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Active Witnesses, 2022

February-March 2022

Curated by Raphael Vella

Active Witnesses: The voices and faces of participants in socially engaged arts projects a Gallery Valo (Arktikum Museum) in Rovaniemi, Finland foregrounds the participants in many creative, socially engaged projects forming part of the H2020 project AMASS.  In the exhibition, the large AMASS Wall captures experiences and realities in a variety of cultural contexts. These faces and voices of participants are direct witnesses of realities that impact their lives, but the participants also actively intervene in these realities through artistic action. Socially engaged art is therefore a means of responding to issues like cultural exclusion and discrimination by feeling, voicing and doing. Apart from the portrait photographs and testimonials on the AMASS Wall, the exhibition is also presenting videos and projections that document many projects that form part of this research. Finally, a handful of objects produced in a few projects are also included, introducing a tactile element that bears witness to the material beauty of some of AMASS’s outputs.

Photos and poster design: Amna Qureshi