Newcastle-based arts group launch new global exhibition in historic city venue
D6: Culture in Transit are launching Contested Desires at Newcastle's Lit and PhilD6: Culture in Transit are launching Contested Desires at Newcastle's Lit and Phil
Last updated 11th May 2022
One of the North East's leading arts producers urging people to re-examine our shared heritages - and the impacts of our colonial past.
D6: Culture in Transit are running their newest exhibition - Contested Desires - at Newcastle's Lit and Phil institute.
It brings together artists from Portugal, Cyprus, Spain, Barbados and the UK - to create a platform for artists to reflect on the impacts of colonisation today.
The programme was first launched in 2019, followed by residencies in Portugal and Spain, before coming to Newcastle, where artists were based at the D6 Studios.
From there they explored sites like Hadrian's Wall and Northumberland's Roman Forts, as well as the urban landscape of the city.
Artist Márcio Carvalho, from Portugal, tells us his encounters with statues and monuments in Newcastle triggered conversations about how a city memorialises and documents its past;
"What I hope is that the people who come to see the exhibition - they continue these conversations on how to decolonise our public spaces,
"And use this memorabilia which exists on our streets - like these memorials and these statues - in order to open conversations which are paramount in our society today."
Meanwhile Dimitris Chimonas, from Cyprus, has focused on how information and history is recorded and passed down - asking what is beyond the page, the document, the identifiable?
"I'm hoping to spark some interesting thoughts, I'm hoping for the work to be anti-climactic, anti-spectacular, anti-beautiful...
"Maybe not ugly but a bit... Hmmm
"But then, through that to create some thoughts that were maybe, unexpected - which have to do with the cracks in the things that I see,
"With the things that I do not see, the things that I do not expect to see."
D6 Lead producer is Andrea Carter, who tells us where the project was born from:
"So we were really, increasingly concerned about how our heritage, and identities are reduced to very simple narratives and how those narratives were pulling people apart, in our communities, our friends, our families.
"There's hopefully going to be an awareness of things that people didn't know - either related to the city - or related to Britain's Empire
"And hopefully that will be a triggering point for people to share with others."
Mónica Rikić’s development of electronic art calls for a re-imagining of the coexistence between humans and technology as a means to re-examine heritage.
An international artist film and video programme accompanies the exhibition with short films by Mia Georgis, Mairéad McClean, Elena Molina, Hussina Raja, Natalia Skobeeva and Lara Sousa.
The exhibition is being shown at Newcastle's Lit and Phil - an independent library established in 1739 and is free to visit, which has helped with resources for the artists' research.
Andrea tells us it's also a fantastic location for the artworks to be displayed:
"It's amazing here! I think everyone comes in here and has a bit of an intake of breath.
"People know about the Lit and Phil but perhaps don't use it on a regular basis or might not have been through the doors
"We thought it was really interesting to host an exhibition here."
Clymene Christoforou, the Director, of D6: Culture in Transit says:
"The CONTESTED DESIRES UK exhibition is brimming with a hunger and curiosity to reconsider our shared European colonial past and present it in a new light.
"At a time when political narratives too often take a polarising stance with a view to divide people, it’s more important than ever to have conversations and share viewpoints that help us to learn to understand the past and how we can change for the better."
Contested Desires runs until the 21st of May.
You can find out more about the Exhibition and the project through the Contested Desires website, and more about D6: Culture in Transit online too.