2022 OH ActionEUROPAHero The Refuge series is supported by British Council, Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh and Claire and Mark Urquhart Made possible through the PLACE Programme In collaboration with Scottish Refugee Council Saturday 27 August from 12noon THE STUDIO Please ensure that all mobile phones and electronic devices are switched off or put on silent.
A celebration of the profound contribution to arts and culture given by the movement of people across the globe
Sabir Zazai Chief ScottishExecutiveRefugee Council
Artists are often the vanguards of community life and social justice. This is why they play such an important role in illuminating the commonalities and the complexities of humanity, wherever they find themselves rooted or uprooted in the world. Yet they are especially at risk of censorship, harassment, criminalisation and persecution when their work gives voice to ideas, imagination and freedom of expression, and when they inspire others to do so too.
Soizig Carey Arts and Cultural Development Officer Scottish Refugee Council Scottish Refugee Council is honoured to collaborate with the Edinburgh International Festival and mark this very special anniversary year. This has been a year of terrible stories. War in Ukraine, unrest in Afghanistan, families stranded and separated by bureaucracy, Rwandan detention centres and people left with no option but to risk their lives on dangerous journeys in a desperate bid to reach a place of safety. In this relentless fight for human rights and freedoms, we must not forget to reflect on hard-won triumphs as well. Had Rudolf Bing not sought and been granted refugee protection here 75 years ago, this world-class festival may not exist. The cultural fabric of Scotland would be very different. We are in awe of his legacy, and of the exceptional artists performing as part of Refuge.
Refuge invites and weaves together the perspectives of artists who have taken different journeys. Perspectives and journeys that remind us that people are often carrying more than we can see or know. They are always listening, attuning, questioning and making: these are exceptional minds. This series is a rich tapestry of experiences, stories, poetry, performance, challenges and resistance.
REFUGE
Scottish Refugee Council is Scotland’s leading independent charity dedicated to supporting people in need of refugee protection. Since 1985, it has supported refugee integration and inclusion through provision of specialist advice and advocacy to people seeking protection in Scotland. The people it works with have fled horrific situations around the world and come from countries where conflict is rife and human rights abuses common. When people arrive in Scotland, a new journey begins. The UK’s asylum system is tough and takes its toll on individuals and families. Settling into a foreign country and a whole new system can be disorientating and challenging. Through its direct services it provides practical support, advice and a listening ear to help people rebuild their lives in a sustainable and meaningful way. It speaks out against an unjust asylum system and campaigns for changes that make a positive difference to people’s lives. To date it has supported more than 25,000 refugees arriving and living in FindScotland.outmore about its scottishrefugeecouncil.org.ukwork:
SCOTTISHREFUGEECOUNCIL
OH EUROPA Created and performed by Gemma Paintin James Stenhouse Production Management and Lighting Jo Palmer Dramaturgy David Williams Producer Sarah Warden Co-produced with Farnham Maltings (UK). Co-commissioned by Transform (UK) Farnham Maltings (UK) and Matchbox (DE). Supported by Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio, and British Council. Action Hero is a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England.
Action Hero
CREATOR’S NOTE Journey Across Europe Collecting Love Songs
Action Hero have been asking strangers to sing a love song. In April 2018, we set off on a journey across Europe in our motorhome. Since then, we've spent more than 300 days and nights on the road, living and working in our van and inviting the people we meet to come inside and sing for us. We've travelled over 50,000 km through 33 European countries, recording songs about being in love and falling out of love, all sung by people who live in Europe. This week we have been here in Edinburgh, and from here we will be travelling directly to Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Belgium. In 2023, we will continue to travel and record love songs to add to the Tocollection.date,we have recorded over 1,000 love songs, sung in 49 different languages. Each song was recorded in person, inside our van which doubles as both a home and a mobile recording studio. RadiOh Europa is a long-form, deep-listening experience in which we will re-play every single song we’ve recorded in its entirety, intercut with stories from the journey and the people we have met. Broadcasting live for eight hours – and online for a further sixteen – RadiOh Europa is an act of collective listening that cuts straight to the heart.
©oheuropa.com
Setting off in our van from the UK in 2018, we didn’t know what we would find. Would people would want to sing love songs for us, or were we asking too much? But we needn’t have worried. We returned to the UK for the winter with hundreds of songs in our archive before hitting the road again in 2019, 2020 and 2021 to continue our labour of love. People’s willingness to sing unaccompanied, to sit with us and to share something of themselves was overwhelming. Every song feels like a treasure. The love songs we are collecting transmit an opaque but heartfelt message. Detached from political soundbites, diplomacy, or art-speak, these messages instead speak in song about who we are and how we feel. They reveal both the vast diversity of voices present across the continent of Europe, and the thing we share in common: the capacity to love and be loved. The songs reveal the ways in which we converge and diverge harmonically rather than territorially; and, perhaps, they can offer an opportunity to reorientate and reimagine our relationships with each other and with the space we share. In listening to these love songs we might, in fact, hear ourselves emerge out of the white noise. As we emerge out of a pandemic, these love songs take on a new resonance. With so many of us having been separated from loved ones, the opportunity to hear voices from afar (and closer to home) and reflect on love, loss and heartbreak seems even more poignant.
12noon – 1pm On The Way Somewhere Else Makes An Impression Power Ballads 1pm – 2pm The Kids Are Alright Geography Field Trip 1 Rhythms Drunk Killa 2pm – 3pm Upbeat (& Lovin' It) Songs from Edinburgh 1 Multiples:"DatSardines Du Min Leevsten Büst” 3pm – 4pm Geography Field Trip 2 Something Went Wrong Can't Hurry Love Couples & Duets Siblings 4pm – 5pm Families Sing Yesterday,Babies/LullabiesTogetherWhenIWas Young Deep Connections 5pm – 6pm Lovers SadBreakupsApart&EndingsSongs 6pm – 7pm GeographyXSmoothFactor Field Trip 3 Songs from Edinburgh 2 Homelands 7pm – 8pm Geography Field Trip 4 FinaleRomanceL.O.V.E There is a gentle journey through RadiOh Europa which we think of as a series of albums. To guide your listening experience, here’s the album listing. Feel free to stay as long as you like, we hope you enjoy listening with us.
The artists’ work is always engaged with how people meet in the live moment, and how human-to-human exchange takes place within the frame of an artwork. They regularly work with processes and mediums with which they are unfamiliar, which often sees them navigating through new technical and creative territories. They won an Austin (Texas) Critic’s Table Award for Best Touring Show, and were shortlisted for the 2016 ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art. They have two books published by Oberon, and have written essays for several more, including the 21st Century Performance Reader. They’ve taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level as visiting lecturers at several UK universities and have led masterclasses worldwide.
ACTION HERO
Action Hero is the collaboration between artists Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse. Together they create artworks that expand across multiple creative practices: performance, installation, sound, digital and work for public Actionspace.Hero’s long-form collaborative partnership has taken them to more than 40 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia and to places as diverse as PS122 in New York, Theatre De La Ville in Paris, 21st Century Museum in Japan, an abandoned art deco cinema in Bangkok and a Satan’s Riders Motorcycle Clubhouse in Tasmania. Their ongoing interests lie in the iconography of popular culture and its use; both as a weapon and as a shared cultural memory, and the languages and texts that are used to talk about these shared spaces.
Action Hero is currently an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. They are members of artist collectives Residence, The Brunswick Club and are long-time collaborators of Forest Fringe. They live in Bristol, UK. actionhero.org.uk@ActionHeroLive