With : Shamaran Collective, Taoca Collective, Okra Collective, Fubu Collective, X collective X , Living room , Kiki House , Niloofar Rasooli, Paula Charles, Standford Chen and Vanessa Bosch
Supported by Stadt Zürich FS DEA , Kanton Zürich Fachstelle Integration, Pro Helvetcia, Migros Kulturprozent und Landis und Gyr Stiftung .
Antenna is a networking project focused on promoting and supporting artists and cultural practitioners who experience racism. Antenna provides a platform for critical reflection, research and cultural exchange. The project aims to identify the needs and challenges of artists and cultural practitioners who experience racism and to develop joint strategies to strengthen and support this community. The main part of the project consists of research, exchange meetings and sharing. This process will be accompanied by internal documentation, which will form the basis for a public journal (Zine) and a publicly accessible group exhibition.
From our personal experiences and expertise, as well as from the experiences of our community and our network, whether as artists, curators, producers or technicians in the arts and culture sector, we have repeatedly encountered similar issues and difficulties over the years.
Our vision with Antenna is to build a network of artists and cultural practitioners who experience racism where these issues, difficulties and needs can be addressed. Antenna serves to investigate and explore the common questions and challenges faced by artists and cultural practitioners who experience racism. The participating artists and cultural practitioners are from the Zurich area and other parts of Switzerland.
With Antenna, we are exploring two central question for the exchange and development of the network:
What specific challenges and opportunities do artists* and cultural practitioners who experience racism, including those who are new to Switzerland or have fled or immigrated to Switzerland, experience in the Swiss cultural landscape when it comes to artistic creation, self-representation and securing their livelihood? How can we ensure that the voices and perspectives of artists and cultural practitioners who experience racism are adequately represented and heard in Switzerland?
Antenna consists of several phases: The research, which consists of 3 exchange meetings and 1 sharing and is accompanied by documentation, the development of a journal, an implementation phase for the group exhibition and the group exhibition. The implementation of Antenna is process-oriented. This means that the participants come together in explorative and process-oriented exchange meetings in order to elaborate the questions and needs.
These exchange meetings serve to enter into dialog with each other, explore common needs and share the findings within the network. Through these meetings, we aim to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by artists and cultural practitioners who experience racism and identify common needs and aspirations within the community.
The questions should be divided among the invited collectives and individuals. These questions serve as a guideline.
Each assembled group has time throughout this phase to research the questions for themselves. Other resources, such as existing literature, video documentaries, etc., can also be consulted and form part of the meetings. In this way, we would also like to support the exchange among each other and the learning process as well as the sharing of knowledge and resources.
The results of each meeting are then shared with the entire Antenna network. The exchange meetings as well as the sharing sessions can take the form of a lecture, group discussion, documentation or participatory presentation in order to work on and explore the relevant topics and issues.
Following the exchange meetings and sharings, MigrArt organizes an implementation phase in which the participating artists have the opportunity to pursue the central question and the findings from the group meetings in order to transform the findings into an artistic format for the group exhibition. In this phase, the artists have the opportunity to create a group exhibition in which they can choose the format in which their works are to be presented. Whether audio formats, videos, texts or other media – the focus is on the diversity of creative forms of expression. This exhibition serves not only to present the results of artistic exploration, but also to create a space for dialogue with the public and to promote social discourse on art and culture that exist of individuals who experience racism. The participating collectives, individuals and MigrArt are involved in the exhibition.
6 Timetable (see detailed timetable in attached file)
Exchange meetings & sharings: November 2024 to May 2025
Implementation phase exhibition: from August/September 2025
Group exhibition/ Festival : Sommer 2026
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