Passion For Freedom 2015 Catalogue by Piotr Jarosz

7TH PASSION FOR FREEDOM LONDON ART FESTIVAL 2015 21 - 26.09 MALL GALLERIES

London celebrates 7th Annual Passion For Freedom London Art Festival The globally renowned Passion For Freedom art festival in Mall Galleries. I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire

Nine months on from the tragic shootings at Charlie Hebdo, the art community come together in London to celebrate freedom. The exhibition is reflecting on a difficult year for free speech and art which has seen an additional 14 journalists and bloggers killed on top of the 12 Paris murders. The exhibition showcases uncensored art from the UK, Europe and around the world which aims to promote human rights, highlight injustice and celebrate artistic freedom of expression. The festival involves an open art competition which invites artists to consider three questions, the Passion For Freedom 3 (PFF3):  What is freedom?  How easy is it to lose?  How hard is it to get back? Passion for Freedom is a non-governmental, voluntary-based organisation that promotes human rights and freedom of expression through art. PFF was started in London in 2007 by a small group of friends, mainly women, and is today supported by a huge

international network of artists, activists, journalists and professionals. Over seven years the festival has shown works from over 600 artists representing 56 countries. 2015 at the festival it is a collection of 12 films, 6 books, 6 journalists and around 75 artworks from all over the world. Every year there is a big Gala Ceremony. Three artists are noted for General Awards and three films will receive Freedom Film Awards. The audience vote for their favourite piece of art for the People’s Choice Freedom Award during the Gala Ceremony. The festival was recognized by Madonna and highlighted in her Freedom Calendar 2014. PFF worked with the BBC on its Freedom Year Program last year, and it continues to support Royal Holloway University on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. Passion for Freedom stands for freedom. PFF seeks to involve people in education projects and breaks political correctness in media.

MIM AYLETT-PALMER / BEDDRU / BOELSUMS / TOM BOGAERT / PAUL BROWN / OLGA BROWN / CLAUDIO CASSUTO / CHLOE WING CHOW / EUGENIA CUELLAR / MARYAM DEYHIM / ZEIKO DUKA / EMMA ELLIOTT / JOHN FITZMAURICE / GLENN FITZPATRICK / NATALIA FORMOSA / HARUMI FOSTER / JACQUI GRANT / FIONA HAINES / JULIAN HANFORD / ILUA HAUCK DA SILVA/ MINA HEDAYAT / JANE HELLINGS / YK HONG / RICHARD HUMBY / DMITRY IV / HALEH JAMALI & MONICA DE IOANNI / GOSIA JANIK / JUDITH JONES / KAMILLA KASPRZAK / BÉA KAYANI / JENNIFER KIDD / DAWN KIM / ESTHER KOKMEIJER / NICOLAS LABORIE / EMILY LAZERWITZ / PETER LEIGH / DAVID MARGULIES / ALEXANDRA MAZUR-KNYAZEVA / SEAMUS MORAN / ANA MUŠCET / TASLEEM MULHALL / KEH HUI NG / TANYA PO / MARY ROUNCEFIELD / ANDREA SALTINI / CRAIG SCHORN / GAMZE SEBER / SAM SHENDI / MICHAEL SHPAKOV / NASIM SIMA / IZABELA SZCZEPANSKA / HOI YING TAM / RACHEL TAUBER / LINDSAY TERHORST NORTH / ROBYN TOWNSEND / DANIEL WECHSLER / SHUK PUI YU

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KATE PARKER [ UNITED STAT ES O F AM E R IC A ]

Kate is a photographer, mother, and athlete from Atlanta. Her work has been featured in galleries all over USA including New York and Los Angeles. Kate’s recent projects “Blended” and “Strong is the New Pretty” have been highlighted in the Huffington Post, the Daily Mail UK, NPR, the Washington Post, Elle China, Vanity Fair Italy, Lean In, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls at the Party, and Athleta. Strong is the New Pretty Series features images of Kate’s girls, celebrating them as the strong, confident, athletic females they are.

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JESSICA FULFORD-DOBSON [UNITED K ING D O M ]

Jessica Fulford-Dobson a freelance London based portrait photographer. After leaving university, Jessica got a job assisting the filmmaker Nicholas Claxton on the documentary: ‘Linda McCartney: Behind the Lens’. Linda proved to be a significant influence. She worked with photographer Alison Jackson on her TV series ‘Doubletake’ for the BBC and her book ‘Private’ for Penguin books. Jessica started work as a portrait photographer in 2000. Her photographs have since been published in newspapers and magazines worldwide, as well as being exhibited in New York, London and Prague. In April 2015, Jessica’s first major solo exhibition was held at London’s Saatchi Gallery bringing the now award winning series Skate Girls Of Kabul to international attention, receiving major critical acclaim. There are now plans for a global tour.

Robin Hereford, Director of Valuations at Bonhams, has singled Jessica out as: “One to watch, being the top-selling photographer at one of our shows in New Bond Street.” In late 2012, Jessica Fulford-Dobson spotted a small newspaper article about girls skateboarding in Afghanistan. Instantly inspired, she thought it was a shame that such a unique, visually striking and uplifting story was compressed into such a tiny column of text. Here was an opportunity to photograph young girls doing something exceptional in a beautiful, albeit war-torn, country. In addition, she hoped through her photographs to bring more publicity to a genuinely positive story from Afghanistan, and therefore help generate more support for this remarkable charity Skateistan.

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JAREK KUBICKI [PO L AND ]

Artist, photographer and creative director, winner of many prestigious awards in the web design field. Graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. Jarek has been involved in the creative process of many advertising prize-winning projects such as Beksinski.pl, Rumors about Angels II, both of which were honored with Favourite Website Awards. Jarek has participated in a several group exhibitions in Poland, Belgium and Romania.

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MAJA WOLNA [PO L AND ]

Born in Poznan, 1980, Maja obtained MA Diploma in Graphic Department at Fine Arts Academy, Poznan in 2005. Currently she works as Assistant Lecturer at the University of Art in Poznan in Multimedia Department and Graphic Department of the Computer Science and Management Secondary School in Warsaw . She takes part in many international art competitions, individual and group exhibitions all over the world. She was awarded with Gold Medal in International Poster Biennial in Warsaw, 2010, Grand Prix and Second Prize in International Poster Competition â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Anti Aids Ukraineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2006.

Among others her works were presented on the international art exhibition Passion for Freedom in Unit24 Gallery in London. She cooperates with the polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and creates socially and politically engaged art. Maja is the author of series of posters about Muslim women. Posters, graphic design, illustrations, collages are a part of her art. Currently she is working on a video art and objects based on her graphic experiences.

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JAMIE McCARTNEY [UNITED K ING D O M ]

With his work constantly in the media, Jamie has gained an international reputation as an uncompromising, underground artist. Publicly speaking about the importance of art as an engine of social change, he remains a campaigner and advocate for many causes. With a career-long commitment to experimentation he often focuses on the body using traditional and novel materials, applying many unusual processes. Often exploring emotive subjects he tends to court controversy. We are delighted to be exhibiting Jamie’s masterpiece. This eight metre long wall sculpture was created from plaster casts of 400 women’s genitals, young and old, from all walks of life who volunteered to be involved.

It’s purpose? – to show genital variety and combat the rise in women seeking labiaplasties. “I didn’t want to be part of a society that encourages women to cut of parts of their genitals and I was in a unique position to do something about it. Knowledge is power. Freedom from genital anxiety is the goal.” Five years in the making and entirely self-funded, it typifies Jamie’s artistic determination to make a significant impact with his art. It has become a hugely influential feminist artwork that literally changes women’s lives.

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ATENA FARGHADANI [IR AN]

Atena is a 28 year old painter from Iran. She was first arrested on 23rd August 2014 for her peaceful activities including; meeting with families of political prisoners, and drawing a cartoon which criticized members of parliament who are considering a bill that if passed will criminalize voluntary sterilization - as part of a larger plan to restrict access to contraception and family planning services. Atena depicted the parliamentarians with animal heads and then posted this cartoon on Facebook. Atena also held an art exhibition in memory of those killed in the crackdown which followed the contested 2009 presidential election.

On 1st June 2015, after an unfair trail, Atena was sentenced to 12 years and 9 months in prison on charges of “gathering and colluding against national security”, “insulting members of parliament through paintings”, “spreading propaganda against the system”, “insulting the President” and “insulting the Iranian Supreme Leader”. It is believed that Atena is appealing the sentence. However, if this is not upheld she will serve a seven and a half year jail sentence for the most serious crime “gathering and colluding against national security”. In Iran when someone is convicted on multiple charges they are required to serve the lengthiest single sentence

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KUBRA KHADEMI [AFG HANISTAN]

Kubra Khademi was born in 1989 in Iran, where her family migrated there during soviet war. In 1999 khademiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family moved to Pakistan where Kubra did her A-Levels in 2007 and in 2008 she moved to Afghanistan to pursue her higher education she entered to Kabul University, during her study in the faculty of Fine Arts as she was qualified student university offered her UMISSA (BFA scholarship) and in 2009 she entered to Beaconhouse National university, Lahore Pakistan. Khademi used to do paintings and drawings from early childhood but as an artist she discovered herself in performance art and she did BFA in 2013 and since then she was in Kabul, Afghanistan working as set/costume designer and script continuity in several feature films and beside these

activities she worked on some of her own art practices (performance) exhibited in Kabul. Due to one of her controversial performance piece she did in Feb 2015 after wards she was exiled from country and now she is based in Paris, France. What would be sentence for one who could not interrupt with the past memories whilst inevitably pledged to gruel events just to plunge in the sin of bitter truth expressed in the circle of owning existence! Eight-minute walk in Kabul wearing steel armour that emphasised the body shape inspired anger and death threats

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MIMSY

Far away, In the land of Sylvania, rabbits, foxes, hedgehogs, mice and all woodland animals have overcome their differences to live in harmonious peace and tranquilly. Until now. MICE-IS, a fundamentalist Islamic terror group, are threatening to dominate Sylvania, and annihilate every species that does not submit to their hard line version of sharia law. Mimsy 2015

MIM AYLETT-PALMER [UK]

STILL NOT ASKING FOR IT 60 x 90 acrylic on canvas

My work is emotionally driven. I use paint and mixed media to express something of what it feels like to be me and to express a personal understanding of wider emotional and socio-political concerns. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Still Not Asking For Itâ&#x20AC;? embodies the battle for freedom and gender equality that so many fight for everyday. This Woman is empowered: her body belongs to only her and she stands against the violence and oppression of inequality, a proud symbol and an inspiration to feminists everywhere.

Mim Aylett-Palmer is a professional artist living and working in Cornwall U.K. She has a B.A(hons) degree in Humanities with a major in Fine Art . After finishing university she lived in London and worked as a specialist decorator and muralist for Peter Farlow Design and Decoration for many years, with numerous prestigious clients including celebrities, politicians and members of the aristocracy. Her work has been featured in Interiors magazine, Elle Decoration and House and Garden as well as published in two books; The Art of Wood graining and The Art of Marbling by Stuart Spencer,(Macdonald orbis 1989). Since moving to Cornwall and raising a family Mim has focused on developing her painting style and technique to show a sensuous manipulation of colour and texture, an emotionality of expression and a depth of spiritual intent. Current themes cover archetypes of the human condition from a female perspective coupled with an awareness of the interconnected-ness of all life. She currently sells on-line and through local galleries and has collectors in U.S.A, Norway, Spain and the U.K. 20

BEDDRU [BEL]

EL NINO

105 x 3 x 105 mixed media on plexiglas Beddru is an Italian, figurative, self-taught artist originally from Sicily. His first formative years are spent in Agrigento, where the painter absorbs the influence of traditional Greek art, its mesmerizing attention to beauty and the imposing volumes of human bodies. The painter brings all these elements to life on his thick plexiglas sheets or on canvas, through a palette of vigorous colors and rich Mediterranean textures. Beddru paints not to change the world but the way we look at it, our perception. Creating true art becomes a way to represent his visions and beliefs as a witness of his time, a way to represent humankind in a large scale of portrayals, from joy to sorrow, as all emotions deserve to be represented. His brushes break social conventions and clear out useless sophistication, leading our attention to the essence: humankind in its whole.The artist represents those who are considered “different”, thus, sometimes rejected because of prejudice or, simply, ignorance. Hipsters, servants, day-dreamers, homosexuals, prostitutes, atypical characters populate his artistic world and speak up loud to make their voice heard. They exist. After having admired and studied the works of the great masters, in the 90’s, the artist decides to leave Italy and move abroad. It’s a no-return trip. Beddru currently lives and paints in his studio in Brussels. The role of a contemporary artist is for Beddru to witness social behavior in the current scene and give a voice to those who have been silenced by prejudice and ignorance because of their labeled identity, sexual orientation, origin and/or ideologies. Art is for the painter a journey of self-discovery. Painting becomes indeed a medium for reconnecting the dots between past and present time while building a more radiant future. Creating true art, unboxing all human characters Beddru paints, too often victims of unnecessary

categorization is the artist’s priority. The artist takes a strong critical view on social and cultural issues generating “solvable” inequalities. The artistic message behind his unconventional artworks stays always positive. Change can happen and we are all responsible for it. Respect, freedom, equality, detertion, joy, love become the driving force supporting his creative process expressing itself on singular media such as thick plexiglas-sheets, material that fascinates the artist for its transparency, smoothness and dramatic display. His palette of radiant colors instills a positive view on our enjoyable future seen as a natural consequence of a daily collaboration of tolerant minds. The question behind the artwork EL NINO we may want to reflect upon is: “Up to what point pressure generated by a conservative society promoting machismo can affect human beings and frustrate natural impulses?”

