Invitation

Dear Neil

The Peoples’ Bureau (PB) has been ‘in residency’ at Park Royal since May 2018, commissioned by Create London with support of Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), with the aim to 'engage with the community around issues related to urban change.'

Following a period of meetings, walks and discussions with locals we have decided to focus on the question of 'the role of participatory art practice as a space for agonism, mediation and collaboration.'

These are three particular questions that we would like to discuss:

1. How to communicate/represent this way of working through image/visual as an artist/designer?

2. Unpicking graphic/visual communication and Socially Engaged Practice.

3. How this work is best communicated/represented democratically - by the collaborating community?

'Really what should happen is that people should be able to control the means of communication themselves...community controlled communications networks, that's the long-term objective'. (Kelly, O, 1984)

We will explore this together with the locals and invited guests during a week-long residency in a studio flat at the Collective. The daily encounters (17 – 19 September 2018) will start with a lunch in the flat and follow up in one of the spaces of the Collective: the library, secret garden, the spa and the roof terrace.

The conversations will be recorded, broadcast, the resulting materials represented as part of an installation at the Collective during the Open House Weekend, 21 and 22 September 2018.

A publication will follow and hopefully inform the future programme of artistic commissions in the area.

We would like to invite you to join us as one of the guest speakers and co-deliver a session together with us around the second question (above) on the Tuesday 18 September.

Please let us know if you might be interested and if yes we will discuss further in detail. Thank you.

Warm wishes,

Eva and Rebecca

Enjoyable discussion with @rebeccadavies, @eva_sajovic the People's Bureau, and Theresa on community, participation and art. Hosted at the extraordinary @TCOldOak @Create_London pic.twitter.com/FGCghfg87O

— Neil Cummings (@neilarise) September 18, 2018

I accepted the invitation, and participated in a fascinating and wide ranging discussion on the Future of Living, constituting community, matters of concern, controversy, art, local public provision and infrastructure.

You can listen to it on Soundcloud

The People's Bureau is a programme of artistic actions that enable community representation delivered by artists Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies. It was set up in 2014 and based at the Elephant and Castle shopping centre - one of the most contested sites in the capital, currently undergoing a vast development that has been and will continue to permanently displace thousands of people who live and work here.

Rebecca and Eva, with writer Sarah Butler recently completed Unearthing Elephant, which was awarded Research in Film Award from the AHRC.

Related projects include Open Cinema: Home, making stools and transacting.