ps/o7publiccitizen
surveyingthefuture
networking migrant struggles
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Cropped photo of Anwar Ditta Defence campaign rally in Blackpool, 1980. Used with kind permission from Tandana [AD 30] www.tandana.org |
Public Space Occupation Seven came about following the conclusion of two earlier projects: Value System and Social Factory. Both of these projects concluded with extensive reflections on the struggle of migrants in the context of, respectively, global capital and labor. In December of 2001, Ultra-red's "Trabajo y Días" Tour brought the group in contact with the German anti-racist network, Kanak Attak. Following that initial encounter, the two organizations embarked on an extended conversation (2001-2005) about migrant struggles and cultural action. Those conversations built the groundwork for the eventual launching of a European-based Ultra-red team made up of members of Kanak Attak and artists/organizers.
A turning point in those early performances where Ultra-red and Kanak Attak publicly debated tactics came when the Los Angeles sound artists announced, "We come from your future." The statement was meant to provoke the image of an autonomous movement of migrants where the very concepts of borders, democracy, and citizenship become transformed in the daily practices of migrants across Europe.
In the past, Ultra-red advocated sound as a practice of social space. Today, time becomes the active agent of our acoustic inquiries, with microphone poised to survey the future.
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