Video Festival 2000. Ostojić participates in the Economy show at CCA  http://www.van.at/see/tanja/

Katarzyna Kosmala, PhD is Professor of Culture, Media and Visual Practice at the University of the West of Scotland, and freelance curator and art writer.

To book tickets, visit the CCA website. 

Irish Women of our Past @ Film City Glasgow

Rachael Flynn writes: 

An event/gathering on Tuesday 4th of December at 6:30pm at Film City (Old Govan Town Hall), Glasgow - http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Film+City+Glasgow,+Govan+Road,+Glasgow&hl=en&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=9.676196,28.103027&oq=film+city+g&hq=Film+City+Glasgow,+Govan+Road,+Glasgow&t=m&z=15

As you are aware I have been advertising and asking people around the world to submit names of women in their past who have made the trip from Ireland. These names have been growing as word has spread and are continuing to build a collection of names and memories (see www.irishwomenofourpast.co.uk ).

I have recently returned from a trip around Ireland visiting the ports which they would have departed from and lit candles at each site in their memory. The aim of this trip was to allow both herself and the relatives of these women to commemorate the migrant women’s departures from these sites.

On Tuesday 'a sea' of candles will be lit in memory of those Irish women who journeyed to other lands. As mentioned above this will take place at Film City (Old Govan Town Hall), Glasgow, close to the Broomielaw where some of the boats arriving from Ireland would moor, with Govan itself a site of considerable Irish migration. The collection of names of Irish women of our past has continued to grow with more women remembered and represented by their descendants across the Diaspora, and more and more of their stories being remembered, recognized and shared. Each of the women’s names sent to me will be represented by a small candle which will be lit within this temporary devotional space while the names of the women and the places they left are commemorated in a subtle video work close-by.

I will be filming the sea of candles and streaming online for those who have submitted the names to access with a password being able to see the event from any location, allowing them to witness the event on behalf of their relation. The original candle which I lit for my own grandmother in Donegal, and then lit at the various ports on my recent visit will sit amongst these other candles, adding to the “sea” of light - a simple but effective act of remembrance.

I will be continuing to collect names up to and post event so please continue to tell those who you feel may be intetrested.

Names can be submitted via my email address – Rachael.flynn@uws.ac.uk

through the website - irishwomenofourpast.co.uk