Closed Arms / Zárt Karokkal

AlmaOnDobbin initiated this program of films and discussion to be held in our sister gallery 2B Gallery, Budapest presenting three short films on the current problem of refugees in Hungary.

Traffickers (4’) Dávid Gutema, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Intermedia Department and vs.hu.

Stories (5’40). Open Doors. Created within the framework of Open Doors Youth media workshop, this piece is a collaboration between refugee youth, Hungarian secondary school children, and art students. https://www.facebook.com/OpenDoorsHungary/ or http://utilapu.hu/munkacsoportjaink/open-doors/

Welcome Migrants! (7’) Menedék – Hungarian Association for Migrants http://menedek.hu/en ).

The screenings are followed by a roundtable discussion on the present situation of refugees and migrancy in Hungary, including the artists or filmmakers and volunteers working with migrants and refugees, who share their experiences and suggests ways to aid them.T. J. Demos, in his book The Migrant Image (2013), calls today’s global inequality produced by neoliberal policies “crisis globalisation”. For Demos, the term points to the fact that the world is not a smooth space of the free movement of people; on the contrary, the status of many people around the globe is restricted to what Georgo Agamben calls “bare life.” The short films presented at 2B Gallery reveal elements of the specifically Hungarian context of refugees and migration. Dávid Gutema’s film shows how refugees are taken advantage of, because they have no legal or political protection. Stories focuses on migrant and refugee children and youths, relating their personal stories of leaving their home country and all the hardships of being on the road as a migrant. Welcome Migrants!, is one episode of a broader campaign that underscores refugees’ and migrants’ difficulties in finding accommodation, which is the cornerstone of obtaining legal residence within a country, particularly facing prejudices that have been exacerbated by the recent wave of refugees in Europe.

Roundtable participants:

Dávid Gutema (Hungarian University of Fine Arts) Gizella Anna (Hungarian University of Fine Arts ) Diána Berecz  (cultural antropologist). Menedék – Hungarian Association for Migrants) Szabó Ádám (lawyer), Menedék – Hungarian Association for Migrants) András Spányik  (doctor, volunteer, president of the Medicine on the spot) Rezai Mohammad Amin (mentor Open Doors Hungary) Hosszu Bözse (mentor Open Doors Hungary).

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