PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS / UNDER THE BRIDGE – HELSINKI

Cultural Center REX

05. 12. 2011 19:00

A discussion with cultural workers, activists and theoreticians from Serbia, Germany and Finland

 

The Under the Bridge - Helsinki project aims to paint a bigger picture of the social and political position of migrant workers - Roma men and women in Europe and create sustainable housing concepts for them using artistic and political methods. The first stage of the project consisted of mapping the position of migrants from the Balkans living and working in Helsinki. In the second stage, concrete housing solution concepts were developed. Artists, activists, theoreticians and politicians proposed new methods and specialized strategies for addressing this issue, from different angles and developed sustainable ideas.

Cultural Centre REX will host a public event and a meeting of the members of the research group named The Pull Factor / Under the Bridge - Helsinki established in the first stage of the project in November 2010, bringing together the participants in The Housing Agenda / Under the Bridge - Helsinki seminar and debate held in September 2011 in Helsinki.

The following speakers will take part on the discussion: Saara Hannus (Helsinki, artist and member of the research group X-OP), Paula Lehtonen (Helsinki, artist and member of the research group X-OP), Vladan Jeremić (artist, political activist and cultural worker, author of the project Under the Bridge - Helsinki), Dejan Marković (Roma politician and activist), Nebojša Milikić (Cultural Centre REX), Lidija Mirković (Roma activist and artist), Johanna Raekallio Helsinki, artist and member of the research group X-OP), Rena Rädle (author of the project Under the Bridge - Helsinki), Jovana Vuković (Regional Centre for Minorities) and others.

The purpose of public consultations is to evaluate the results achieved up to the present and discuss the measures to be taken in the future. During the consultations, the announced guests and the audience will be discussing proposals and ideas of importance to the future conceptualizations of the project, as well as the existing document Helsinki Housing Manifesto.
The announced guests from Helsinki, Saara Hannus, Paula Lehtonen and Johanna Raekallio will be presenting their contributions and discussing the possible critical points and efficient methods. The participants in the seminar held in Helsinki will elaborate on their role and the manner in which they approached this project.

Additional information on the project "Under the Bridge - Helsinki"

During their artistic residency in Helsinki, as part of the X-OP project, and courtesy of the Helsinki-based MAA art school in 2010, as well as in the course of the stay as part of the HIAP - Helsinki International Artist-in-Residence Programme in 2011, Vladan Jeremić and Rena Rädle continued their long-term project related to the increasing problem of violent demolition of Roma settlements in Europe. This year, they started working on a programme aimed at solving housing problems of migrant Roma and other precarious workers. Numerous activists, workers, theoreticians and politicians from Finland, Great Britain, Germany and Serbia who participated in working groups and debates are involved in this process.

The Pull Factor / Under the Bridge - Helsinki
Vladan Jeremić and the artists and activists from Helsinki conducted interviews on the position of Roma migrant, precarious workers in the Satama social centre in Helsinki throughout November 2010. Since it was quickly identified as s pull factor, bringing people to Helsinki, the centre was soon shut down by the authorities. The city authorities in collaboration with the police had the Roma settlement demolished in September 2011 and its residents evicted.
The photographs and detailed testimonies about the encounters and talks with the residents and their sympathisers, city officials, the police and others appeared in The Pull Factor / Under the Bridge - Helsinki publication prepared and distributed in several languages.
Feel free to download, share and distribute the printer-friendly version of the publication/booklet The Pull Factor / Under the Bridge - Helsinki
http://www.modukit.com/raedle-jeremic/media/thepullfactor_helsinki_pages_print.pdf
Authors: Johanna Raekallio, Paula Lehtonen, Saara Hannus and Vladan Jeremić. The publication includes a comic/directory authored by the Zampa di Leone collective in English, Romany and Serbian.

The Housing Agenda / Under the Bridge - Helsinki
During their residency as part of the HIAP, Vladan Jeremić and Rena Rädle organized a seminar and a discussion at the Ateneum Art Museum focusing on the topic of the housing agenda in an attempt to formulate proposals on the ways of solving the housing problems of Roma and other precarious workers in Europe. These events resulted in the idea of building a trans-urban network of "migrant hotels" in many European towns intended for Roma migrant and precarious workers and other precarious workers in, as well as in a number of proposals for formulating unified principles for local housing solutions to be implemented with the support of the European social fund.
http://www.hiap.fi/event/housing-agenda-under-bridge-helsinki

Participants: Vladan Jeremić (political activist and artist, Serbia), Dejan Marković (Belgrade-based Roma politician and activist), Lidija Mirković (artist, Germany), Silvia Modig (member of the Finnish Parliament, City Planning Board), Damian Le Bas (writer, UK), Panu Lehtovuori (architect, professor of urban studies, Helsinki), Marita Muukkonen (curator, Helsinki), Gareth Rice (social thinker, writer, urban political economist, University of Helsinki), Rena Rädle (activist and artist, Serbia), Roman Schatz (journalist and writer, Helsinki), Ivor Stodolsky (curator, researcher, writer, Helsinki-Berlin), Miranda Vuolasranta (executive director of the Finnish Association of Roma Forum, Helsinki), Eetu Viren (theoretician, activist Free Movement, Helsinki), Thomas Wallgren (member of the Helsinki City Council).
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Public consultations/ Under the Bridge - Helsinki are carried out with the support of Cultural Centre REX, Biro (Bureau) Belgrade, FRAME and the Arts Council of Finland.