SASKIA BOELSUMS [NLD]

FREEDOM

70 x 50 photograph This photo shows a dreamworld, an ideal picture. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what freedom looks like to me. It is fantasizing about the future, about opportunities and looking forward to meet them, in full confidence that one way or the other everything will turn out fine.

Saskia Boelsums was born in Nieuwer-Amstel in the Netherlands. She grew up in Persia (Iran) and Curacao. Boelsums studied Graphic and Spatial Design at the Academy Minerva in Groningen. From 2013 she focuses entirely on photography and has received many notions and prizes. Often Saskia works themes in a series because this allows her to deeply investigate the subject and experiment with it.

TOM BOGAERT [CHE]

HUMAN RIGHTS LOTTERY video

Amendment to the Constitution which creates a ‘Human Rights Lottery’ replacing all existing human rights legal instruments. This 28th Amendment proclaims that the holder of a winning HRL ticket shall be entitled to the rights and freedoms described in the winning human rights article(s) for seven days starting at 11:00 pm the night of the draw. ‘Human Rights Lottery’ deals with the re-engineering of the relationship between the individual and the state. Starting point is the realisation that the opportunity of enjoying personal freedom and genuine choices is a privilege accorded to a small part of the world lucky enough to be born in the right place, race, gender, religion, time, nationality, language or social group. ‘Human Rights Lottery’ pushes the limits of the correlation between luck and human rights. Tom Bogaert applied the New York State Lottery, Human Rights Watch’s logo and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as raw materials, contorting and recombining their content and use.

Tom Bogaert came to art over a decade ago after practicing refugee law. His artistic practice is organised through long-term research projects that often examine the intersection of humanism and human rights, politics and entertainment, and art and propaganda. Bogaert is currently working on a project inspired by the apocryphal story of Sun Ra the legendary African American jazz pioneer, mystic, poet, activist and philosopher – who travelled to Haiti and visited Port-au-Prince during his “lost years” somewhere in 1960 1961. “Sun Ra in Haiti” will be presented at the 4th Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince in December 2015.

PAUL BROWN [UK]

UNTITLED 130 x 56 giclee print

Imprisoned, literally silenced, having ideas and thoughts to share but restricted from doing so. Freedom of speech, ideals, creative expression denied. The choice to learn from others, developing beliefs, is lost. Frustration and anger builds not only for the individual but for a collective mass of muted thinkers. Paul grew up in the North of England in Yorkshire, attaining a degree in Graphic Design from Liverpool Polytechnic and then moving to London to study post-graduate Illustration at St Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College of Art. After a successful career working as an illustrator for magazine and book publishers was cut short through illness, he began to focus on his own personal, abstract work. A love of colour and drawn line and the relationships formed through layering them up and adjusting their interaction within the picture space has offered up endless new and vibrant possibilities for his work. Reacting to whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s already laid down and drawing upon a subconscious library of gathered reference and inspiration helps guide the evolution of the image in progress. He has exhibited at Mall Galleries in London as part of the annual AOI Images show and also at gallery@oxo for an exhibition for The National Brain Appeal featuring a mix of established and emerging artists.

OLGA BROWN [UK]

NADIYA SAVCHENKO. PUTIN’S HOSTAGE. 82 x 65 oil on canvas Nadiya Savchenko is a Ukrainian politician and former pilot in the Ukrainian Ground Forces. During the 2014 War in Donbass, Savchenko was captured by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine and handed over to Russia, where she was charged with the killing of two Russian journalists. Her defense argues that data from phone bills confirmed that Savchenko had already been taken prisoner by separatists when the Russian journalists died, insisting she was taken to Russia against her will. There is no hope for the justice in the undemocratic Russian Courts, she is in fact a hostage of the Putin regime. Her name “Nadiya” means “hope” in English and for Ukrainians she has become a beacon of hope in their fight for freedom and peace. Her trial starts this September.

Olga Brown was born in Ukraine and received a MA in art and textiles from the Academy of Fine Art, Lviv, Ukraine in 1982. Since 1997 she has worked and lived in London, winning the Chelsea Art Society Agnes Reeve Award (2009) for the best painting of London and Award for the best figurative painting at Hesketh Hubbard Art Society (2012). Olga exhibits extensively at galleries in the UK and abroad, including prestigious galleries such as Mall Galleries, Cork Street Gallery and the Royal College of Art; her solo exhibitions include Warren House (2010) and Cat Hill Gallery, London (2007). Olga works in a genre of figurative and landscape

painting.The theme of freedom is very close to her hart as the whole Ukrainian community following closely resent dramatic events in their native country. Her family suffered a loss of several members during Stalinist terrorits human rights. 25

CLAUDIO CASSUTO [UK]

MAHMOUD KAHIL 30 x 40 silk screen print

Born in Italy, Claudio Cassuto was a frustrated artist for many years restricting himself to photography due to work pressures on his time availability. On retirement motivated by his artistic super drive he held his first solo exhibition. He then joined Art Space in London where for two years he took courses in Assemblages, Mosaics and Silk Screen Printing. In 2014 Claudio was awarded second place out of 1500 exhibits at the EAC Art Awards with his composition “Napoleons Words”. The award ceremony took place at the House of Lords. In the same year he exhibited his collage “Recklessness” at the State of the Art exhibition in Estoril, Portugal. This year he exhibited his collage “Telephone Box Victoriana” at the Menier Gallery in London. Recently he attended a short low relief sculpture course at Morley College under Jane McAdam Freud. The silk screen print of Mahmoud Kahil is the latest of his works.

Silk Screen Print, Self-portrait of political cartoonist Mahmoud Kahil. A champion for freedom of expression in the Arab world, Kahil was one of the most outstanding and prolific cartoonists of his time. Forced to flee from his native Lebanon for his political views he lived and worked the rest of his years in London. The book “According to Kahil” was recently published to commemorate his legacy.

CHLOE WING CHOW [UK]

MEMORY IS MY DISEASE

75 x 10 x 120 exclusive somerset cotton paper I hand-crafted this piece in my second year at university. I wanted to show how our minds and memory can play a huge part in how we view the world around us. So much hurt and pain can be trapped within us and dictate how we think and feel, and what actions we take. Hidden text and symbolic imagery are woven into this piece in an attempt to visualise the psychological confusion, entanglement and struggle within the individual. I depict what is carried inside; for to have peace with others is to really have peace within. My work seeks to be human so I hand-cut all my work to have a close relationship to it.

Chloe Chow’s background is quite eclectic. Although she did her BA in English, she also studied Fashion Design, Performing Arts, Children’s Books Illustration and Songwriting. It all came together when she did an MFA in Fine Art at the University of Arts in London, at Wimbledon College of Art, of which she graduated from in 2014. From the resulting degree show she sold her installation “Cage” to an art collector. Since then Chloe has been making commercial artworks as well as more cut-out installations incorporating lights and shadows.

EUGENIA CUELLAR [SPA]

JUMPING HOSTESSES 150 x 150 oil on linen

From major political problems to basic human needs and fears, my paintings are basically focused on individuals. Individuals interacting with individuals, in different spaces and situations, in Marc Augé non-places, etc. Individuals subjected to other individuals and rules, to customs and conventions. And, in this process, individuals in motion, going or passing by, or trying to flee from their own circumstances. These paintings are focused on a singular event: the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Nevertheless, this is only a starting point. Almost all historical and political references are, somehow, erased in order to concentrate on particular aspects of the whole. This gives rise to a continuous metamorphosis between fact and construction, a grid of fragmented stories based on collective and individual experiences set in a new environment, which has become, completely, a Marc Augé non-place. Non-place where women develop almost exactly the same ancient role. Thus, in this new setting, we can appreciate how hostesses jump, and it seems very happily, greeting attendants at the meeting.

Spanish artist Eugenia Cuellar studied Fine Arts and Law at Complutense University and UDC-Santiago University (Spain). She is based in Madrid where she is taking her Master’s in Fine Arts (UCM). She has had both solo and a number of group exhibitions in Madrid, Venice, London, Portugal Edinburgh, Japan, Milan and Rome. Eugenia has won a number of awards and been shortlisted in Italy, Spain and UK. Her work is held in collections including Xunta de Galicia and Concello de Cambre (Spain), UK and Italy.

MARYAM DEYHIM [IRN/CHE]

CLOTH CAGE II

170 acrylic paint on black fabric Maryam started to paint at a very young. She took classes in caricature and animation but became somewhat disillusioned by the lack of life and creativity in the classroom. She only started to paint seriously about four years ago with the help and encouragement of her partner, Paul Matthews. Maryam’s paintings are composed in a non-judgmental way; scenes sometimes seen in dreams or appearing as pencil’s touches on paper and then spreading across it. The compositions range from semi-abstracted scenes of flora and fauna to expressive human scenes of tension and emotion. Art is more than just an activity that brings Maryam pleasure and relaxation; it is her means of self-expression, the point of access to a world without boundaries or artificial constraints. She exhibited in Taiwan, London, Dubai, Switzerland and Iran, and won a number of awards in the USA. Religion, clothes and the way we think are not always optional. In some parts of the world they are obligatory and anything done or said against these obligations can have serious consequences. In Iran we can see a kind of slavery. Women are not equal to men. They are fighting for equality but this fight for rights has come at a high cost. Under Iranian law, a woman is considered the half of a man. When it comes to cril law in the Islamic law of Iran, girls can be held crilly responsible from the ages of 8-9 years old, while cril responsibility for boys begins at 15 years old but paradoxically, the government lowered the voting age for women to

16 – the same as it is for men! Regarding family law, girls are legally allowed to marry at the age of 8-9 years old. Wives and daughters cannot leave the country without the official permission of their husbands or natural guardian. They also cannot obtain a passport without the consent of their husbands. The hijab is another restriction for Iranian women. Every year many women are arrested because of bad hijab. The establishment call the chador the best hijab for women and try to persuade women to wear black chador instead of any other type of hijab. For me the chador is a symbol of all these limitations and the inhumane conditions that Iranian women suffer and whilst the chador seeks to hide all the personality, feeling and identity of women, with a painted chain on chador I have tried to show the thoughts and feelings of that group of women who have to wear the hijab but deep inside they don’t want to.

ZEIKO DUKA [UK]

EQUALIT Y

42 x 1 x 46 ink on paper It is a heartbreaking cry of the man who knows that nobody will respect the integrity of home, the dignity of the earth and the freedom of its own, although it does not impose respect to enemies and rivals. The heartbreaking and profound cry of the man that has bored coercion, enforcement and slander of every kind and has learned well the lesson of history: any rights not recognised and ed no long struggle that requires both faith and courage. London based Greek-Georgian artist Zeiko Duka was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at Mixa Zichi Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi. After graduation she did 3 years postgraduate studies in Industrial Design at Ivan Surikov University of Fine Arts in Moscow. In 1992 she left Georgia and lived in Athens until 2014. Since 2002 she is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece (EETE). All these years she has cooperated with different companies as an architect. At the same time she has continued painting she embraced upon as a student. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Tbilisi, Kutaisi (Georgia), Moscow, St. Petersburg (Russia), Kiev, Odessa (Ukraine), Prague (Czech Republic), Berlin (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Athens (Greece), Zurich (Switzerland), Paris (France), Oslo (Norway), New York, (USA), and Casablanca (Morocco). Her works are in private collections in USA, United Kingdom, Greece, Georgia, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Morocco.

