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Artivism: it’s anti-war art week in Brighton

Artivism collective | 19.02.2009 15:05 | Smash EDO | Anti-militarism | Culture

“We will oppose the art of war with the art of peace”

Brighton is hosting the first ever ‘Artivism’ event: a week of anti-war creativity including art exhibitions, music, poetry and workshops. Between 24th Feb- 1st March artists, activists and performers will come together at various Brighton locations to take a stand for peace.

Listings- Please also see details of artists/performers below

Tuesday 24th February: Friends Meeting House, Ship Street
6pm Art exhibition and fabulous cake. Exhibits range from Guy Smallman’s harrowing photographs of the Israeli-Lebanon conflict in 2006 to John Catt’s entertaining line-drawings of local peace protests.
7pm Peace Cabaret, including the amazing sounds of ’Just sing’ political peace choir, Josh Jones’ Online maps, slam poet ’Spliff Richard and a surprise walk-about act!

Wednesday 25th– Friday 28th February Cowley Club, 12 London Road
12–4pm Art exhibition as above. Plus- make your own badge, and chat over a cup of tea, and fabulous cake.

Saturday 28th February: 1pm Film showing at the Cowley Club: ‘On the Verge.’ This feature length film tells the story of ‘Smash EDO’ a local campaign group that opposes the bomb factory EDO/MBM. The film survived a heavy-handed attempt at police censorship see  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/27/ethicalliving.activists

Also on Saturday: Workshops in Westhill Community centre, Compton Avenue near Seven Dials.
1pm– 2.30pm Clandestine Rebel Clown Army Training
3pm-4.30pm Radical Cheerleading: make pom-poms, write cheers and practice your moves
5pm-7.30pm Carnival creations and mask making

Sunday 1st March: 8pm till late Benefit finale in the Albert Pub, Trafalgar Street
Headlining: Tragic Roundabout. Also: The Lovely Brothers, Chicken Shed Zepplin and slam poet Angry Sam

Artists and performers

John Catt has always divided his spare time between the expression of art and the quest for social justice and the rights of humanity. He is well-known locally both as a protester on the streets of Brighton and for doing rapid drawings as the scene unfolds, most of which he gives freely away to like-minded protesters.

Guy Smallman is an international photojournalist who was on the ground during Israel’s aerial assault on Lebanon 2006. His photography captures the beauty of the adrenaline-fuelled situations he has found himself in. See his work at www.guysmallman.com

Medyan Dairieh is a Palestinian Al-Jazeera journalist who has worked extensively on the British reaction to the bombing of Gaza in January 2009. See his work at: www.imageslive.net

Spliff Richard has been described as ‘a dude putting his opinions into rhymes, and then saying them quite fast, usually on his tod, but sometimes with some funky licks.’ Check out his my space:  http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=416300880

Just Sing have been singing together for a year. They originally sang alternative Christmas carols with a pro-Palestinian flavour, and decided they were so good they should expand and tackle other issues. They meet at Brighton Peace and Environment Centre.

Josh Jones is a photographer and writer based in the UK. His work has been published at palestine monitor, and he writes a blog entitled ‘photography without borders’. To contact him, email  joshua.c.j@gmail.com

The Clandestine Rebel Clown army Roll up, roll up - ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and foes - welcome to the unparalleled, the unexpected, the perfectly paradoxical, the grotesquely beautiful, and the new-fangled world of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA). For more info on the group’s antics see: http://www.clownarmy.org/about/about.html

Tragic Roundabout have been on the home spun festival circuit for many years, inspiring full on dance frivolity at the more acoustically minded events such as the Big Green Gathering, Shambala, Small World, Strawberry Fair etc."
 http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=48481702

The Lovely Brothers were described in the Brighton Festival Fringe as ‘post-ironic neo-cabaret satire pop - performed by a dysfunctional family of badly-dressed surrealist politicos. Part punk, part music-hall, part annoying kid’s TV theme tune.’
 http://www.thelovelybrothers.co.uk/

Artivism collective
- e-mail: smashedo@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://www.smashedo.org.uk