Unheard Voices

I met with Skinder Hundal, Director of New Art Exchange, in the NAE cafe on a brilliantly sunny Spring morning (26 March), surrounded by the extraordinary soundscape emanating from the current exhibition.  This is the most important new commission so far undertaken by the Gallery since it opened last autumn:  Floating Coffins, a 14-screen film installation by Zineb Sedira, an Parisian-born artist of Algerian  desent who has lived in London for 20 years. The screens portray a restless, beautiful, dangerous, constantly changing vision of ships rotting off the coast of Mauretania in north west Africa, in what is the world’s largest marine graveyard.

I began by asking him about the origins of this stunning work.   It was commissioned by NAE and curated by David Thomas, in response to an approach from ArtsAdmin, a London-based film production company.

“We looked at the proposal, broadly understood the concepts behind it, and were excited by the fact that Zineb Sedira herself is a very interesting artist and has a lot to offer. Her earlier film work, Saphir and Middle Sea [also on show at NAE alongside Floating Coffins] and her reputation in the visual arts scene are very strong.  The combination of those elements and the fact that the work itself is so interesting – about this great graveyard of ships and about migration – make it very current and relevant to many of the communities here in Britain today, people migrating here, and of course to this immediate area, NG7, Hyson Green, Nottingham.

Zineb Sedera. Floating Coffins, 2009. 14 screen video installation

“These factors really intrigued us and the location off Mauretania was very exciting: highlighting issues around the environment, the ‘romanticism’ of the sea and issues around employment – or lack of it – in those countries where the ‘hope’ and ‘salvation’ of the west has been a vision for people to transport themselves away on ships. The same ships, coming back and being left to rot and decay, create an interesting metaphor about migration not going well, and the fact that people who emigrate [from countries in Africa] for a better life sometimes end up going back.

“There are some very interesting stories there, and it all relates to the broader context of Britain, not only in terms of subject matter and issues, but also in terms of art.”

It is indeed an astonishingly ambitious piece of work in artistic terms.  I asked how it was created.

“The way we commissioned it was to allow for the ambition to grow, but to contain that ambition within its sources.  The commission offered Zineb an opportunity to step up in terms of the scale of her work, and she rose to the challenge with an amazing visual and sound statement (which you can probably hear in the background!). She put a great team together to film some very intricate moments, high definition.”

Has it been a success with audiences?

“The way we presented it here has been phenomenal, and the response from audiences has been brilliant. We have had a lot of people coming in and most of them (well over 90%) have left very very positive comments.  The films have been received well by local schools ... children are really intrigued by the whole story of migration.”

I wondered if Zineb Sedira was aware that she was creating the work for this venue, specifically.  Did she work closely with NAE in delivering the commission?  She indeed came to see the space several times and was conscious of where and how she wanted the screens and the delivery of the sound-scape to be located. “She was instrumental in all of that and we were guided by her expertise, in how she wanted to tell the story in this ‘artistic documentary’.”

I wondered if she found creating it for NAE a particular challenge, compared with creating work for any other gallery – bearing in mind the cultural contexts both of the work and of the gallery?  Hundal is clear that for Sedira, “the challenge of creating this work for a new gallery was important.  We’re new, the work is new, she was stepping up and rising to the challenge of a new organisation trying to make its mark on the national circuit for visual arts ... she was very conscious of that and pulled out the stops in terms of her creative juices!  She drove her team to create something very exciting.”

Zineb Sedera. Middle Sea, 2008. Single screen video projection, originally from 16mm format. 16 minutes

I agree that this creative energy comes across very strongly in Floating Coffins and the other two films – existing pieces of work - are very strong also.  He explains, “Floating Coffins alone is brilliant, but the story it tells is fuller when it compares with the other two shows, Middle Sea and Saphir, which are also about travel and migration.”

Saphir is a beautiful film, which - while it is about travel - is also about not travelling.  There is a strong sense of longing in the two featured individuals, looking out to sea, you are not sure if they are going to get away, or if they want to.  Is this what the work is about?  Skinder Hundal: “Definitely.  There’s a quote we used in the new exhibition brochure, ‘You can’t cross the sea by standing and staring at the water’, it’s a Tagore quote and when I read it I smiled, because the work represented here is looking at those kinds of issues.  You can see the boats, you want to leave, but you can’t travel ... one member of your family has gone away, on your behalf in a way... These are stories that transcend many communities who end up in Britain.”

As Skinder points out, in Saphir, Zineb Sedira looks at the situation from both male and female perspectives: one character (the woman) waits and ponders – possibly for her husband’s return - while the other (the man) is contemplating going away.  Their stories overlap and intersect, and yet they don’t – there is no conscious link between the two characters, but their stories represent those of their whole community.

We moved on to wider areas.  I asked him if he felt NAE consciously has to strike a balance between sources of work, between work originating from or referencing, say, Africa, India, the Caribbean and so on.

His answer was illuminating about NAE’s aspirations and agenda:  “We’re conscious that we want to represent unheard voices, culturally diverse expression, and we’re also conscious that – being based in this location – we reflect as best we can the cultural diversity of the location.  We’re aiming to ensure that our programme offers, firstly a quality experience of culturally diverse work – that’s critical, because it’s really about raising the ambition of the community, of artists, of audiences. Secondly, we’re seeking to show that there is another world out there, in the artistic and cultural expression of the stories and issues that go behind and beyond them.  Although we’re showing next an Indian folk and tribal art show, and we’re currently exhibiting a north western African story, we’re very conscious that those stories relate to all communities – whether it’s about migration, or whether it’s about artists who’ve never had the profile that their contemporary counterparts have had.  We’re really concerned with the issues that face humanity and we’re trying to represent those voices that may not usually be heard in the mainstream gallery circuit.” He added quickly, “That is not to say we are not mainstream, we are distinct but we are also part of the mainstream network, and we see that fact as being very important. We don’t see ourselves as a separate entity from the rest of the art world.”

