In Spotlight on Sonic Relations I shared my creative findings from the British Council funded Spotlight on Culture artistic and cultural exchange with Grenoble, France. The aim of the event was to inspire artists, academics and other creative workers to create new structures for their work beyond borders. The event began with a sonic intervention: attendees saw the soundmaps and listened to soundscape composition I created in response to the project. The theme was ‘productive tension’ which I felt both internally and externally throughout the week, given that there were many artists and organisations involved with competing interests and that there was political unrest in France as well. This sonic intervention was followed by a panel discussion with EU artists living in the UK on the roles of such cultural exchanges in the post-Brexit era. Roxana Sayyad and Polina Chizhova-Wright both shared their experiences as Europeans having moved to and working the UK. Both echoed the need for international cultural work which is not based on nationalities. The following discussion between the panellists and attendees opened up a dialogue about the role of the arts as a political tool of change, which I hope will continue beyond the event.
Photographs by Helen Davison.
Soundmaps and soundscape composition by Markus Hetheier (Industries).
