Life is a rollercoaster

So, some great news and some not so great news today.  Firstly, last night we held our ‘critical debate’ at the launch of Raycho Stanev’s exhibition The Great Excursion.  We had an amazing debate – and a fantastically diverse audience who entered into a great discussion about issues around race, nationality and ethnicity.  The audience was great , including a delegation from the city’s Youth Parliament – it was really wonderful to see a group so representative of Birmingham at the launch of a contemporary art exhibition.  It did make me think that perhaps some of our fellow ‘eastside’ arts organisations should be doing more to get more than the ‘usual suspects’ through their doors (Punch excepted, of course).

We started with Raycho explaining the issues around the work – the expulsion of almost half a million Bulgarian Turks from the country in 1989, something few of us here in the UK are aware of, it seems.  He talked about the personal aspects to this, that suddenly in his town, houses and shops lay empty and his class at school was reduced by half, this coming at a time when he was growing up had a deep effect on him emotionally, and that this was the important issue in 1989 for him, not the ‘fall of socialism’, which was what we in the West focused on.  We then had some comments from the panel members, Paradox, Paul Murphy and Sandra Hall, before opening up the discussion with the audience – and that was when the fun really started.  There was some fantastic discussion, and the audience joined into the conversation with gusto.  It was clear that there was a consensus that we have come a long way in our multicultural society, particularly here in Birmingham, that here things are better between communities and there is a lot more dialogue going on than perhaps there is elsewhere.  It was felt that there was still a way to go, but that there was dialogue and conversation, but that this needs to be developed and widened out and that young people need to be brought into this conversation.  there was also discussion about the parallels between the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Britain in Ireland and Wales, the changing of place names and given names by dominant powers in order to absorb, and ultimately get rid of minority groups.  In summing up, I stated that hopefully in a few years time there would be no need for this conversation, that dialogue and connections between groups would be clearer.  My personal belief being that, whilst nationality, ethnicity, religion and culture is important, perhaps we could treat them like hobbies, reduce their importance and focus firstly on our shared humanity.  Most people stayed afterwards, for banitza? and rakia, but mostly for conversation.  This was the best part for me, I wandered around from group to group, and people were in heated discussion about the issues raised by the work and the debate, the noise was incredible, but gave me a real warm feeling, stimulating dialogue is what we want from our work, and it was great to see the work being so effective in doing just that.  We followed this with a visit to Paul Murphy’s Songwriter’s Cafe in his wonderful garden – 9 members of the Destroyers crammed onto a tiny stage in his treehouse – absolutely heartwarmingly wonderful.  I introduced Paul in the debate as a ‘treasure of the city’ – and I meant every word.  thanks to Paul, for being Paul and to the rest of the panel, Raycho and the audience for creating a wonderful event together.

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And now to the dip on that rollercoaster.  Sometime between 11 last night and this morning, the Edge was broken into.  Only a few things were taken, luckily, but they included the laptop on which we were displaying Raycho’s work, and Zara’s own camera.  There was also damage to the space, which we are in the process of clearing up.  This means that the exhibition will be closed on Friday 4th, but we will re-open on Saturday 5th at 1pm.  Apologies for any inconvenience to visitors, but this is one of those ‘beyond our control’ situations, and not a little annoying for all of us.  Thankfully we are insured, so no permanent harm done – like a pheonix, we will rise from the ashes stronger, and more determined to help create a world in which this kind of stuff doesn’t ever happen. Peace and love to the burglar, hope the karmic burden was worth it!