Ximena Alarcón-Díaz es una artista-investigadora sonora interesada en escuchar y sonorizar nuestras migraciones sonoras: las resonancias de las migraciones geográficas. Es tutora certificada en Deep Listening®, y tiene un doctorado en Música, Innovación y Tecnología. A lo largo de su carrera ha creado improvisaciones sonoras telemáticas e interfaces de escucha relacional, para comprender sensorialmente experiencias migratorias. Sus principales obras son Sounding Underground (IOCT-DMU, Leverhulme Trust, 2007-2009), la serie de performances sonoras telemáticas Networked Migrations (CRiSAP-UAL, 2011-2017) e INTIMAL: Interfaces for Relational Listening (RITMO-UiO, Marie Skłodowska Curie IF, 2017-2019). En Bath, con The Studio Recovery Fund 2021, creó la INTIMAL App© para que las personas exploren sus “viajes migratorios”. Emergente de su proyecto INTIMAL, Ximena lidera el colectivo Intimal de mujeres migrantes latinoamericanas escuchando sus migraciones y ampliando nociones de feminidad, territorio y cuidado. Ximena enseña Deep Listening® en el Center for Deep Listening, y de forma independiente, con énfasis en Migraciones Sónicas.
Since 1995 her attentive, detailed and care ‘full’ practice has been cross-pollinating ideas, materials, people and places in order to un-settle dominant narratives and make space for those that are (or that which is) in-between, on the edge, in the middle, at the border.
Originally trained in contemporary dance, Sheila is interested in the relationship between art and science with particular focus on care and hybridity. She is an artist who champions making work for the passer-by.
She is also part of Land Body Ecologies the fourth collaborative residency group in Wellcome Collection’s Hub since 2014.
Helena Walsh is an Irish live artist. She has been based in London since 2003. Her practice explores the relations between gender, national identity and cultural histories. Walsh has performed widely in galleries, museums, theatres and non-traditional art spaces, including public sites. She graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Art in 2001 and completed her Masters in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2004. In 2013 she completed a practice-based PhD in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary University of London focussed on Live Art and femininity in post-conflict Ireland. Walsh is a founder member of the pro-choice feminist performance group Speaking of IMELDA (Ireland Making England the Legal Destination for Abortion). Between 2013 and 2018 she played a key role in sustaining the collective collaborations of Speaking of IMELDA, contributing to the development of the group’s public performances, publications and media campaigns. Walsh regularly presents and writes on feminist performance practice. She has published in collections focussed on live art and the performing arts in an Irish context. She is a lecturer at the University of the Arts, London.
Harun Morrison is an artist and writer based on the inland waterways. He is currently Designer and Researcher in Residence at V&A Dundee. His forthcoming novel, The Escape Artist will be published by Book Works in 2023/24. Since 2006, Harun has collaborated with Helen Walker as part of the collective practice They Are Here. Harun has recently had solo exhibitions at Nieuwe Vide project space in Haarlem, Netherlands (2022) and Eastside Projects, Birmingham, (2021). He is currently exhibiting Dolphin Head Mountain at the Horniman Museum. This spring Harun will develop new work for the group exhibition Chronic Hunger, Chronic Desire in Timișoara, Romania, as part of the European Capital of Culture 2023 programme. Harun continues to develop and repair a garden for Mind Sheffield, a mental health support service, as part of the Art Catalyst research programme Emergent Ecologies and is producing a card game, Environmental Justice Questions which will be circulated next year. Harun is an associate artist with Greenpeace Uk.
Antonia Couling is a qualified garden designer and garden historian, and a certified horticulturist. She grew up in Brent, North London, but was born in Rome and comes from a family made up of several nationalities. This international background has informed her design journey over the years. Antonia has a special interest in the well-being potential of gardens and gardening and her passion for history led to a Masters in Garden and Landscape History at the Institute of Historical Research at University College London. She has recently compiled a research paper on the contested history of London’s green spaces and has been commissioned to write a book on the history of Gladstone Park.
Dilar Dirik was born in Antakya and grew up in Offenbach am Main. She is an activist, political sociologist, and writer, currently based in the UK. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge and currently researches and teaches at the University of Oxford. She is the author of the book “The Kurdish Women’s Movement: History, Theory, Practice” (Pluto Press, 2022). Her research and teaching focus on feminism and women’s resistance struggles, justice-seeking, autonomy, war, stateless liberation, and radical knowledge production.
Elif Sarican is a writer and organiser. She is a social anthropologist and worked with the late Professor David Graeber at the London School of Economics during her Postgraduate degree. She has guest lectured at a number of universities across Europe and North America on topics of feminism, radical politics and global history. Elif is Community and Partnerships Lead for the radical publisher the Left Book Club.
The collective was formed in 2019 by a group of individuals engaged in different facets of the cultural sector, from working for non-governmental cultural institutions dependent on international funding (such as Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Grassroots Al-Quds, and the Popular Art Center) and foundations and cultural centers (including Al-Basta Theatre, Dalia Association, and Rawa Fund), to practicing as independent practitioners. Born out of informal and open encounters within Palestine’s wider arts community, The Question of Funding sought to question, debate, and find solutions to the prevalent constrictive international funding models on which Palestinian cultural institutions continue to depend.
Lara Khaldi is a curator, critic and artist living between Jerusalem and Amsterdam. Since 2019 she has been a member of the curatorial team of documenta fifteen. In recent years she was the head of the Media Studies Programme at Alquds Bard College, Jerusalem and a core tutor in the Disarming Design MA program, at Sandberg Institute, 2020-2022. Lara is a co-founding member of the independent educational platform School of Intrusions and the collective Question of Funding. Khaldi has been recently appointed as director of de Appel Art Centre in Amsterdam, starting January 2023.
Jack Ky Tan uses law, policy, social norms and customs as a medium of making art. He creates performances, sculpture and participatory projects that highlight the rules that guide human behaviour. In Jack’s social practice, he blurs the boundaries between art, governance and consultancy in order to help organisations reform and revision themselves using artistic thinking. Jack trained as a lawyer and worked in civil rights NGOs before becoming an artist. Jack’s practice-led PhD at Roehampton University explored legal aesthetics and performance art. He has taught sculpture at the Royal College of Art and University of Brighton, and politics at Goldsmiths.
Published on: December 14 2022
Alessandra Cianetti, Xavier de Sousa, and Anahí Saravia Herrera.
Thank you to our friends at the Necessity Fund and to Arts Council England for supporting this work.