Repair and Renewal: Arts and Activism in an Era of Crisis and Change

The event features three short documentaries produced through Art Rights Truth, a research project based at the Centre for Applied Human Rights and the Department of History of Art at the University of York. The project explores how collaborations between artists and activists can generate new languages and approaches to human rights in an era of multiple crises.

The films highlight acts of repair of land, memory, and community. The first film, Gente del Eco: Emparentamiento con la Tierra, follows the return of a pre-Columbian artefact to the Misak people in Wampia, Cauca, Colombia. Through weaving, ritual, and dialogue, the film explores repair across generations, landscapes and communities.

Future Collaboration documents the efforts of Bangladeshi artists to revive cultural practices, such as games, weaving, or printing, that were lost due to displacement in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. They propose new models for cultivation and remembrance.

The evening concludes with the premiere of Don't Worry, We Have Nothing to Say, reflecting on the Shaheen Bagh protests in India against exclusionary citizenship laws. Artists from India, Brazil, and the UK collaborate with Rafooghar, a women’s collective born from the demonstrations, to explore the power of translational and feminist artistic collaboration.

The screening will feature introductions from participating artists and a panel discussion led by researchers from the Art Rights Truth project.