EMMA ELLIOTT [UK]

ECHO

SPIN-HEAD

30 x 30 x 40 bronze with mixed media

24 x 24 x 61 35 x 20 x 20 bronze bronze and plaster

THE SACRED AND PROFANE

In my art I explore the human condition, mortality, evolution, and Earth’s symbiotic relationship with the greater Universe. My work questions whether humans have evolved or devolved emotionally from our primitive origins, and I look for what is instinctive and what is learnt in our behavior.

sacred and the profane. Sex for pleasure not just for procreation should be seen as something precious and sacred, why else were women given a clitoris?

‘Just as Child is father to Man, so is Ape father to Child’. The Buddhist teaching which says that we should use meditation to control our animal urges in order to free our minds, from chatter, and tame the ‘drunken monkeys’ vying for attention, was encouraged in order to promote moderation and restraint. Buddha wanted us to use meditation in order free ourselves from our destructive animalistic tendencies, and find peace within, in order to live in harmony with others. ‘Spin-head’ was inspired by the ‘freedom to Insult’ restrictions that were written in law in the UK until February 2014 when they were repealed by the government after a long campaign from MP’s, celebrities such as Rowan Atkinson and the public alike. Thankfully this fight in Britain was won and Freedom to Insult was once again reinstated as a basic human right. Sadly this is still not the case in many countries around the world. My sculpture can be seen as either three sacred, holy ‘relics’ that can ‘live’ together under one roof, or if the viewer chooses, the combination can be seen as profane; the uniting of the

Born 1983 in London, Emma is a conceptual artist who works in a variety of mediums. She has a fine art background in portraits having studied at Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy for three years. In 2014 Emma won The Winter Pride Award for Best Overall Visual Artist. She has also exhibited with the Society of Portrait Sculptors and has work currently hanging in 10 Downing Street. Collectors include The Alex Soros Foundation and the McAlpine Family. 31

JOHN FITZMAURICE [UK]

FLEEING SYRIA

30 x 5 x 30 acrylic on board My paintings present the human figure in a struggle for freedom and selfhood which is a major theme that runs through my practice. Through painterly practice, I seek to use the painting space to depict tensions between the painted figure and field just as in life we strive to define who we are in the society in which we are living. The figures, always in action, are anatomically exaggerated to reveal their efforts to demand freedom and have the right to live without fear of violence, hunger and political oppression. Sadly, and all too often, people must flee the oppression they live under and seek out a better life somewhere else.

John Fitzmaurice was born in New York City where he studied painting at Syracuse University. He moved to San Francisco to study design at the University of California extension and worked for many years in San Francisco as a glass designer, artist and maker. In 1990 John moved to London where he studied at Saint Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and began to develop his figure painting. The paintings of John Fitzmaurice present the human figure engaged in a struggle for freedom and selfhood which is a major theme that runs through his practice.

GLENN FITZPATRICK [UK]

CONTEXTUAL RESTRICTION PRODUCES AN EMPT Y MAGAZINE 122 x 36 x 95 mixed media The pen has become mightier than the sword; it has given us freedom of speech and power to contextualise, with self expressionism. The machinegun made of empty pens, accumulated over a period of 8 years, they each have embarked upon a pictorial journey leaving behind their indexical existence. The majority of drawings they produced documented a political narrative that depicted our history, and questions the very nature of how the world is becoming restricted in its freedom of expression. This pen weapon is a hybrid of M16 and AK47, and sniper in presentation, it houses an unusually large magazine, placing an emphasis playing upon words. The pens work in conjunction with the magazine. The fact that they have both been emptied plays on juxtaposition between its function and message. Its sniper-like quality plays a dangerous game due to its silent and be silenced nature. An empty magazine depicts the double-entendre within its presentation; the removal of context also makes for an empty magazine therefore eradicating our freedom of speech! Underneath the machinegun is a caged confidential document, the contents within are sealed away. Be it contracts, empty magazines, or confessions, these are restricted documents and removed from the public eye, once again the freedom of information being expressed is now silenced due the ‘ in time you will forget indoctrination’. Still these objects sit upon drawings, the very ones these pens made. As much as context is restricted there is still the need for art to become expressive and speak what we may not read or verbalise. People died due to freedom of speech. We can defend our rights towards freedom of speech as long as we realise this does not give us the rights of freedom to offend!

After witnessing the atrocities of war and devastation it leaves, Glenn would help the prisoners of war (P.O.W) and discovered the importance of humanity. Upon returning home he embarked on education. After several years of studies when in recovery due to brain operation, Glenn picked up the pen and began to document events. Prolific in drawing, Glenn would make studies until the pen ran dry. Over the years he came up with dry pens collection.It was not until the Charlie Hebdo events that Glenn realised an association between emptying pens and emptying a machine gun magazine. The irony, emptying a magazine to kill authors of a magazine was a bold and unprecedented manoeuvre. Glenn knew he would need to make a sculpture that said ‘As much as we want the freedom of speech, we should also consider the freedom to offend!’Glenn is a Gulf War veteran (1990 – 1991), author and artist. 33

NATALIIA FORMOSA [UK]

KERCH BRIDGE 100 x 5 x 80 oil on canvas

This is my interpretation of Russian aggression against my country - Ukraine. Losing territories, bleeding, Ukraine is paying for passion to be free from aggressive neighboring country. Throughout centuries we suffered from Russia political decisions and influence which affected us badly. I made this picture when Russia annexed Crimea. Did not know then yet, that the worst is to come, that thousand of Ukrainian will lose their lives and many more will be injuries. For me, as a women, Russian aggression is like a brutal rape. I feel almost physical pain watching what is happening in my mother land. Born in 1959 in the Ukraine, Natasha Formosa studied first at the Moscow NationalInstitute of Art, and then at the Ukrainian Department of Culture as a graphic designer, where she was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for her achievements. As Formosa went on to live and work in the former Soviet Union, the majority of her artwork served as a form of communist propaganda, as was required by the times. Unfortunately, these works have since been destroyed, along with many other relics of that era. Parallel to this, however, she worked for the Department of Education, designing and creating stands, murals, posters and visual aids for public institutions. Thankfully, most of the murals survived the Perestroika regime, and can still be seen in hospitals and schools today.

By the end of the 1990â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Formosa moved to UK, where she found new inspiration, pursuing her passion for painting by creating artworks and working for commission. Formosa also illustrated a childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book called Potato Boy, written by Kristina Rate, which was published in the UK in 2005. Undeterred by the destruction her artwork in her home country, Formosa has been quite prolific throughout her artistic career, producing hundreds of works over the years. As she enjoys experimenting with materials and techniques, many of her artworks differ from each other in style. Accordingly, Formosa is skilled in the use of oil, acrylic and enamel paint, as well as the use of airbrushes.

HARUMI FOSTER

[UK]

TELEVISION

132 x 132 x 132 aluminium, resin, glass fiber, wax, human hair, perspex sheet, spotlight, aluminium powder, acrylic paint I reflect my thoughts and opinions of my everyday experience onto my work. Our society creates categories of all sorts for making it easy for us to understand things and facts in our lives. But this phenomenon often blinds our eyes and minds and causes misreading, or distorts the realities and the facts. We are bound by the fetters of conventional ideas and rules thus quashing any doubts we may have. I question it for myself and for viewers of my work and would like to make viewers think something or to be the trigger for conversations or realizations. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been taught and have experienced art by both conventional and unconventional strategy. I am interested in combining these different ways of thinking and understanding in art. Therefore I consider not only subject matter but also aesthetics, and quality of work at the same time in my art practice using a range of materials and methods.

Harumi Foster is a London based visual artist. She has practiced Fine Arts in Japan, Italy and UK specializing in painting and sculpture. Harumi received a first class honor in art practice from Goldsmiths College. Having be born in one of 7 oldest pottery centers in Japan and learnt about ceramics in her everyday life from a young age, she is a recent graduate from the Ceramics and Glass course at the Royal College of Art. She has had a number of exhibitions in Italy and also in the UK.

JACQUI GRANT [UK]

BEAUTIFUL BRUISES

14 x 57 x 5 acrylic ink, collage, spray paint, charcoal Jacqui Grant born in London in 1965, lives in Hertfordshire. Her work is conceptual based on the politics of human behavior and how people are seen and portrayed. Jacqui Studied at St Martin’s School of Art in the 1980’s and after working as a window dresser and exhibition designer, she started a business painting murals and selling her hand-painted furniture. She is a member of the North London Artists Network and has exhibited at Camden Image Gallery, Parallax Art Fair, Pentland Brands Head Office and at various local venues in and around London. Following her divorce in 2010, she started drawing classes and this led to her passion for art being reignited. Currently she has a studio in North London and attends classes and workshops. She has studied under Mick Kirkbride, Sarah, Spencer, and Paul Regan and with members of the New English Art Club. Her current work is based on the theme of abuse, the damage that can be seen and the damage that can’t. She focuses on the inherent beauty of each person, not the injury, showing the strength that is within each person to overcome adversity.

Jacqui is a conceptual artist working mainly with drawing and collage. She is interested in human behavior, social interaction and the way news is portrayed. She uses drawing to form her opinions and understanding of what’s going on in the world. She is interested in creating patterns and making decisions throughout the process of drawing itself.

FIONA HAINES [UK]

DISPL ACED

31 x 3.5 x 43 cyanotype on silk The term Freedom applies to both physical and emotional liberties; it is being free to walk on land and travel safely across borders, to feel the elements of wind and water and to express opinions without fear of reprisal. Freedom is eating and feeling satisfied, sleeping securely in a safe dwelling with a sense of belonging to a community. Within our planet and society there are many barriers to freedom: political and religious ideology’s, economic, social, geographic and psychological factors have an impact on society. The cyanotype photographic print Displaced responds to the title of this exhibition Passion for Freedom. The ongoing turmoil and plight of refugees fleeing persecution in the quest for freedom and sanctuary is prevalent in current media. There are cultures in which the fishhook symbol is a representation of abundance and safe travel over water; conversely this notion of bounty, provision and travel is juxtaposed through the use of a cyanotype. A constituent of this photographic technique is cyanide, a chemical that is toxic to both humans and fish. Fiona Haines was born in Ireland and works as an artist in Bath; graduating with a BA Hon (First Class) followed by a Master’s in Fine Art (Distinction) from Bath School of Art & Design.

She received a commission to make a sculpture for Chelsea Flower Show, and awarded a Gold medal. Her work is held in the Fidelity International Collection, Oxford Castle Collection, Hurel Paris and with private clients. She was awarded the Gane Travel award to Iceland, the Porthleven prize and is a member of Royal British Society of Sculptors She has exhibited nationally and internationally including 56th Venice Biennale, Saatchi Gallery London, Royal Geographic Society and Premier Vision Paris. Haines’ work responds to sites and the quest for fugitive essences. A love of architecture, landscape and colour fused with her nursing career provide a catalyst for her artwork, choice of materials and processes. Her art is characterized by colourful photographic images, site-specific audio recordings and sculpture made from transformed objects to reconstruct the notion of place. 37

JULIAN HANFORD [UK]

WHAT GOD W OULD WANT 120 x 6 x 98 photography

What ‘God’ would create the nature of this world in all its technicolor reproductive splendour - flowers and animals brilliantly displaying their attractiveness to members of the same and other symbiotic species - and then demand his greatest ‘creation’ to be so covered?

sary awards show of the Designers & Art Directors Association (D&AD) in September 2012. The finished series is scheduled to be exhibited and published in book form in 2014.

Julian Hanford is a self-taught artist who has been practicing creatively throughout a long and distinguished career as an award-winning Creative Director in British advertising. He left the world of commercial creativity to concentrate, firstly, on conceptual photography 5 years ago, and has since moved into utilising his talent for ideas and visual communications to forge a meaningful body of fine art. His practice involves combinations of different media, with a bias towards photography, but embracing the imaginative contemporary use of image manipulation. His influences include the surrealists, Man Ray and Rene Magritte in particular, Gilbert Garcin, Pop artists such as Jeff Koons & Andy Warhol, and modern ironicists including Shrigley and Matt Collishaw. His recent photographic projects include a surreal portrait series exploring the personalities and motivations of notable creative people working at the sharp end of the British Advertising industry for the last 50 years, entitled Assorted Nuts, part of which was exhibited to acclaim at the 50th Anniver-

His fine art works seek to explore the relationships and mysteries of humankind’s changing relationship with, and understanding of, the universe in which we exist, and the illusions and self-delusions we have so far traditionally held to be true. He has just completed a popular 6 month Solo Show at Apostrophe Soho, in Central London Hanford lives in Wimbledon, London with his family, cats and Leopard Geckos

ILUA HAUCK DA SILVA [UK]

RISING ABOVE RELIGION 55 x 43 photographic print

Permeated by a strong sense of the relationship between decadence and beauty, my work explores some of the darkest aspects of the human condition. Drawing on my background in art history, I rethink and subvert, with a contemporary vision, Greek and Catholic Mythologies, and classic genres such as Vanitas and Pudica Pose. At its core, my practice entails investigating and interrogating existential concepts. It also offers thoughts on current social values and the construction of history and traditions. My pieces are both critical of contemporary society and an invitation for reflection as they bridge the publicly accepted and personal attitudes towards the concepts I deal with. Using a wealth of materials to form a complex and meticulous visual vocabulary my choice of media is dictated by the concept behind my ideas, as an intrinsic visual dialogue between matter and meaning is vital to my practice. Charged with transgressive connotations my work questions and challenges censorship, repression, manipulation and punishment.

