Research, Art Intervention, Design
I Stood Up to VIolence: Making it Public is an AHRC (Arts and Humanites Research Council, UK) funded, India-UK arts nand design project exploring issues around gender based violence and environmental justice. The project was developed by a team of creative professionals and researchers from India and UK during the Unbox Labs Fellowship in February 2014.
The team consists of Virkein Dhar (New Delhi), Vivek Sheth (Ahmedabad), Dr.Tom Corby (London) and Dilys Williams (London).
For more info, visit www.istoodup.org
Taking I Stood Up to the fourth edition of the Unbox Festival in December 2014, brought forth a deeper understanding of the way forward with multiple first-hand responses from participants and audiences.
The project ‘I Stood Up to Violence: Making it Public’ at Unbox imagined itself as a space that encouraged people to share, reflect and find action points against issues of gendered violence through shared narration of experiences. The arrangement of space brought together personal stories, information and image from the reality that exists in India. The project presented itself through two closely linked channels, one that of an interactive exhibition and the other through a discussion- based workshop.
Re-imagining roots of gender based violence
While the exhibition instigated questions about the consequences of gender-based violence on multiple scales and the role of design in being part of this large network of communities, the workshop linked itself as a space that closely engaged a limited number of participants through a journey of introspection. It invited participants to go through an experience that is triggered by memory and connected through reflection.
The workshop was designed to become a part of the project’s process to identify the points of rupture that may have found its roots to gender based violence. It intended to create a space for participants to share their personal stories, from multiple social and cultural scenarios at different stages of their life. In addition, participants were encouraged to retrospectively make connections if any, between learnings or dogmas embedded in each individual’s upbringing to gender-based violence.
