An exciting arts event which includes painting, spoken word, and video projection comes to the Paradise Circus multi-storey car park in Birmingham. The event is titled ‘Re-imagining the Opposition: The Art of Empathy’. It will take place at the Paradise Circus multi-storey car park on Tuesday, June 25th, from 6pm. The organizer, Soul City Arts, hopes the event stirs up discussion and engages people to see art and performance in a new and refreshing light.
It will include a performance by Mark Gonzales and include original artworks by Mohammed Ali and Mohsen Keiany. Writing on social media about this new project, Mohammed Ali, one of the artists at Soul City Arts, who recently painted a Theresa May stencil on the day she resigned, stated: “I’ve been wanting to deliver something in a car park for a while. They are neutral spaces where everyone parks wherever they can find a place, no hierarchy. It’s only once you ascend via an elevator where we go into our separate worlds.”
The performance will include storytelling by Mark Gonzalez (USA/Tunisia), artwork by Mohammed Ali and Mohsen Keiany. The Soul City Arts group will transform a floor of the car park into an engagement space for arts and communities.
The event will present a cycle of Keiany’s paintings, which work through the artist’s traumatic experience of war and the dehumanization and opposition they bring. Gonzales will navigate through the artworks, feeding off original film work and projections by Ali and engaging the audience with ideas and dialogue around the theme of empathy and how it can transform thinking and relationships. In keeping with its theme, the event will place the voices of the community at its heart. The hopes, dreams, and memories of the community feature both within the art itself and will help structure the event. Active audience participation and discussion will be encouraged as the event progresses in an organic manner.
The project is inspired by the academic work of Dr. James Hodkinson (Warwick University) – how art can promote empathy and transform relationships between faiths and cultures.
This project has been funded by Arts Council England, Warwick University, Lottery Fund, Hybrid and Film Birmingham.
‘Re-imagining the Opposition: The Art of Empathy’ will take place at Paradise Circus multi-storey car park, Brindley Drive, Birmingham, B1 2NB on Tuesday 25 June, commencing at 6pm. This is a free, ticketless event and all are welcome.
Source: iambirmingham.co.uk
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