Ilua Hauck da Silva was born in Campinas, Brazil. She moved to London in 1997 and graduated from Goldsmiths’ College, University of London in 2002. She has exhibited in the UK and internationally in Brazil. Solo shows include ‘Minotaurs of the Mind’ at the National Trust Sutton House, London and ‘Punhados de Possibilidades’, Itatiba, Brazil. She has also shown with the Royal Landscape, Lacey Contemporary Gallery, Sweet’Art Collective, Shoreditch Town and the West Bank Gallery, amongst others. In 2013 Hauck da Silva was a finalist of the Aesthetica Art Prize, and in 2014 she was shortlisted for the Smirnoff Winter Pride Awards. In 2015 she returns to Passion for Freedom for the second time.

MINA HEDAYAT [CAN]

LOVE NEVER DIE 70 x 5 x 100 acrylic

Death is the only way people can be free from sin, hate, disease and war. I always think about death. I started to paint a new series about death, freedom and love. In this work my lover and I die together but love never die between us. Mina Hedayat was born in Iran. Mina has been passionate about painting since her early childhood. She has participated in a numerous art exhibitions in Iran, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Her desire is using art as a channel to present the beauty and aesthetic nature of women. After living in Malaysia for four years, she moved to Canada in 2014. For Mina stylistic borders do not exist. At any time filled with salty energy sails can transfer the clipper of her inexhaustible imagination to unfamiliar mysterious coast of new terra incognita. “The greatest challenge an artist faces is to adequately channel her first bursts of creative energy. It is necessary to constantly work at improving one’s skills in order to effectively tackle this challenge.” Her main focus is figurative art. She is attracted to the acrylic paintings, printmaking and digital art.

JANE HELLINGS [UK]

TITS OUT FOR THE L ADS DRESS-ME-DOLL 27 x 32 mixed media textiles It is easy for women across the globe to lose freedoms through slavery, prostitution, unequal laws etc. In the relative freedom of my own life as a white middle class British woman, threats to womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s freedoms are less dramatic and less visible. However, daily obstacles and injustices need to be circumnavigated and challenged, to avoid further erosion of these freedoms. In the UK today one third of girls report having experienced sexual violence in their relationships and a quarter of women xperience domestic abuse. These private abuses have a natural home in a public arena where objectification of women renders them somehow less. Tits Out For the Lads Dress-me-Doll is a playful look at this process of objectification, allowing the viewer, as it does, to attach melons, puppies, jugs etc to a rag doll, in lieu of breasts.

Jane Hellings studied textile arts at Bretton Hall when it was part of Leeds University. More recently she completed an MA in Print at Cambridge School of Art. She is currently working on her PhD Proposal; Images of Intimate Abuse. Her work playfully questions and explores the contemporary female experience. Hellings makes work in and with the community, frequently exhibiting outside the gallery, she has shown in; shops and supermarkets, on market stalls, in public toilets, on the street, at festivals and on-line. Her work can be viewed.

YK HONG

[USA]

RACE CARD

75 x 2 x 104 plywood, acrylic paint, screenprint ink Born in the United States, raised in Korea and based out of Brooklyn, New York, YK uses traditional Korean artistic techniques paired with experimental contemporary methods. YK often works in wood, combining its inherent grit to portray the jarring friction between humans and our constructed environment and values. YK uses text and imagery that are reminiscent of propaganda, to make commentary on its proximity to Western advertising, specifically tackling issues of identity, race, the division of land, migration, mindfulness and conspicuous consumption. The wood used in YK’s work is sourced from the floors and foundations of Brownstone buildings in the rapidly gentrifying Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. By reclaiming the jettisoned raw material, being replaced for newer floors and structures, YK is also reclaiming the history of race and transition over time, deconstructing the material and reconstructing it into a piece that has been given new purpose and meaning. YK is in the midst of two self-directed year-long “residencies” called “365 Release” (for which YK received a Puffin Foundation Grant) and “The #PennyLuck Project” (2013-15), with a third in the works using programming code to create an opensourced interface and interactive pieces that explore themes of universalism and home. 42

YK has exhibited in galleries across the globe and gave a TEDx Talk in 2012 on letting go to make space for creativity and art. YK is also a frequent public speaker and facilitator on using creativity for social justice and anti-oppression, incorporating these themes as essential to YK’s practice. Critique of the use of the expression of its namesake by creating a literal version complete with Anime eyes, Buddha details, Yin Yang flowers and flying dragons. The wood used in my work is sourced from the floors and foundations of Brownstone buildings in the rapidly gentrifying Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, where I reside and create. By reclaiming the jettisoned raw material, being replaced for newer floors and structures, I am also reclaiming the history of race and transition over time. I deconstruct the material and reconstruct it into a piece that has been given new purpose and meaning.

RICHARD HUMBY [UK]

PARADISE?

35.5 X 25.5 oil on canvas My current work is concerned with the concept of observing the observer and the reciprocal view. I look at situations where this narrative runs strong such as the Museum, the Gallery, the Sports event, the Spectacle. I find the situations and expressions of people when they are looking intriguing, be it a casual glance or a scrutinizing gaze, the sports fan or the photographer at the event, their environment, their reason for pilgrimage. Researching further into observation, I have began to look at the current age of Surveillance in which we are subjected to, and aim to, question its necessity and role. With cameras being placed everywhere, on the street, in the air from drones, and within our homes; we are giving away our freedom? Painting from a hybrid of photographs and sketches I like to transform the source imagery through the medium of paint into a new image with my own artistic language.

Richard Humby is a painter whose current work is concerned with the concept of observing the observer and the reciprocal view. Graduating from Wimbledon college of Art MA Fine Art in 2010, he continues to paint and research the subject of observers which has led him to look closer at Surveillance, and where Surveillance is increasingly being imposed upon us.

DMITRY IV [UKR]

THE NEED FOR FREEDOM 200 x 180 x 250 steel Dmitry was born in 1974 in the city of Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine. 1995 – graduated from Kharkiv State Art School 2000 – unveiling of the monument to the “Soldiers who died in Afghanistan and other local wars”,Berdyansk, Ukraine 2003 – unveiling of the garden sculpture “The Kiss”, Kharkiv 2003 – graduated from Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, has the degree of master 2005 – unveiling of the garden sculptures: “Memories”, “Dreams”, Belgorod, Russia 2006 – unveiling of the sculpture “Mercury”, Kyiv 2007 – unveiling of the garden sculpture “Shuttler traders”, Belgorod, Russia 2008 – the participation in the exhibition of sculpture “Trienale”, Kyiv 2008 – the participation in sand sculpture festival, Kharkiv, Ukrain Repeated participation in city and All-Ukrainian exhibitions and symposiums. The works are in private collections in Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Germany, France. About the work: The figure of a girl floating in the air at a distance of 50 cm from the ground. The sculpture is made by welding steel chain -in its more than 4,000 welding points 44

[UK]

HALEH JAMALI COLLABORATION WITH MONICA DE IOANNI

DEPARTURE 5:40 video

In Departure, Haleh Jamali collaborates with a performer; Monica De Ioanni. Haleh was always fascinated by the relationship between women and fabric and more specifically the drapes and forms created by the veil and the invisible gaze of the veiled women. Monica here uses fabric as a symbolic means to show the struggles and sometimes the frustration of individuals whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity have been disguised. In her endeavor she tries to overcome the obstacles and reveal her identity.

Haleh Jamali works with a wide range of media and techniques that have included video, painting, mural, photography, installation and performance. Her work often deals with issues of female identity, inspired by images of women from the Middle East. Her interest in portraiture and narrative stems from a desire to address the social aspects of representation, particularly in relation to the female gender and with a concern for the hidden layers beneath that which is visible.

GOSIA JANIK [POL]

UNTITLED

40 x 60 Digital Photography Freedom. To be free from norms thrown at us either by family or restrictive society. To be free is to accept your own feminity and power derived from it. Being free is to be connected with your inner power and strength, being open to space and its possibilities.

Polish photographer living currently in Madrid. Gosia studied in Czestochowa, Poland. She specializes in portraiture and artistic photography. Since moving to Spain she started to experiment with fashion photography. Her photography attracts a lot of attention both in Spain and Poland.

JUDITH JONES [UK]

FRACTURED LIVES 1

FRACTURED LIVES 2

FRACTURED LIVES 3

30 X 25 photography

30 x 35 photography

30 X 35 photography

Judith has exhibited widely since completing an MA (distinction) in photography in 2009. She has exhibited in group and solo shows internationally. Judith is a member of London Independent photography and The Crossing Lines Group at Goldsmiths College London. Living in Dorset for over 30 years, she is currently a volunteer with the charity ‘Arts in Hospital’ at Dorset County Hospital, firmly believing art of all genres has an important role to play in a patient’s recovery and also acts as a bridge between patients, staff and visitors maintaining morale. Her work is owned by private and public collections in the UK, New York, Pisa and Toronto. Having taken the route of a fine art photographer, photography has become her path in exploring and expressing many human emotions that envelop us all. She often creates hand-made artists books; combining her photography and poetry into tactile artifacts. Fractured Lives The Series was made in response to facing the sexual abuse that I endured forty years ago. The process of informing the police which culminated in the perpetrator being sent to prison, forced me to attempt to deal with the devastation the abuse had on my family. As a victim of child sexual abuse, you always remain a victim. Only other victims can understand that concept. Sexual abuse is unique in the devastation it has on a child; as it halts everything that was normal or even remotely normal; distancing the victims from all those around them, creating a barrier from those the child once thought loved them.

Not allowing their normal sexual development to grow. Pushing them further into the hands of their abusers as the circle of confusion leaves them no option but to delude themselves that their persecutors are really their confidantes. The often intense grooming process makes the child feel ‘special’ so that all other relations are destroyed and fractured into many pieces making the victims dependent on their abusers power as the only ones that will be there for them, the only ones that make them feel needed. The impact of such crimes often fractures the very existence of our close relations and our ability to maintain any relationship successfully. Utilising original photographs of myself as a child and my family to create unique prints, I have attempted to visually express the destruction and feelings of loss and freedom that face those abused. 47

KAMILLA KASPRZAK [POL]

YOKE

70 x 23 x 23 ceramic ...with downcast head, a sculpture full of melancholy, or maybe aggrieved? One cannot indifferently go past this form full of drama, congealed in a silent scream. Dark, yet delicately hammered nails, in refined and studied poses. Between humility and brutal yoke this tragedy unfolds. Modelling clay material has become my way of expressing intangible burden of slavery.

Born in 1972, Wroclaw. Kamilla is an artist and ceramist. She graduated from the School of Fine Arts and in 1999 graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw department of Ceramics and Glass, tutored by prof. Krystyna Cybinska. She runs ceramic classes in Youth Culture House in Nica and in WTZ in Dobroszyce. She has participated in group and solo exhibitions - Krakow, Zakopane, Wroclaw, Warsaw, Lubin, Olesnica. In 2009 Kamilla received Distinction at the National Competition of Ceramics - Strings of Light, she also took part in the II National Competition of Ceramics in Zakopane and received an Honourable Mention in the Third Triennial of Ceramics â&#x20AC;&#x153;Personnel from Chamot in the Backgroundâ&#x20AC;? in 2014. Kamilla also exhibited at VII Salon Wielkopolski.