This touched on a question I had been intending to ask: NAE is very much part of the wider Nottingham arts scene, but Skinder talks a lot about the local community in Hyson Green.  I wondered if NAE sees itself as having a primary “responsibility” to the local community, or equally to the wider community in Nottingham and beyond?  “Certainly, yes, all those things”.  He expanded, “It is hard to say ‘who do you prioritise?’ The priority is people.  It is important that local people engage with us as a venue: the venue undoubtedly needs that local engagement in and with local communities.  But the wider Nottingham community is absolutely important as well.  Essentially we are looking to connect greater Nottingham with the inner city, and beyond that we want to look at the huge issues facing the world community: so it is about connecting our local with the international and vice versa, and also the regional with the local , looking at international concepts around culturally diverse expression and experiences of people.  It is important that greater Nottingham engages on a real level, to connect the mono-cultural with the diverse-cultural, so that there is a shared value base between young people, old people, families and different communities.  For us, the wider connections are really important.  And of course NAE is providing wider Nottingham with a culturally diverse, distinct experience of visual art – and, don’t forget, performing arts as well.”

I asked if he felt that, by locating NAE in Hyson Green, it could be seen as a “statement”, i.e. that the venue is meant to be for certain communities and not for the wider community?  “That danger can only be dispelled by the way you work, how you connect and how you engage.  And the story you tell, as well, and how you tell it.  For us, we’re conscious that basing NAE in Hyson Green is a statement, but it’s a statement that demonstrates the success of the community: this organisation was born from the history of two others, EMACA and APNA Arts - both very rootsy organisations - and it was their legacy that created the opportunity to take forward the ambitions of the local community.  We mustn’t ever lose touch with their history, the challenges they faced and the battles they fought – and won – to bring NAE into existence today. Having a gallery like this in a location like this has a very special purpose, to bring about a cultural revolution by bringing local people into connection with visual arts, and in turn by making the visual artists coming to work in the gallery conscious of the issues affecting the area.

The New Art Exchange on Gregory Boulevard in Nottingham.

“There is always a danger of being labelled; instead, what we want to be known for is offering a quality cultural hub that a broad range of communities connect with.  Our current post-code analysis shows interesting results: 60+% of users who come through the door are from NG7 but the remaining 40% come from lots of other locations, some from as far afield as America and Australia.”

I said that I thought the tram really seems to have opened the area up, it feels like a place that is easy to access from all over the city.  “Yes.  Six months in, we still have lots of challenges, to engage with the tram, tourism and access.  But the Gallery stands on a very prominent site, close to The Forest [where a circus was going on as we spoke] and lots of activity.  It’s really about us being part of that activity.”

Because of Goose Fair and all the other things that happen on The Forest, Hyson Green and Forest Fields have always been areas where people have come in from the rest of the city, and Hyson Green remains a very vibrant area in its own right.  So there shouldn’t be a problem about getting people to come to the Gallery, the question is whether they are and in what numbers.  It sounds as if they are.  “Yes they definitely are.  We still need to get more regular community usage – people are beginning to hire the spaces, people are sussing it out as a new venue, but we’ve got work to do in establishing stronger relationships.  But visitor numbers are well up to targets, and the kinds of activities now going on in the building are extremely diverse – we’re regularly hosting comedy nights, global music weekends, touring theatre, a youth arts programme (YARD) which takes place two or three times a week and is going really well, fitness classes, Brazilian dance, digital photography and ESOL classes.  Some of it is programmed by us, a lot of it is outside organisations choosing to hire our spaces. We’ve got Rupak Kulkarni, a top Indian flautist, playing here on 1st April as part of the national Darbar Festival – the kind of exciting event that’s never happened before in this location.

“Lots of people choose to live in the area because of its vibrancy – loads of students live around the gallery and artists, lecturers and others.  What I want to do is to reflect the roots-based origins of NAE and the organisations that created it, while also bringing to our widest audience a programme of stunning visual and performing arts, which could never before have been presented here in the way we can present it today.”

There is no doubt that NAE hit the ground running with its first show last autumn, and under Skinder Hundal it continues to run in a highly ambitious direction.  He is happy about the upcoming arrival of Nottingham Contemporary in the city, which he sees as a sister organisation, not a rival.  They already work closely together in a variety of ways.  “We are clear that we do offer two distinctly different things, but we collaborate and co-operate, and we are determined to continue to work closely with them in the future.  The tram-line is a lovely, unifying ‘S bend’, joining Nottingham Contemporary, Broadway, Bonington (with The Castle not too far away) and NAE.”

NAE’s next exhibition is Another Story – an Indian folk and tribal art exhibition with work commissioned by New Art Exchange and drawn from existing private collections.  It will be one of the most significant folk and tribal art exhibitions ever staged in the UK both in terms of scale and content.  Another Story launches on Friday 1st May and NVA will publish a fuller preview closer to the launch.

Floating Coffins continues until 19 April.

For more information about the venue, NVA recommends you visit www.thenewartexchange.org.uk

To find out more about the artist visit www.zinebsedira.com