Occupied Spaces: A Political GIF Project Teresa Cisneros

Saturday 28 February 2-6pm Special Viewing with the curator of the project Teresa Cisneros.

Occupied Spaces facilitated critical thinking about the space young people occupy and activated their imagination. It offered students the opportunity to take on the role of makers, thinkers, doers or activists in a creative environment, in and outside of the classroom.

Over a period of 5 months (Oct 2014 – Jan 2015), Iniva worked with artists Barby Asante and Fawzia Afifi, engaging with over 200 secondary schools students from Brittons Academy, Hall Mead School, Liberty Boys School and Sacred Heart of Mary Girls’ School in the borough of Havering. Teachers were invited to spend time with the artists to learn more about the concepts and how artists utilise themes and actions from real life protests or in acts of resistance as part of their work.

All the students were then invited to see the current exhibitions, followed by an introduction with the artists exploring their own political thinking and to undertake research in the Stuart Hall Library.

Using their research they presented their findings and started thinking about their own creative digital GIF’s (graphic interchange format) which they would be making in their classrooms. The artists collaborated with the students to develop and deepen the graphics which were then converted to GIF’s.

The resulting GIF’s can be seen on display at Rivington Place from 24 February to 7 March 2015.

Occupied Spaces  

The project was generously supported by the Jack Petchy Foundation and the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts.