Migrate Journey- opening event

26 Apr 2024 5.30-8pm

Overview

Continues Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 April: 12pm - 6pm.

This spring, Chisenhale Gallery will host the launch of Migrate Journey, a new artwork and programme of events celebrating untold histories of migration to Tower Hamlets. The project is a collaboration between architect Shahed Saleem, photographer Rehan Jamil and Mile End Community Project.

Since 2019, the creative team has attempted to capture the manifold and complex migration stories of first—and second-generation immigrants from across Tower Hamlets through one-on-one interviews and a series of workshops in the community.

This growing and original archive of oral histories provides a unique insight into the profound difficulties of the journeys of interviewees, the resilience of the communities that embarked on them, and the triumphs and challenges of assimilation.

Drawing from this extensive research, Migrate Journey gives physical form to the captivating stories of migration the artists have collected, existing as a steelwork structure displaying portraits of participants and extracts of their testimony. Resting on reclaimed railway carriage wheels, the scaffold-like installation evokes movement, labour and the making of new worlds.

Developed over two years with support from the Mayor of London, this new mobile installation will be unveiled at Chisenhale Gallery before touring public spaces across Tower Hamlets and beyond later this Spring and Summer, inviting reflection and discussion around the fundamental contribution of immigration to civic life and the social fabric of the capital.

Join us for the launch of the project and a series of free events, workshops, film screenings and talks across the weekend with key speakers and poets about the wider project and history of migration in Tower Hamlets, including Dr Georgie Wemyss, David Rosenberg, Kinsi Abdulleh, Samira El Bahja, Munira Pilgrim, Jamal Mahmood & Hassan Mahamdallie.
This project is funded by Untold Stories, part of the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, and supported by Chisenhale Gallery and the University of Westminster.

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