Installation

& Diaspora Talks (scroll down for more info)

How do I spend my time and where can I go? How do I get in contact with Swiss people? How can I not be too much? How can cooperation between refugees and minority people become a serious question? These and more questions are asked in the exhibition by Club La Fafa.

Club La Fafa (French for family) brings together cultural workers and people from different professions, with and without refugee and migrant backgrounds and with diverse everyday knowledge. Club La Fafa is a social “space” in which knowledge can be exchanged, relationships forged, and personal closeness and sympathy created. Based on this, Club La Fafa sets a sign against the adversities of current migration policies and searches for possible forms of community. During two years, the members of the club have come into an exchange with new arrivals in Switzerland in transit centers and in many personal conversations. In these exchanges, they have explored the personal structural challenges these people face. The participants of Club La Fafa then compiled these realities in the form of questions. Club La Fafa is now showing a selection of these questions in the exhibition and invites all interested parties to enter into an exchange together.

These questions are printed on textile material and hung on the metallic structures of the former silk factory. Most of these questions depend on an ever-changing migration policy and will probably never find a definitive answer. For the ability to project oneself into a future is always dependent on a social, as well as symbolic, recognition. These questions will basically shape the biographies of those affected for a lifetime.

The questions in “Where to belong” serve as an invitation to four Diaspora Talks, which will take place on four Sundays in the Shedhalle. In the context of Open Futures, Club La Fafa invites you on Saturday, November 20th at the “Salon Fütür” in the Gessnerallee to eat together and talk about our ideas of the future.

Club La Fafa invites you: Diaspora Talks for all

The Diaspora Talks combine the personal experiences of refugees, migrants and immigrants with overarching questions about community and society. Together with invited guests, we seek a dialogue in the “Diaspora Talks” that challenge the change of one’s own perspective and open up new perspectives on the topics and fields of action of migration and flight.

14.11. 17:30 Diaspora Talk #1 hosted by Yaqoob Attal

Yaqoob Attal studied political science and economics in Pakistan and has been living in Switzerland for two years. In Afganistan, he worked for almost five years as a translator for USAID, the US State Department, the US Army and the International Rescue Committee, as well as for several other local NGOs. In the Diaspora Talk he will talk about life in Afganistan and his situation in Switzerland.

21.11.21, 14:00 Diaspora Talk #2 hosted by Füsun Ipek

Performer, artist, designer and actvist Füsun Ipek knits while talking about her own migrant entanglements, she tells stories in which she interweaves the personal with the social and continues to spin the threads together with the audience. The talk will be in German.

28.11.21, 14:00 Diaspora Talk #3 hosted by Rada Leu & Jana Vanecek

The socio-economic and political characteristics of the former “Eastern Bloc” don’t really fit into the binary concept of Global North and Global South. Too rich to be part of the global South and at the same time too poor to be considered part of the global North. Too powerful to be called the periphery, but also too weak to represent the center. Using short text excerpts and visuals, we will attempt to explore the “Global East” together. There will be tea, homemade slivovice and a delicious buffet. The talk will take place in English, French, German, Czech, Russian and Bulgarian.

5.12.21, 14:00 Diaspora Talk #4 hosted by Alicia Velazquez

Exploring the theme of togetherness through intimate, performative encounters with Spanish migrant women. Artist Alicia Velazquez’s event will express and interpret personal narratives during and after the making of ceramic objects. The goal is to connect through different levels of ritual, from private to public, with the inner stories that express our common human foundations beyond culture, gender, race, profession or social status. The talk will take place in Spanish, English and German.

Club La Fafa

Founded on the occasion of the “Refaire Le Monde” (2018) exhibition at Helmhaus Zurich, Club La Fafa (French for family) brings together people with and without migration and/or refugee experience and diverse everyday knowledge. Along the line of friendship, love, care and empathy, they are looking for common interests and activity opportunities that can enable us to think and become sensitive to each other in a (post)migrant society.

Club La Fafa: Raphael Perret, media artist, long-term research project on informal e-waste recycling in India; Nadja Baldini, curator and art mediator, collaboration with vocational schools and art institutions, with a lot of experience in creating inclusive processes; Jana Vanecek, artist cultural scientist, transdisciplinarity, great methodological knowledge when it comes to participatory projects; Jawed Stanikzai, in Switzerland for 5 years, background and work in retail, advising Afghan community in Zurich; Rahimullah Mohammadi, came to Switzerland as a minor, meanwhile an apprenticeship as a network electrician and a great knowledge in youth issues; Hicham El Khemisi, all-rounder, with great everyday knowledge and experience and Ali Omar, in Switzerland for 6 years, working in care, advocates for equality and rights of POC.

For each project, Club La Fafa collaborates with other associates. In the framework of Open Future these are: Yaqoob Attal, Füsun Ipek, Rada Leu and Alicia Velasquez.