What Becomes… is a new exhibition with artist Xavier de Sousa exploring the processes of adaptation that migrants go through when moving to a new place and to a new community. It continues the collaboration with the communities of migrants and asylum seekers based in Peterborough and Leeds started during the project REGNANT in 2019. REGNANT was born out of a Research & Development Residency with Metal Peterborough in 2019.
REGNANT, was a durational play that took the form of a dinner party with the guests diving into how we interact with each other within the context of migration and belonging, was developed between 2019 and 2021. In REGNANT, guests were invited to join a dinner table, get merry, make friends and explore structures of power within local communities and how they influence how we shape our collective future. The performance ended up weaving in, through a series of workshops, conversations, rehearsals and events, both the creation of pottery materials to be present in the show, as well as the narratives of the participants in each location.
What Becomes… builds on REGNANT’s legacy, reconnecting with the communities that were involved in the conversations, and resulting in a multidisciplinary exhibition that blends pottery, performance and text.
“When you move somewhere, is the onus on you to adapt or others? And what becomes of us, over time, over all these changing landscapes?”
Xavier explains that the project “looks into how we change (in our souls, in our behaviour, in our language, in our bodies) as a result of co-existing in a new place, in a new culture”. Blending pottery work, performance, writing and sound art, What Becomes… invites the audience to immerse themselves, experience and also contribute their stories of adaptation.
Xavier creates participatory performances that invite audience members to experience, touch, taste and/or smell all the elements in the performance space. As a performance-host, he builds elements of the set by hand and invites you in real time to experience them and collaborate in the development of the piece, live in the moment.
What Becomes… is Xavier de Sousa’s first exhibition. This new artwork advances the collective-narrative approaches of REGNANT and re-purposes the clay work created for it, giving them new lives, in new contexts.
The exhibition will be hosted at unit 26 in Westgate Arcade, running from 6 June until 29 June, and is viewable during the following times:
- Thursday: 3pm – 8pm
- Friday: 2:30pm – 5:30pm
- Saturday: 2:30pm – 5:30pm
Credits
- Created by Xavier de Sousa
- Sound work by Nicol Parkinson
- With participation by Judita Gru, Madhu Manipatruni, Roshannak and Siamak Rezaei, and other members of the local migrant communities and people seeking asylum of Leeds and Peterborough
- Produced by Lee Smith with support from The Uncultured
- Commissioned and hosted by METAL Peterborough, with support from East Street Arts
- Supported by Necessity Fund and using public funding by Arts Council England
- Exhibition hosts: Fiona Cifaldi, Jasmine Kelly-Gobuiwang, Sean Dendere
Access
- Westgate Arcade has step free access and is all on one level. The Arcade is accessible from both Queensgate Shopping Centre and Westgate. what3words location: gears.gold.tend
- The nearest car parks are the Red, Blue or Green car parks in Queensgate which are all pay as you leave car parks. There is lift access to these car parks in Queensgate Shopping Centre. The closest level access car park is the NCP at 24a Lincoln Road, Peterborough PE1 2RL – what3words location: models.blur.costs
- The nearest accessible toilet is in the Queensgate Car Parks.
- Unit 26 has step free access and is all one on level. The door is wide enough for a manual wheelchair.
- There is no hearing loop available at this event.
- Audio description will be available via mp3 players from 20 June onwards in the space and invigilators will also be able to provide touch guides.
- The exhibition contains a soundscape and is lit.
Please see the easy read and visual guide with information and pictures about what you can expect here.
If you have any further questions about access, please email jack@metalculture.com or call us on 01733 893077
Find out more at https://bit.ly/4aq2K0Q