BÉA KAYANI

[UK]

FLO WERS OF FALLUJAH - MASSACRE ELEGY 110 x 10 x 220 mixed media- collaged of map of falluja, charcoal, graphite, acrylic, fabric, chains, resin, found material on board Béa Kayani is a British contemporary artist who combines fine art painting, video and photography to create works that reveal a delicate interplay of the abstract and the figurative. Béa draws inspiration from politics, architecture and the natural world. A career spanning Europe and the Middle East makes itself subtly evident in Béa’s work, as she juxtaposes, pushes boundaries and challenges viewer perceptions. At a young age Béa set out to explore the contradictions and connections between dream, reality and the emotions that they evoke. This stemmed from a desire to search for permanence amongst ephemeral moments, along with the urge and struggle to stay in the flow. Béa seeks to connect her works to their context in a manner that challenges current norms, whilst critically engaging with the dominant aesthetic, cultural and religious values of our time. Through a combination of the figurative and abstraction, Béa’s rapidly evolving Humans series aims to provoke debate on the human condition. Heavily laden, large-scale mixed media pieces question the situation of women and children through the eyes of religion and media, within the context of war, massacre, rape and sexual jihad The Humans series is a growing body of large-scale works comprising fine art painting, sculpture and performance. My aim is to create a space that deals with the duality of perception and reflection. These works directly address the very contemporary issues of social and political involvement of religion, in terms of massacres, sexual jihad, and rape as a weapon of war, media-projected mass confusion and a desensitised population. By creating an environment that provokes further enquiry, I critically

engage with my audience, exploring elements of objectivity, subjectivity and relativism. My exploration into these latest art works began with personal outrage against recent massacres of school children and women, the kidnapping of young girls and their subsequent sale into sexual slavery. I began to question the role of individuality and free will, when atrocities are committed in the name of religion or an ideology and freedom of expression. This particular artwork titled: “Flowers Of Fallujah” is a massacre elegy in remembrance of 150 women including underage girls and pregnant women who were led in chains, to be brutally murdered and ditched in a mass grave outside of Fallujah, as a punishment for saying “no” to the sexual jihad on December 18th, 2014. These women perished with a resolve to stand for their rights. The news of this atrocity only appeared in the media very briefly. I wanted to preserve their hopes juxtaposed with the desolateness of their situation and landscape. Closeups of this artworks can be seen on my website. 49

JENNIFER KIDD [UK]

ONE WEEK AGO......

4.25 performance and stop motion animation This video is collaboration between stop motion animation artist Jennifer Kidd and performance artist Yingmei Duan, created early 2015 in Berlin. This video describes a struggle we all face at some point in our lives, the struggle between wanting to be here and wanting to leave, an internal battle for freedom. With an audio that discusses a plan to end ones life followed by an immediate change of mind and escape, we focus on the repetitive task of washing dishes. Throughout the video the distracted and unfocussed woman continues to endlessly wash without purpose while the narrative continues.

DAWN KIM [USA]

GAME 1:18 video

April 2015. Baltimore erupts in protests after the death of Freddie Gray and Major League Baseball announces that a Baltimore Orioles game will be closed to the public as a safety precaution. In this piece, the aural presence of protesters is combined with footage of that game. Dawn Kim graduated in 2011 with a B.F.A from Art Center College of Design. Following the widespread distribution of her artists’ book “Collected: Self-Portrait” in 2012, she was awarded the Printed Matter INC., Emerging Artists grant in 2013 for “The New York Testament,” a collection of religious tracts edited and re contextualized to highlight the creative decisions made by religious missionaries of all faiths.

ESTHER KOKMEIJER [NLD]

SHEEP 9:13 video

Journey from Inner Mongolia (China) to Mongolia with a sheep as travel companion. Once, a few years ago, Esther Kokmeijer promised a friend from Mongolia to bring him a sheep. In a way this promise was only ment to express their connection they have with sheep. Booth artist both were taking care of sheep in their childhood. They didn’t speak the same language, but somehow understood the language of sheep. Which started as a joke became reality when Esther Kokmeijer was invited by the Land Art Mongolia (LAM 2014), with this year topic the interaction between animal and human. As a political approach she decided to smuggle a sheep from Inner Mongolia over the very protected border to Mongolia. She bought a sheep and prepared herself an animal passport, a pet trolly and carefully planned the travel route. The intention for this journey was not only to arrive, but also to show the special bound between human and animal that arises when they have to rely on each other. The sheep and Esther Kokmeijer made a journey of 2 weeks by car, bus and train. Together with the sheep, she succeeded to cross the Chinese-Mongolian border and arrived save with the smoggled sheep in Ulaanbaatar.

The photos and texts tell a personal travelogue with universal consequences. The text, which has political and social hidden messages, is written in the form of a children’s book for the daughter of a friend who saw photo’s of the traveling sheep on Facebook.

NICOLAS LABORIE [UK / FRA]

ICARUS: LIBERATION

ICARUS: THE FALL

30 x 7 x 42 wet plate collodion tintype

24 x 7 x 21 wet plate collodion tintype

ICARUS by photographer Nicolas Laborie is a Wet Plate ColBorn in Paris, France, Nicolas lodion photography series inspired by the Greek mythology of Laborie is an experienced phoIcarus and looking at the price of female freedom in today’s tographer and filmmaker based world. Icarus was the son of Daedalus, a master craftsman, who in London. dared for fly too near to the sun on wings made of feathers and His photographic and film work wax. After building the Labyrinth for King Minos with his father, lead him to exhibit in various they both were imprisoned in fear to reveal its secret. Daedalus galleries Including the Royal warned his son Icarus not to be too ambitious and fly too close Academy of Art, Victoria and to the sun but the wax melted and he fell into his death. The Albert Museum, DaVincis galIcarus complex is very much still alive and after completing lery, Great Expectation gallery, my previous series “Lilith Spells” inspired by the first femiAmnesty International, Togethnist creature on earth; I saw many female forms and bodies er gallery and work with leadsuppressed by social media censorship. Many movements were ing magazines and companies created out of it like free the Nipple, Topfreedom, Femen calling worldwide. for freedom of expression against sexism and equality. In art, Artist represented at the Passion nudity has been depicted for centuries from the beginning of for Freedom art festival 2014 at time….Lilith and Adam both were nude in their representations. the Embassy tea Gallery. The nipple has been outcast, suppressed, denied and misunderstood…such a beautifulcreation now outlaw falling sky high from a so call free society. Her obsession and ambition, both had a deep connection with my photographic practice: Wet plate collodion. Invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, the Wet plate method is a process using panes of glass, coated with a highly toxic chemical solution, as the negative. Wet plate collodion is a demanding, expensive and lengthy unique historic process,which can also produce a positive image by using tin or aluminum instead of glass. Like Icarus, each wet plate was born from highly toxic chemicals; each portrait leaves a trace of their own myth, pain, obsession and desires. 53

EMILY LAZERWITZ [UK]

PRIME GUIDES

12 x 30 x 6 found books, sharpie Written language alienates; the written word alienates people within the same community and those of different societies. People have died over writings. Wars have been fought because of them. Written language has divided society on socio-political lines. Even within the group of people it is meant to unite, there are strong divides over its exact interpretation and translation. I exploited this aspect of alienation by taking the two texts that represent the history of the written word, in specifically Western European history, and edited them through the act of redacting in order to create a different reading for each text: one losing its utility by comprising of the very things it cannot explain and the other becoming the truest version it could be. By redacting or crossing out the words in a permanent marker (sharpie), I was both reading texts and destroying them through the action of reading. I also did this action in public, so the texts are both works themselves as well as remnants of a performance. By doing this in public, I wanted to alienate myself from society in which defacing books is seen as taboo. Yet, I was also doing the most devout action one could do: an incredibly close reading. The texts force viewers to engage with either a text they would never in their lifetime or discover a different reading of a book they love. Given that most people do not read the either text in its entirety, I want to force them to confront the texts in a new condensed form.

As an artist, Emily Lazerwitz, since starting her MFA at Slade School of Fine Art, has taken on the role of the translator. Her work is an exploration of this role through highly systematized processes of deconstruction, reconstruction, and destruction. Using different mediums and methods, Emily takes texts and renders them almost unrecognizable in forms ranging from the redacted books to knitwear. Even in the most violent of her interventions the text always remains whole in some regard, so the meaning is never truly destroyed.

PETER LEIGH [UK]

THE BL ACK SHIRT

30 x 6 x 16 resin and fibre glass How easy is it to lose freedom, how easy is it to get freedom back? It is not easy to regain freedoms once a freedom or a right has been removed, we perhaps query if this will affect our own individual lives and not consider acutely, until the peril of non-liberty is at our own door step. We have also been shown that our elected governments have all the authority needed to represent us and deal with any events that could impend upon our liberties, but in doing so, these elected bodies take away other freedoms which our previous generations took for granted.

Peter A Leighâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings and sculptural pieces encapsulate moments of surreal turbulences within the popular, possibly passed by and cognitively dismissed. At times dealing with subject matters, such as perceived masculinity, conflict and notions of archaic formalities. The selection of figures and objects within his works are considered and upon reflection, from his initial impressions of emotional responses, later contributing and informing those suspended moments by way of deconstruction, historical context and review. Elements are reduced or even possibly eliminated to isolate a subject, so as to highlight and recalling those reactions. The colours and forms chosen are at times symbolic, relating to an iconography of a ceremonial past so familiar in the early British pop art movement that still impacts on todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surroundings. 55

DAVID MARGULIES [UK]

AS BUTTERFLIES IN THE STORM 51 x 5.5 x 51 oil on linen

Born 1949 adopted by a couple, both of whom were Holocaust survivors. His mother escaped from Austria, while his father escaped from Czechoslovakia, though born in Austro Hungary which had become Poland. Both of them were refugees. They were â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;outsiderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; who always appreciated the British to allow them into the country and thereby save their lives. Their backgrounds, and those who were not so fortunate to escape with their lives have affected his work profoundly. Though training as a painting conservator, his primary drive was to paint. The painting was divided into two distinct categories. The first is related to his love of the mountains. The second emerged as a memorial to all those innocent victims who have had their lives snuffed out by the perpetrators of hate crimes. The image of the butterflies came to me in a dream. They represent all of the varied vulnerable characters whose lives were all too brief. They are placed in an order that is reminiscent of butterflies pinned in a display case. It also made me feel as if these beautiful creatures have been reduced to images in a text book. Behind the butterflies is an image which has been used by me in many works. It is the image of the corpses in the death pits of Bergen Belsen. Once the British Forces had liberated Bergen Belsen, they were so shocked by what they were witnessing. The authorities ordered that a film crew and a group of photographers were to record all 56

that they saw. There was one photographer in particular who captured images which somehow transcended the mere physicality of the subjects. Though he recorded the piles of corpses, they possessed a spirituality, and dignity which their perpetrators attempted to rob them of. The corpses were reminiscent of so many Old Master paintings depicting the Descent into Hell. The name of that photographer was not recorded. The painting as a whole represents the colourful quality of life superimposed over the darkness of death.

ALEXANDRA MAZUR-KNYAZEVA [UK]

I WANT (?) TO BE JUST LIKE YOU

60 x 9 x 60 porcelain, nano stain, black clay, wood This artwork contrast natural uncontrolled beauty of twigs to factory made, perfect poles that twigs turned to in order to become “useful” and “clean”. Clean of any signs of personality. When I am looking around I see more beauty in uncontrolled processes then in soulless repetitive aiming for perfection. In this work I am talking about quite simple and even everyday type of freedom – uniqueness. We all are born unique, yet it is the quality that is easy to loose without even noticing… Freedom is the ability to be different, not perfect. Perfect is one, different creates variety that opens up richness of possibilities. Freedom can be seen everyday in beauty of natural uniqueness. There are hundreds of leaves on one tree, and there is no “perfect” leaf among them. No one tells leaves how they should look like to be allowed on the tree. They are just there. And they are beautiful. In this work I also explore freedom throughout making process allowing each material to say. The final outcome of this work is out of my control. I only set the frames; the guidelines to the material, letting it create according to its nature. It is impossible to copy any of the pieces I made. The final outcome of my work is unpredictable yet absolutely unique and that is why incredibly exiting for me. I enjoy this freedom.

