Refugee Festival Scotland 2019

Refugee Festival Scotland (RFS) is an annual Scotland-wide festival of over 100 arts, culture and community events. It is co-ordinated by Scottish Refugee Council and is now in its 19th year.

The festival, running from 20 June to 30 June 2019, celebrates the contribution people from refugee communities make to life in Scotland – the music and poetry, art, dance, food and drink, language and ideas that people bring with them when they settle in Scotland.

This year’s theme is MAKING ART, MAKING HOME and the festival showcases the work of a number of professional and emerging artists with refugee backgrounds.

RFS 2019 - Delegates Programme

Creative Scotland is delighted to work with Scottish Refugee Council, Counterpoint Arts and the Centre for Contemporary Arts to present a curated programme of events for local authority arts officers and regularly funded arts bodies between 24-27 June 2019 in Glasgow. The Delegates Programme offers you a unique opportunity to explore and experience key artistic highlights of the festival as well as take part in dedicated learning and development opportunities.

Manaf Halbouni – Artist's Talk

German-Syrian artist Manaf Halbouni’s sculpture Rubble Theatre is a highlight of Reugee Festival Scotland. It recreates a scene of destruction in Syria, featuring the rubble of a bombsite and an abandoned car.

Join us for a conversation with Manaf Halbouni led by Kate Gray, Director of Collective. (https://www.collective-edinburgh.art/)

Halbouni studied at art school in Syria and then moved to Germany a few years before the war. In 2017, far-right groups in Germany protested against his installation Monument, which erected three, upended buses at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, in homage to a barricade of buses that protected civilians from sniper fire in Aleppo. Vehicles (and most frequently cars) are a repeating theme in Halbouni’s work - whether as a means of escape or as a mobile home. ‘With the car, a symbol of mobility, I try to reach a place that I can call home to take root again,’ he says.

Rubble Theatre is commissioned by Counterpoint Arts and Scottish Refugee Council. Funded and supported by Creative Scotland & the British Council.

Access info: https://scottishyouththeatre.org/visiting-contact/accessibility23/

RFS2019 - Delegates Programme - Manaf Halbouni – Artist's Talk