Artists Make Space is a major new international collaboration pairing seven Bangladesh based artists with seven UK based artists to co-create new multidisciplinary works. The programme aims to nurture a new generation of Bangladesh and UK artists to connect and co-create new works together.
Tara Theatre’s Artistic Associate Natasha Kathi-Chandra, who is leading the project, talks more about the initiative and shares a few reasons why audiences should see Artists Make Space and what they can expect to see.
What is Artists Make Space?
Exploring various forms such as visual art, sculptures, textile, audio, performance, and digital art, the 14 artists taking part in Artists Make Space express their response to shared experiences across borders and cultures. The pieces offer a unique perspective on issues like migration, climate change, gender disparity, and intergenerational trauma through the lens of co-creation.
What are you most looking forward to about the event?
This project for me has been all about nurturing and providing safe spaces for the artists to experiment, explore and collaborate with one another around themes and topics that are most important to them through various art forms. The artists have used the tools of their current artistic skills as a backdrop but also collaborated with their international counterpart who has brought a different artistic skillset to find commonalities and differences in creating new works.
I am looking forward to the future exciting careers and connections that these artists will have having seen the commitment, generosity and calibre at which they have worked together and individually with this commission particularly with the challenges of a digital /virtual relationship with their partner and finding solutions to this.
Why is Artists Make Space an important initiative?
Diversifying and building relationships with artists, organisations and people not only of different backgrounds but from different countries, working practices, lived experience, influences, history and political landscape can be an enriching and eye-opening experience. It makes us more sensitive, aware, patient and skillful in how we work, create and execute as artists and organisations.
Providing opportunities and platforms for early career/emerging artists, specifically those who identify as South Asian or from global majority backgrounds, is also hugely important to dismantling the systems that diminish paid opportunities for underrepresented artists to develop their practice and gain the confidence to pursue their art as a full time career.
To feel supported, safe, held and believed in and to share this experience with a counterpart from a whole different environment is therefore a vital experience for these artists.
Describe Artists Make Space in 5 words:
Exciting, unique, multidisciplinary, diverse, inspiring.
What can the audience expect from Artists Make Space?
Audiences can expect to witness a journey of understanding of the artists’ process, collaboration and relationship. They can also expect a mix of physical installations, visual arts, photography, sculptures as well as digital art that has made it all the way from Bangladesh – a story of cross continental explorations, and how artists keep finding solutions to take their work all around the world despite barriers of global pandemics!
Where can audiences see the productions of Artists Make Space?
Tara Theatre London, The Birmingham REP in Birmingham and Contact theatre in Manchester. You can find out more about the full line-up and tour dates for Artist Make Space here.
Why should audiences see it?
By seeing Artists Make Space audiences will be supporting artists at every stage of their development and career. They will be inspired and educated on topics of identity, sustainability, history and more!
Artists Make Space is premiering in a series of bespoke events across the UK and Bangladesh. Find out more about how you can experience the co-created works here.