The Hopen Turkey mission consists of an expedition to refugee camps in Turkey for the purpose of social integration and empowerment of refugee applicants through practices and use of artistic tools.
The Hopen Turkey mission was conceived in partnership with Social Effects, a portuguese organization that supports, develops and manages humanitarian projects. Together they assembled a team to develop an action plan on art, education and memory production. The mission consists of an expedition to refugee camps in Turkey for the purpose of social integration and empowerment of refugee applicants through practices and use of artistic tools. The team intends to strengthen the human dignity of people who find themselves in these conditions and offer resources so that they can express, document and give visibility to the difficulties faced in the daily life of the fields.
The invisibility of the reality lived by refugees inhibit effective changes in this humanitarian crisis. The little news that comes through the media tends to emphasize terror and war, causing fear and stigmatizing refugees, who are seeking peace and a safe place to live. The lack of information and access to these life histories is a barrier to generating empathy and social inclusion for millions of people fleeing the violence of decades of war.
Sensitized with this context, we ask ourselves: But what do the people who actually do part of these places for months or years have to say about their reality? And we seek through this question to create actions that mobilize affection and dissolve prejudices, so that we can take greater steps toward a more just and humane society.
Hopen Líbano
Objectives of the mission:
- Take photo workshops for refugees
- Work the photographic technique and the critical and cultural view of the place where they live and what is happening around them.
- Create a platform on the internet so that refugees can expose their eyes on their own history (alternative media)
- Collect refugee testimonials and messages
- Produce 360 content, presenting new perspectives on the reality of the fields
- Develop postcards with content produced in this experience, as a device that discusses borders.
- Produce a documentary with the active participation of refugees in the production of content, script, and directing the look.
- Edit book with the material produced, in which the refugees feel represented.
Hopen Líbano
About the author
The HOPEN project was born of the need of photographer Elisabete Maisão to reconcile photography, her profession, with humanitarian aid. After a year of volunteering and photographering in refugee camps in Europe, the Middle East and Brazil, Elisabete created HOPEN for the purpose of offering photography workshops in refugee camps. The project was implemented in Lebanon and Brazil and its methodology is intended to broaden the prospects for social development in the refugee camp, to give voice to the refugee applicant, and to encourage them through art to document their own stories and share them with the world.
Elisabete Maisão (Lisbon) photographer and activist. She has began his photography career in 2006, opening his own studio, Nouvelle Photo. In 2008 she moved to Amsterdam, where he worked at the "EYE - Film Institute of Nederlands", in 2011 launched the book of documentary photography, "Turning the wheels - Nepal", and at the end of 2012 joined the Magnum team, assisting the photographer David Alan Harvey in the project "Offside Brazil" during the 2014 World Cup. Between 2015 and 2016 she went to several refugee camps in Europe and the Middle East, working as photographer and volunteer. In Lebanon she led photography workshops for children. In 2017 she made an artistic residence at Casa Rio, which resulted in the exhibition "On the Refugee Route" and led her to develop the HOPEN project in Roraima with indigenous refugees from Venezuela. She was the guest artist of the 11th Mostra of Cinema and Human Rights, where she exhibited the result of this mission under the title "Places of Refuge" at MAM - Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. In 2018 she was a guest artist at the Encontros do Devir Festival, with the exhibitions "Refuge and Segregation" (Lagos and Faro) and "Paris Hoje" (Quarteira).
André Anastácio Plastic Artist and Researcher (PPGAV-EBA), develops his practice in the areas of hybrid technologies, circuit bending, sound art, sonification, interactive devices, and socio-political mediation. Collaborator of the NANO laboratory in hybrid sound plastic, he joined the collective Uoco (Sound Art), Bionics (digital experimentation), Zebra (Urban Art). He exhibited works in several spaces such as: Casa Rio, Casa Comum, CMAHO, Festival of Digital Culture, Casa Franca Brasil, Museum of Tomorrow, among others. Its process of creation usually makes use of the technology applied to certain contexts, to provoke reflections of the "imbricar of the dynamics and social relations" with the inhabited environment.
Hopen Líbano
Budget and due dates
The amount collected will be destined to expenses with tickets, food and lodging of the four members of the mission.
Delight, stay and food (4 people): 2,050 €
Rewards: € 1,990
PPL Commission: € 410
All content produced and work done will be done without remuneration for the team.
Hopen Líbano
Hopen Lebanon * The mission will take place from July 19 to July 29. During the 10 days we will perform: 3 photo workshops with children living in the refugee camp; Production of audio-visual content with a script built in partnership with refugees; Production of 360 camera content from the everyday of the fields to the web platform; Collect testimonies about the reality lived in the fields.
Editing and publication of the content will be held in the period from August 5 to October 5 After the incursion in the fields we will edit the material and deliver within 60 days the following contents: Book with photographs taken by the refugees during the workshop, Photographs of Elisabete Maisão, besides texts, maps and other contents produced throughout the mission; Web platform for documentation of extra material produced during the mission (360 photos, manuscripts, audios); Documentary produced in partnership with the refugees during the days of living in the countryside; Postcards produced with photographs taken during the workshop, and handwritten messages written by the refugees telling a little of their reality.
Images
Documents