After graduation from MSAIU (n/a Stroganov) in Moscow Alexandra decide to gain international experience and move to study and live abroad. She completed an MA course at Central Saint Martins in 2011, with project researching fire as a material, looking at its behaviour, flames controlling and soot mark-making. During her education she was selected for group exhibition and talk at the V&A Museum “Material Exploration”. Since that time Alexandra participated in group and duo exhibitions in London, New York, Milan and Moscow. Among her achievements are participation in Young Art Biennial “Qui Vive?”, first prize in Russian Art Week, residency at the Victoria and Albert ceramic studio, financial support by SEE&DO and funding of exhibiting her works at Museum Of Science and Technology in Milan. 57

SEAMUS MORAN [UK]

URBAN BURKA 18 x 23 x 22 training shoes

Seamus Moran uses combinations of seemingly incompatible ideas to produce his sculptures. Inspired by childhood memories of museum visits, fossils and armour, his industry background in mould-making ensures that his work is convincing & meticulously constructed. For many years he has worked by casting knots salvaged from dead trees and turning them into complex organic abstracts. His recent work has focused on more figurative themes, often with a strong social comment. Very different in some ways to his previous body of work, but retaining the realism and the feeling that his pieces could be museum exhibits from a parallel universe. Moran shares his own insights on the human condition through his dark, slightly humorous sculptures, introducing questionable values by the rethinking of familiar objects. Seamus Moran was born in 1963 in Burton on Trent. He graduated with a Ba (hons) in Ceramics with Glass from Birmingham polytechnic in 1984 and went on to work in the pottery industry in Stoke on Trent as a sculptor and mould-maker. In 1988 he moved to Cornwall and two years later became self-employed, expanding his main areas of expertise to the design and creation of his own range of sculptural giftware as well as continuing to originate moulds and produce work for other artists. He started exhibiting his own sculptures in galleries in 2002. His work has been shown around the UK and in 2008 won the People’s choice 58

award at The National sculpture competition at Liverpool’s Bluecoat 2 gallery. In 2013 he was shortlisted for the Threadneedle prize at The Mall galleries in London for his work “Urban Burka”. He received the freedom ambassador title at the Passion for Freedom festival at the Embassy tea gallery in 2014. He is currently a featured artist in the book “State of art : Sculpture & 3D #2” in the series from Barehill publishing.

ANA MUŠCET [HRV] /

A CHANGE OF AIR 2.45 video and object The art piece consists of a video work and an object – a flag raised on Naked Island, former most brutal prison in ex Yugoslavia. Miljenka Jantolek, daughter of a former political prisoner raises a flag carrying the message (Na promjenu zraka) ‘A change of air’. At the beginning of the 50s, a family was notified where their uncle is located by a letter with this message. After he was sent to ‘a change of air’, he returned from the Island six years later. The piece ‘A change of air’ originates from an appointment with professor Vladimir Bobinac’s family. On the first anniversary of his death, his daughter raises the flag in his honour at the Mladost Stadium, on Naked Island. Vladimir Bobinac is known as a history professor and as a man who, after his imprisonment, spent the rest of his life in a quiet battle, trying to turn Naked Island into a memorial space with the intention of stopping this, or anything similar, from happening ever again. He reached an old age and died, 5 May 2014, on the same day as Josip Broz Tito, former president of Yugoslavia, during whose presidency the prison was formed. By placing old message in a new context, the art piece suggests that, somewhere between the video’s repetition, that is, the raising of the flag, a new, better world will originate. Thereby, iteration opens a possibility for a space of new operation and freedom. Today, Naked Island is a devastated place of horror which, not even decades later in this new and free country, still hasn’t been turned into a memorial centre.

Born in 1981 in Metkovic, Croatia. Muscet has a MA in Croatian and Russian language and literature. At the moment she is studing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia. Her visual and conceptual vocabulary focuses on sculpture, installation, text and language. Her interest in the field of language is also visible in her work which often have political connotations. She has received several scholarships for excellence, won a special mention for landscape photography on Rovinj Photodays, was an Essl Award finalist for 2015, winner of the Special Rector’s Award and the Dean’s Award for success in her work.

TASLEEM MULHALL [YEM/UK]

STONED 33 x 64 mixed media

This work portrays the image of a woman about to be stoned to death as a punishment for adultery, with even though she was raped. To prove her innocence she needs to provide four male witnesses. I created this sculpture because I wanted to highlight the injustice bestowed on Muslim women by sharia law , still practised in some Islamic countries. The piece itself is cast in stone to represent the fact that she is about to be stoned to death. Her eyes are closed and her arms tightened as she braces herself for the stoning that is about to be inflicted upon her. The work itself is centred in sand echoing the desert sands of the lands that impose these laws but also to give a real and physical representation to the reality of these brutal burials. The nakedness is important as it represents not just the suppressed beauty of the female but also the raw sexuality that the male gender is trying to bury, not just physically of course, but emotionally and spiritually as well. The blocks are square to denote Mecca and the green signifies the traditional colour of the book of Koran, with the classically gold text. And the circle that surrounds symbolises the feelings of entrapment that these countries bestow on the women of their land. The hair is cut to reflect an Egyptian style of cut, the hair so often hidden by Islamic countries as a symbol of health, potency and sexuality, that trigger desire, and the reason why it is covered.My hope is that this piece will highlight these inequalities and open up discussions on the injustices of Sharia Law. 60

Tasleem Mulhall is based in Redlees Studio where she showcases much of her work, fromphotography, oil paintings, and various sculptures from small clay models to giant metal statues. She is also highly proficient in performance art. She is the first British Yemeni female artist to be exhibited abroad and in many different mediums. Tasleem also works as a photojournalist and is a high profile campaigner against forced and child marriage.Tasleem’s work is mainly paintings and sculpture and it often touches upon how women are depicted and treated in Arabic culture. It also admits that women are sexual beings. Tasleem’s art may be controversial but it has not stopped her being active within Yemeni organisations in Britain and with the ambassador’s office in London. While there are aspects of Yemeni culture that she objects to – such as much of the treatment of women – she is still proud of her heritage.

KEH HUI NG [UK]

THE SAMURAI MOTORCYCLE GANG 15 video Keh Hui Ng was born in New Zealand and has lived in Malaysia, Australia before finally settling in the UK. He completed a Masters of Fine Arts at Central St Martins in 2009 and has exhibited Internationally in Sydney, Beijing, Rio De Janeiro, Chongqing, Chiangmai, Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Bristol, Manchester and London. He has won the Red Mansion Prize, Title Art Prize and was recently shortlisted for the 2016 Bristol Biennial. His practice is primarily concerned with local stories that people remember, recount and re-interpret over time. He has been collecting these stories around the world for several years now, and considers his practice to be an ongoing compendium that is independent from the original events. Each new iteration of a story may bear some resemblance to the previous, but is also treated as a new event. With this in mind, his works attempt to “forget” formulas or the reliance of a specific medium. He considers each piece to be a lens that is chosen with a specific re-telling in mind. Keh is also one half of the Modern Language Experiment which is an artist led project that has led to collaborations that were shown at the Tate Modern bookshop, MoMa PS1 book fair and as part of a Film Marmalade screening at the Arnolfini. He is currently collaborating on the “Art and Labour” show which will be shown at the Sluice Art Fair 2015.

The Samurai Motorcycle Gang is the name termed for a group of youths who became known for attacking locals in Chiang Mai over a period of several years. The urban mythology of the group includes stories of a “Robin Hood’ type gang and a Thai Yakuza equivalent. A contrasting story about this group is that they were actually Tai Yai people, who had recently arrived in Chiang Mai and found themselves unable to adjust socially and economically to life in Thailand. This video piece investigates this story further by interviewing locals about their impressions of this group, which reveals their daily concerns as well as the political situation that exists between the Northern Thais and the Tai Yai people.

TANYA PO [UK]

LOOKING FOR INNER ME 40 x 50 x 1.5 oil painting on canvas “You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way”.” Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Tanya Po is an Multi Media artist and an Art Teacher born in St.Petersburg, Russia. She developed her traditional arts skills through a classical art education. Tanya gained a Degree in Video Directing in St.Petersburg Academy of Theatrical Arts in year 2000. Since year 2001 she leaves in England taking part in media art exhibitions and festivals in Russia, Germany, Sweden and England.

MARY ROUNCEFIELD [UK]

CAMPAIGN BOOTS

30 x 30 x 35 ink drawings on canvas, found boot soles Mary Rouncefield graduated in 2009 with an honours degree from the faculty of Art Media and Design at the University of the West of England, where she had studied as a mature student. Mary works in both drawing and print, are focussing on human rights issues affecting both women and children. Her 3D work incorporates hand-drawn images on every-day objects which then themselves convey meaning to the work. Past exhibitions include the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2007, ‘Titanic 100’ in New York and various exhibitions held at The Royal West of England Academy in her home city of Bristol. In 2014 a series of drawings on Human Trafficking were exhibited by Guerilla Galleries in London. Mary also contributed work to ‘Traditions Run Deeper than Law’ at the Red Gallery in 2015. A conference held at the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University Law School (Boston MA) also featured her work, in June 2015. This summer, Mary painted live at Upfest 2015, the Street Art festival held in Bristol. She also has work included in the Wellcome Images biomedical image library. Mary cares very much about the injustices and cruelty meted out to vulnerable members of our human society, and believes that art can be a means of communication and a catalyst for change.

This piece was made to highlight the campaigns women have embarked on over the past century. These are all instances in which women have organised themselves to ask for the same freedoms that men enjoy (or should enjoy in modern societies) These boots are covered with drawings illustrating a range of issues and campaigns which have been fought in the past, but sometimes forgotten in the present. These include: Votes for Women, equal pay (now enshrined in law), the women’s peace camps, the universal right to education for all girls, the right to birth control and the broadening of women’s horizons by female pioneers. With these freedoms and rights come responsibilities. It is important to resist attempts to restrict women into fulfilling stereotypical roles which limit their potential.

ANDREA SALTINI

[ITA]

HENRI DE TOULOUSE-L AUTREC WITH SCARF AND HAT JAINE AVRIL 125 x 220 mixed media on wood I was inspired by a series of beautiful pictures that Maurice Joyant took of his painter’s friend Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1898. The aim was to create post cards for their friends, maybe. Someone thinks that was an action just as a joke, for laughing. In my opinion it’s an overwhelming example of “Passion for Freedom” of 117 years ago.

Andrea Saltini is a very prolific painter and poet born from Italy. His distinctive paintings bear the brush strokes that create a haunting ambiance where fear meets unusual and unexpected. Chalky and pasty pigments in her frames form a monochromatic effect that exaggerates the emotions and disturbance of her subjects. Andrea’s canvases are in a state of equilibrium or equipoise having even steadiness and stability. With a creative frenzy overpowering his mind, he vigorously paints with his brushes and knives as if attempting to bring out an early morning dream lest it should be forgotten.

CRAIG SCHORN [UK]

UKUTHWAL A BLOSSOM 100 x 1.5 x 1.5 mixed media

Craig Schorn is a multi-media artist, activist, and filmmaker who, having refused military conscription under South Africa´s Apartheid regime, fled to London in the late 80´s, sacrificing a prestigious MA scholarship and years of contact with his family. With culinary, screenwriting, design and filmmaking experience, he has returned to art-making as a platform for social awareness, playing an instrumental role in the IOC´s proposal to include sexual orientation in the Olympic Charter´s non-discrimination principle in the wake of the Boycott Sochi Campaign. Currently completing his MA at Middlesex University, he continues to campaign for Universal Human Rights, and fiercely opposes claims to superstition and custom as justification for discrimination and ¨the abuse of every child´s inalienable right to access the truth about their world in defining their own identity and choosing who they love.¨

Forced Marriage: a half lotus flower shaped ‘mattress’ made from pieces of bright pink girls clothing; a viewing stand at the eye level of 13 year-old; from this angle we can see up at the silver teaspoons from her point of view, each teaspoon with a girl’s name and the country she’s held, the teaspoons tinkle like delicate bells when the air moves (concealed, they are also the young girl’s last hope of appealing for help at airports.)

GAMZE SEBER [UK]

BREATH 4.3 video

A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting the plan. Subsequently, supporting protests and strikes took place across Turkey displaying a wide range of concerns, at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, of expression, assembly, and the government’s encroachment on Turkey’s secularism. 11 people were killed and more than 8,000 were injured, many critically.The latter part of this video deals with an additional issue about the meaning of democracy and how challenging it is at times to uphold the simplest acts of freedom of speech. The 2015 Suruç bombing took place in the Suruc district of Sanliurfa Province in Turkey where members of the Socialist Party of the oppressed (ESP) Youth Wing and the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF); university-age students were giving a press statement on their planned trip to reconstruct the Syrian border town of Kobani, which was until January under siege by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces. The explosion, which was caught on camera, was identified as being caused by a cluster bomb detonated during what was perceived to be a suicide attack, killing 33 people. BREATH plays on the symbolism of nature, trees, without which we could not breathe and whose threat of destruction was the initial cause of the Gezi Park demonstrations. The use of force and tear gas to suppress freedom of expression stops us breathing in reality as well as symbolically because we are all connected, we are all within the one breath of society, one breath of life. BREATH is dedicated to all the great souls in the world who have died for rights and freedom of ‘others...’ 66

Gamze Seber is a Turkish born performer, actress, yoga and meditation instructor. She has worked as an actress in several theatres in Istanbul and Vienna, also trained in Butoh with Aiko Kazuko and Ko Murobushi. Fascinated by the diverse qualities of movements, she studied Tao-Vinyasa and Yin Yoga teacher. Recently she graduated from a Meditation Teacher Training Programme for delving deeper in understanding the mind and body interconnections. She trained physical Theatre at CGSM (Contemporary Performing Arts Centre) in Istanbul with the Ecole Jacques Lecoq`s teachers with the collaboration of ESAD (Paris City High Conservatory). After this she studied at LISPA (London School of Performing Arts) with a half scholarship. She integrates physical theatre with yoga and energy work to bring a different approach in to the acting with movement and voice. She gives workshops called Awareness of Your Creativity. BREATH is her first video piece.

