Day 93, Year of #Mygration: Identity, belonging, 'integration’ & xenophobia

18th May 2018 @ Bar Bar Black Sheep
16 The Square, Wolverton, MK12 5DG

There There performance company, Counterpoints Arts, and Open University lecturer Dr Agnes Czajka are joining forces and coming to Bar Bar Black Sheep, Wolverton, Milton Keynes, to deliver a day of art and discussions on migration. The day will fuse the participatory installation, Trigger Warning with an experimental Ideas Lab exploring identity, belonging, ‘integration’ and xenophobia in Milton Keynes and Wolverton.

Trigger Warning contests immigrant stereotypes; hacked village fête-style games, such as ‘Hook-a-Job’, ‘Passport in a Bucket’, ‘Wheel of Benefits’, and ‘NHS photo banner’ depict and denounce deceitful Eastern European clichés. Audiences of all passports are encouraged to exchange their experiences of immigration, against a backdrop of deceptively light entertainment. By playing the games, the audience experiences the life of a typical immigrant as imagined by the British media over the last decade: the job-stealing, benefits-scrounging, non-integrated Eastern European.

Devised by There There, a 50% Serbian, 50% Romanian performance duo, Trigger Warning will be invigilated by a group of local Eastern Europeans of different professional, economic and generational experiences, making room for a wider, nuanced conversation on integration and exclusion. The Black Sheep Collective will also contribute with a response piece. The standalone installation, Bad Nagtowek, explores the negative portrayal of people immigrating from European countries in the national and local media. It will be in the form of a traditional British Dress, beautiful in appearance from afar but up close portraying negativity.

Everyone is welcome to attend, just turn up on the day.

Trigger Warning 13:00-18:00

Assemblage: An Ideas Lab 15:00-16:00