SAM SHENDI

[UK]

APHRODITE

50 x 40 x 180 steel, fiberglass My work focuses on the human body and the impact of an emotion on it. After studying realism for many years at University I found myself moving slowly to make my work more simplistic in style and more minimalistic in design yet without loosing an emotional impact. By using playful, colourful and graphic ideas I present bold child friendly sculptures with a deeper meaning .It is important for me that my pieces do not lose the classic form of three dimensional sculptures but conveys the time that we live in. Each sculpture is a vessel holding not just ideas but depicting emotions inspired by observations from human actions on a daily basis. I work in many themes because every idea has itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own material, design and colour. Sam Shendi was born and raised in Egypt. He obtained a first class degree at the University of Helwan in Cairo. During those years he studied monumental and architectural sculpture, classical art and realism.

Shendiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sculptures are playful and vibrant to engage the viewer and invite you to take a closer look at the deeper level of meaning. Each sculpture is a vessel holding ideas and depicting emotions inspired by regular human actions and behaviours. In 2013 he won the FIRST@108 public art award and became a member of the Royal British sculpture Society. He has exhibited in the UK and Europe and sold his work internationally. Future exhibitions included a solo exhibition in Munich and with Paul Smith London.

After moving to England, now living and working in North Yorkshire his practice has developed into simplifying the human figure. Despite minimising, the work retains the classical qualities of form and shape within three dimensions without loosing the emotional impact conveying the time in which we live.

MICHAEL SHPAKOV [UK]

MSTISL AV ROSTROPOVICH. FREEDOM TO PL AY 80 x 40 oil on canvas If I were asked who personified in the 20th century the Artistic Freedom, I would, no doubt, name Mstislav Rostropovichâ&#x20AC;Ś Shpakov, Michael, portrait artist (b. 1961, Omsk, Russia), who lives and works in London. Although he had an extensive academic background in physics and held senior executive international positions in business, he eventually realised that his true interest lay in the world of art. Even though Michael had no formal education in art, with the encouragement of many friends, he moved away from the commercial world and started a new and successful career path which brought him intense satisfaction. Oil painting, his chosen medium, is continuously developing so he keeps an open mind and always learns from other artists and old masters in particular. The preference in style is realism with a little added something which gives his sitters particular enjoyment without resorting to false flattery. His historical paintings, apart from being intrinsically enjoyable, make great conversation pieces about the characters and places depicted.

NASIM SIMA

[GER]

UNTITLED

115 x 4 x 95 oil and acrylic on linen Growing up in Iran, I developed my love of painting at a young age. Later, my passion for seeing art beyond the borders of familiar and my sense of adventure fuelled my curiosity to explore the outside world and led to living in Europe, Africa, and Asia in the past 8 years. I am interested in figuration, portraiture and ornamentation. Portraiture enables me to deal with the intersections of culture, history, and social issues with the individual. This becomes a quest to question and evoke the notion of inner identity. I paint mostly with oil and acrylic paints on linen and canvas. My works address issues that persistently occupy my mind. My search is to create a visual image that conveys my experience and feeling and enables me to share it with others. This search helps me to comprehend and understand the issue for myself. I usually take hundreds of photographs of the subject before starting to paint. In this process the final image is the result of openness to emergence of newfound compositions, forms, and colours.

Nasim was born in Iran. Whilst in Iran, she mostly worked on traditional Persian painting style. She relocated to Germany in 2007 for studying purposes. Moving to Germany and being immersed in a different artistic atmosphere has had a significant influence on her artistic viewpoint, style and the subjects she chose to work on. In 2014 she received her B.A. in Illustration from the DMI faculty of HAW Hamburg (University for applied sciences Hamburg) where she is also now studying for her Masters.

IZABELA SZCZEPANSKA [UK]

ON THE WAY

120 x 1.8 x 150 collage The word “way” means both : the road and a method. Maybe there is a method to follow your own path and don’t get confused by others judgemental look? “On the way” is about looking inside ourselves and doing what we feel and is right. It’s about choices and freedom of choices no matter what other people say. Izabela Szczepanska is an artist born in Poland in 1984. She graduated Art High School in Suprasl (Poland) in 1999 with an artist-technician diploma in illustration and graphic print (lino print). Her Master Degree in lithography print and drawing she was received from University of Fine Arts in Poznan (Poland) in 2009. She attended various painting, drawing and print classes which makes her very flexible with medium she uses. She always chooses the most suitable medium to express the ideas in her work in the most complete way. During

her education she discovered that less means more so her art language is very minimalistic, clear and symbolic. Her works ask the questions about such delicate matters as identity and consciousness. She had few exhibitions in Poland. At the moment she works on several painting projects. She lives and works in London since 2009.

HOI YING TAM [HKG]

BEING DISAPPEARED 1

BEING DISAPPEARED 2

BEING DISAPPEARED 3

50 x 70 photograph

When freedom of opinion and expression means inciting the subversion of state power; When freedom of political means endangering the safety of state; When freedom of gathering means disrupting public order; When freedom of thoughts means provoking crimes; When the police become our enemy, the law becomes weapon for the government to violate human right; What can we rely on to protect us?

Tam Hoi Ying, the Chinese-Hong Kong photographer, grew up in the former Colony of British, the exceptional free land in China. Enjoyed the modest democracy & freedom while in the same time, was traumatised by the heavy-handed communist government actions towards their own people, to suppress freedom. Feeling the obligation to raise the awareness for the human right condition in China, the photographer brings together a series of images, to challenge the paradox for the law to protect & suppress freedom of people, and question the fragility of the Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regime.

RACHEL TAUBER [ISR]

CROCHET

50 x 42 x 5 stone I believe freedom is the freedom to choose, freedom to ask, freedom to explore. My work “Crochet” is a fragment of a handmade tablecloth that I ‘embroidered’ by drilling in stone. I keep knitting and embroidering like my mother and grandmother, but in challenging way. Not with a thread and knitting needles but with stone and a drill. In this work, I deal with contradictions and through them put forward questions of gender and society. Through this work, I am trying to explore traditional and modern representations, by means of form and language study. I examine various fields and materials, and expand the boundaries of the medium, while investigating the border between the image and its representation in art. Knitting is considered feminine handicraft, and here I manufacture it by evidently non-feminine means. I appropriate the material out of its context into a new and opposing context. This is the essence of freedom in my opinion, because here ‘to choose’ finds expression at the highest level. Rachel Tauber studied art and professional sculpturing for 10 years, in the College of Art Jerusalem, in the Hebrew University (Art History), and in Basis School of Sculpture. She had two solo exhibitions, took part in many group exhibitions, in Israel, the United States, Bulgaria, Japan and the United Kingdom, and was engaged in three large-scale projects (currently working on the fourth). Twice she won prizes in international competitions and once a residency. She mainly works with stone, wood and metal. Archeology is a main source of inspiration for Rachel. Ancient forms of stone structures and decorations repeatedly appear in her works. She reveals the stone’s softness and vulnerability, which hides under the toughness. Each statue leads her to the 72

next. She loves the surprises that occur while working, discoveries and insights, leading her to other solutions than she expected, more specific and precise. She also finds outdoor sculpturing interesting, both because of its large scale and exposure and because of its ability to affect entire populations, not just those who come to museums and galleries. Rachel’s works deal with contradictions. She embroiders in stone and wood, and put textile and soft lace into hard rock. She examines the possibilities of dismantling myths into components and forming new and different narratives. She loves to appropriate materials out of their usual context into a new and opposing one, thus raising questions and hoping to encourage the viewer to think open.

[UK] LINDSAY TERHORST NORTH

EVE IN EXILE

140 x 125 x 240 barb wire, copper, water colour paper, ink, coffee, bed linen & vintage cases Lindsay Terhorst North is a mixed media painter and installation artist whose abstract figurative work explores issues of identity, trauma and displacement focusing on the power of trees, their materiality, their symbolism and their constant presence in a changing world. As a child of apartheid South Africa, Lindsay struggled to resolve issues of external and internal identity and guilt. Her work reveals the internal marks left by her experiences and struggles as well as her determination to come to terms with herself through the way she applies the media and narrative. From a conceptual perception of how trauma imprints on the psyche, Lindsayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to her paintings distresses the surfaces by painting, scraping, peeling, reapplying with a mixed medium of bark, acrylic, ink and photographs. Her process is often a dynamic negotiation where an energised working and reworking of the surface contrasts with careful, calculated mark-making. Her quite raw application embraces the imperfections that she believes gives life and experience that depth and character. Lindsay has painted from a young age but only since her arrival in London did she begin her artistic journey. She attended the Putney School of Art & Design, completing her diploma in 2011. As a mixed media painter and installation artist, Lindsay Terhorst North explores issues of identity, displacement and personal meaning. She explains:During the Second World War, young Dutch girl, Mary Gabrielse was interned in a Japanese war camp in Indonesia with her mother and sister. She was my grandmother, my beloved Oma. Her gruelling experiences and the stories she shared stayed with me and I remembered being in awe of her and what she had endured. My Omaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s illustrations of life during this period and her motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journal were heart rendering but exhibited the strength, re-

silience, creativity and humour, which helped them cope and find purpose during a time of suffering, humiliation and loss. My installation was created to capture that hope, spirit and courage, translating the suffering into something inspiring and transcendent; an unbroken spirit! It had particular significance as The Orchid, a national flower of Indonesia and memorial flower for war in the Dutch East Indies, symbolised strength and survival during that time. By using barbed wire, copper, canvas, water colour paper, ink, coffee, bed linen and vintage cases impressed on me how desolate these women must have felt to lose almost everything and, in many cases, their lives. It was so hard for my Oma to remember a time of freedom before war broke out, but she survived and hope kept her alive. The painful memories have stayed with her all of her life and those who did not make it are forever in her thoughts. My Oma, my brave, brave Oma! 73

ROBYN TOWNSEND [UK]

CONFINEMENT

45 x 55 x 55 cast glass, concrete, reclaimed wood, brass castors, founds metals and iron paint

My work is inspired by elements of the human condition, the characteristics I look at are universal and apply to all people regardless of race, gender, and political background. It is by collecting ordering and re-presenting images and forms I hope to reflect on the things in our nature that make us human. Confinement is designed to convey the feeling of an inescapable situation and a loss of freedom; it explores people in a vulnerable state and the act of keeping something under control in an unstable environment. The object appears to be functional and allows for a small range of movement but is ultimately a small and restricting space. I have chosen to use hands as the main narrative as they are easily recognisable, people can quickly make a connection with the forms. However they are still only fragments of the body so they hold very little sense of identity allowing the viewer to make a connection and interpret the scene using their own personal experiences.

Robyn Townsend is a sculptural artist currently residing in the North East of England. Her work is focused in the areas of psychology, biology and philosophy but the key theme of her work is the human condition, she is fascinated by the study of the Human, the way we think, the way we act and the way we feel. She wants to show people for their similarities rather than their differences, their universally qualities that are consistent regardless of race, culture, gender or political background. Robyn Townsend uses intimate and recognisable body parts that give no hint of identity, to highlight the anonymity of people as well as reflect how our actions, often guided by our internal thoughts and fears, allow us to form our own human nature and create ourselves. As well as casting with industrial materials to create a unique aesthetic and lifelike atmosphere.

DANIEL WECHSLER [ISR]

UNKNO WN PATH 1:35 video

Key & light trifle, 2015 Our sense of danger produces a change in our hearts and minds, forcing unknown narratives onto a tenuous understanding of the world. It is our fearless- child like ability, that enables us to pass through and set free.

Daniel Wechsler is a video artist & audio engineer currently based in Tel-Aviv. Focusing on the creation of new video techniques, he uses computer errors and malfunctions to create visual â&#x20AC;&#x2122;bugsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. As an SAE graduate, his preliminary field of expertise was audio engineering for post production, working both in London and TLV. For the past 7 years he has been filming, editing, creating video & digital art.

SHUK PUI YU

[HKG]

MAP OF CHINA

60 x 2 x 60 digital print on foam board ‘’It’s constructed by chitterlings. People > Policy and even country.”

Born in 1994, focusing on dissimilar media included installation, performance, audio, text and photography. She likes doing experiments based on her daily-life observation of “abnormal beings”. Her artworks are simply a game but outlined throught the complicated interpersonal relationships in an interesting manner usually developing the direct and strong tension we are not used to. Currently working on her first solo exhibition ‘CV by Vagina’ in London.

Freedom Hero 2015

“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, again and again, before we reach the mountain top of our desires” Nelson Mandela Frédéric Boisseau, 42, building maintenance worker for Sodexo, killed in the lobby, first victim of the shooting Franck Brinsolaro, 49, Protection Service police officer assigned as a bodyguard for Charb Cabu (Jean Cabut), 76, cartoonist Elsa Cayat, 54, psychoanalyst and columnist.The only woman killed in the shooting. Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier), 47, cartoonist, columnist, and editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo Philippe Honoré, 73, cartoonist Bernard Maris, 68, economist, editor, and columnist Ahmed Merabet, 42, police officer, shot in the head as he lay wounded on the ground outside. Mustapha Ourrad, 60, copy editor Michel Renaud, 69, a travel writing festival organiser visiting Cabu Tignous (Bernard Verlhac), 57, cartoonist Georges Wolinski, 80, cartoonist 77

JOURNALISTS

Every year journalists, bloggers and people who wish to share the truth despite of adverse political or social situation, loose their health and lives, are forced to go into hiding or in the best case scenario – exhale. As freedom of speech is the most important value for them, very often they stand against ruling establishments no matter the costs. Passion for Freedom as every year recognises work and courage of these independent journalists. Sadly enough, some of these nominations are being granted posthumously.

MONA ELTAHAWY

Mona Eltahawy is a freelance Egyptian-American journalist and commentator based in New York City. She has written essays and op-eds for publications worldwide on Egypt and the Islamic world, including women’s issues and Muslim political and social affairs. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and The Miami Herald among others. On November 24, 2011, she was arrested in Cairo while covering renewed protests in Tahrir Square. Eltahawy speaks out on behalf of women’s rights in the Arab world, including attacking female genital mutilation. In a May 2012 article in Foreign Policy, she wrote, “Name me an Arab country, and I’ll recite a litany of abuses [of women] fuelled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend.” In a 2011 interview she described herself as “a secular, radical feminist Muslim”. Eltahawy’s first book “Headscarves and Hymens” was published in May 2015. The book is based on a controversial piece touching misogyny in Arab society which she wrote for Foreign Policy in 2012, entitled “Why Do They Hate Us”.

RAIF BADAWI

Raif Badawi is a Saudi Arabian writer and activist and the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals. Human Rights Watch stated that Badawi’s website had hosted material criticising “senior religious figures”. Badawi had also suggested that Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University had become “a den for terrorists.” He was arrested in 2012 on a charge of insulting Islam through electronic channels and brought to court on several charges including apostasy. He was convicted of several charges and sentenced to 1000 lashes and ten years in prison plus a fine in 2014. Following Badawi’s 2012 arrest, Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience, “detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression”. Badawi’s lawyer, Waleed Abulkhair, has been jailed after setting up Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi human rights organisation. According to Human Rights Watch in its review of Saudi Arabia’s membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council, “Over the last year Saudi authorities have harassed, investigated, prosecuted, and jailed prominent peaceful dissidents and human rights activists on vague charges based solely on their peaceful practice of basic rights, particularly the right to free expression …. Raif Badawi is just one of many.”

Egypt/USA

Saudi Arabia

MASOUMEH ALINEJAD-GHOMI

Masoumeh Alinejad-Ghomi is an Iranian journalist and writer well known for her criticism of Iranian authorities. She now lives in exile in the United Kingdom. In 2008 she wrote a highly controversial article in Etemad Melli daily, called ‘Song of the Dolphins’ where she compared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s behaviour to the behaviour of dolphin trainers. In 2014, Alinejad launched My Stealthy Freedom (also known as Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women), a Facebook page that invites Iranian women to post pictures of themselves without a hijab as women who appear in public without a hijab in Iran risk being arrested. In 2015, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy gave her its women’s rights award for “giving a voice to the voiceless and stirring the conscience of humanity to support the struggle of Iranian women for basic human rights, freedom and equality.” She has written a book in Persian “I am Free” which deals with women’s issues in Iran. It was published in Germany because of the banning by the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry in Iran.

WASHIQUR RAHMAN

On 30 March 2015, blogger Washiqur Rahman was killed in an attack in Dhaka. The police arrested two suspects near the scene and recovered meat cleavers from them. The suspects said they killed Rahman due to his anti-Islamic articles. The arrested killers informed the police that they are also members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team and killed the blogger after 15 days of training. Imran H Sarker, a leader in the 2013 Shahbag protests and the head of an activist blogger network, told reporters that Washiqur Rahman was not killed because of widespread exposure, but “He was targeted because open-minded and progressive bloggers are being targeted in general. They are killing those who are easy to access, when they get the opportunity… The main attempt is to create fear among bloggers.” The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a press release stating that Rahman’s death occurred in a climate of “official harassment of journalists in Bangladesh”.

Iran/UK

Bangladesh

JOURNALISTS

AVIJIT ROY

Bangladesh

Avijit Roy was a Bangladeshi American online activist, writer, blogger. He was the founder of the Bangladeshi Mukto-Mona (freethinkers) website, an Internet community for freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, atheists, and humanists of mainly Bengali and other South Asian descent, which was one of the nominees of The Bobs-Best of Online Activism award. Roy on the founding mission of Mukto-Mona: “Our aim is to build a society which will not be bound by the dictates of arbitrary authority, comfortable superstition, stifling tradition, or suffocating orthodoxy but would rather be based on reason, compassion, humanity, equality and science.” Roy was a prominent advocate of free expression in Bangladesh, coordinating international protests against government censorship and imprisonment of bloggers. He described his writing as “taboo” in Bangladesh and received death threats from fundamentalist bloggers for his political articles. He was hacked to death by unknown assailants in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 26 February 2015.

ZVI YEHEZKELI Israel Zvi is an Arab affairs correspondent and head of the Arab desk at Israeli News 10, the news division of Israel 10. Yehezkeli joined Israel’s Army Radio as the Gaza and West Bank reporter and occasionally contributed to the Israeli Channel 1’s “Yoman” with various reports. In 2002, he joined News 10 as the head of Desk for Arab Affairs. In 2010, he announced that President Mahmoud Abbas had a standing invitation to appear on Channel 10 to respond to allegations that several of his senior aides have embezzled international aid transferred to the Palestinian Authority. In 2012, Allah Islam, a documentary series Yehezkeli created with David Deri, debuted on Channel 10.

Freedom Hero 2015

FINN NØRGAARD

Danish Film Director (1959–2015) For many years he was a steadfast and treasured colleague for anyone, who had the pleasure of experiencing his astute and humorous outlook on life. He was a film producer, director and cameraman and worked on countless projects, both large and small, in addition to his own documentaries. He directed and produced documentaries for Danish television including in 2004 Boomerang-drengen (“Boomerang Boy”) about an Australian boy’s dreams to become a world boomerang champion and in 2008 “Le Le” about Vietnamese immigrants in Denmark. Finn defended everyone’s freedom and rights. His documentary programmes testify to his particularly great empathy for people faced with problems and challenges. Finn believed in the good in mankind, but also disassociated himself from callousness and violence. He was

both a thinker and a man of action and had a powerful sense of what was right and wrong. His last act was brave, but had fatal consequences. Finn Nørgaard was killed on 14 February 2015 by a 22-year-old Danish-born Muslim of Palestinian descent during a discussion meeting titled “Art, Blasphemy, and Freedom of Expression” organized by the Lars Vilks Committee and held at the Krudttønden culture center in Copenhagen. Finn attempted to prevent the 22-yearold man from continuing to shoot through the doors at a debate on the subject of freedom of expression. 28 shots were fired through the façade of Krudttønden, before Finn approached the terrorist, who then shot Finn. Finn died quickly, despite the ultimately vain attempts of private individuals and paramedics, who hurried to the scene, to save his life. 81

PASSION FOR FREEDOM FESTIVAL 2015

FREEDOM FILMS Every year PFF nominates the most influential and horizons opening freedom films. This year’s nominated films are thoughtfully chosen and represent stories from 24 countries world-wide. The spectrum of freedom is vast and shows the range of topics from censorship, blasphemy, dictatorship through girls and female situation in various countries, education, sexual harassment, to the most up-to-date events such as the rise of ISIS and assaults on freedom of expression generally, and freedom of speech particularly, in Western societies. That is why this year’s film selection panel could not avoid but highlight the events which took place in France and Denmark. By nominating Cartoonists – Footsoldiers of Democracy, PFF bows down to all cartoonists using the international language of image to provoke discussion and check the status of freedom. By acknowledging their vital and catharsis-bringing role in every healthy society, Passion for Freedom can’t help but agree with the theme statement of the document: “Cartoon is a visual metaphor; it is not just news, it is warning”. Passion for Freedom joins that warning and promises to remain a litmus paper of the condition of freedom in our western societies.

F I L M HIGHLIGHT “HE NAMED ME MALALA” DIR. DAVIS GUGGENHEIM (2015) ; FRANCE A look at the events leading up to the Talibans‘ attack on the young Pakistani school girl, Malala Yousafzai, for speaking out on girls’ education and the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations.

FILM NOMINEES BRINGING TIBET HOME DIR. TENZIN TSETAN CHOKLAY (2013); USA, SOUTH KOREA, INDIA, NEPAL

“PARVATI SAVES THE WORLD’ IN THREE ACTS DIR. RAM DEVINENI (2015); USA, INDIA

‘CARTOONISTS: FOOTSOLDIERS OF DEMOCRACY’ DIR. STEPHANIE VALLOATTO (2014); FRANCE

‘PLAYING WITH FIRE: WOMEN ACTORS OF AFGHANISTAN’ DIR. ANNETA PAPATHANASSIOU (2014); GREECE

‘DESERT DANCER’ DIR. RICHARD RAYMOND (2014), UK, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, ROMANIA, MOROCCO

‘STRONGER THAN ARMS’ DIR BABYLON’13 (2014) UKRAINE

‘FREEDOM FOR ASIA BIBI’ DIR. MACIEJ GRABYSA, MICHAL KROL (2015); POLAND, SPAIN

‘SHIELD AND SPEAR’ DIR. PETTER RINGBOM (2014); SOUTH AFRICA, USA

‘HIGH TECH LOW LIFE’ DIR. STEPHEN MAING (2012); CHINA, USA

YAZIDI WOMEN: SLAVES OF THE CALIPHATE DIR. NAMAK KHOSHNAW (2015); UK

‘I AM A GIRL’ DIR. REBECCA BARRY (2013); AUSTRALIA, USA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, CAMEROON, CAMBODIA, AFGHANISTAN

PASSION FOR FREEDOM FESTIVAL 2015

FREEDOM BOOKS “What is the difference between men and women? In Afghanistan, it’s freedom” Jenny Nordberg, investigative reporter In the Freedom Books Section, PFF recognises the work of courageous and inquisitive authors and journalists, who show the way the world order is established. By blatantly disagreeing with it and giving the examples of brave people (women especially), be it in Afghanistan, Russia, India or Turkey, the authors make a firm stance on freedom of expression and freedom to be a woman. Their characters by not knowing their rights, living in cultures where women are less worth than men or simply by speaking up, trying to find ways to survive (The Underground Girls of Kabul), challenge establishment (Words Will Break Cement), learn that rape is a crime which is not committed by them (Priya Shakti), or that their rights should be equal to that of men’s (Uprising).

THIS YEAR PFF RECOGNISED BOOKS 1. Uprising: A New Age Is Dawning for Every Mother’s Daughter, Sally Armstrong 2. Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot, Masha Gessen 3. The Underground Girls of Kabul: The Hidden Lives of Afghan Girls Disguised as Boys Jenny Nordberg 4. Priya’s Shakti Ram Devineni 5. They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide Ronald Grigor Suny 6. Islam and Free Speech Andrew C. McCarthy

We want to thank everyone Who has supported the project in the past Who is making it possible in the present Who will help us go further in the future

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.â&#x20AC;? Oscar Wilde

FRONT COVER: KATE PARKER “STRONG IS THE NEW PRETTY” BACK COVER: KATE PARKER