Breathe: artmaking and peacebuilding

Overview

The project is described as an aesthetic response to words penned by Professor John Paul Lederach:

Carol Kane

Breathe was the keynote presentation at the 4 Corners Festival 2020 during lockdown, when our breath seemed more constricted and a much less shared experience. John Paul allowed his words to be explored, embodied and translated for the Belfast context that they were partly written. He also supported the facilitators, Carole Kane and Charmaine McMeekin during this process. This experience had not happened before, so it was met with collective curiosity and intrigue.

The project was led by Community Arts Partnership (CAP) and was hosted by Forthspring Inter-community Centre, which is positioned on the peaceline, alongside the peace gate between the Springfield Road and the Woodvale interface, West Belfast. 10 x sessions and a one-off open hybrid workshop held a safe container to explore how the expressive artmaking processes and spontaneity might reflect practices in peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

The project engaged members of the local community in movement, visual expression and Haiku writing. We drew our breath, literally, and brought these shapes into movement, bringing life to the 3x maps described in Breathe, exploring how they connected with our internal and physical maps of what it means to live, be, and breathe in Belfast.

Results of this creative peace process were rich and inconclusive, enabling participants to find their breath, feet, confidence, and a new sense of themselves in this city of Belfast. Come alive. Stay alive. Be alive.

What happened during the project?

The facilitators began by leading the group to engage with and embody the words of Breathe, by using grounding, breath and movement techniques. Once the collective confidence started to increase, the group incorporated drawing and mark making techniques, sculpture and Haiku writing. It was intentional that all art techniques folded into each other throughout. One participant commented at the end of the project, “I see the dance in all of the visual art”.

Personal and collective discoveries included finding the power of their own breath, how it developed with movement and this helped shape the drawings. They felt what it was like to embody the words of Breathe, what this meant to this particular group, at this time and in this place. They discovered that self-care connected with we-care and therefore built an awareness of community. They experienced a sense of safety, boundary and line: where their breath started, ended, moved and was shared alongside each other, how this transferred to a visual art space. They “drew breath”: what this line looked like, what their inner landscapes may be in relation to the outer landscape or sense of place. John Paul’s observations to the movement and mark-making in the hybrid event led the core participants to create further work. They hearing his voice and wider comments was a great help in their exploration. The power of listening and being attentive was also significant.

This gained fresh insights and increased their sense of living, being and breathing in Belfast.

In the last session, the group went outside to the peace gate at the Springfield/ Woodvale interface right beside Forthspring some filming. At the film launch, participants shared some of their conversations as they walked out to the gate: how this was a new experience for a couple of them and now they were walking through to the other side of the gate… to dance in the street… to the Paul Brady’s song, “The Island”. Now they did this with ease and even enjoyment.

Another participant who has long term health issues shared enthusiastically how she has changed her routine as a result of the project. This was an unexpected outcome for her when she started the project.”I didn’t think I could ever do that because of my disabilities but I was able to do that- that’s a big achievement for me. I feel as if I have found myself.  I dance every morning in front of my wardrobe- every day. I love it. I dance every day and I’m surprised that so much joy comes from this. Movement has boosted my confidence.”

Outputs

Facilitate 10x sessions of the core project.

Facilitate a parallel one-off hybrid workshop additionally facilitated by John Paul on zoom. This engaged a group of peacebuilders and an international participant via zoom.

The project webpage on the Community Arts Partnership (CAP) website to show the following:

3x films ranging from 1hr to 2mins.

2x pieces of artwork made as aesthetic response by the facilitators.

A podcast conversation between the facilitators.

Haiku written by the group.

Lead Creatives

Carole Kane
Charmaine McMeekin
Prof John Paul Lederach

Participating or Target Group(s)

Forthspring Inter-community Centre| 4 Corners Festival| Belfast International Arts Festival.

Initially targeting a mixed group from the local area of Forthspring Inter-community Centre. Later reaching out to peacebuilders from NI and beyond through a hybrid event. This was an international group. Also the longer legacy of the project will continue to engage local and international contacts.

Key aims and rationale behind the project

Using the words of Breathe as the base influence, the project aimed to explore and experiment how the artmaking processes and spontaneity might be reflected within peacebuilding and conflict transformation. What might creative processes teach us in peacebuilding?

Participants were to engage in a process of discovery throughout this collective, creative, sometimes uncertain experience.

To conclude, this project invited people to participate in something quite different, unknown and this, like peacebuilding itself, requires a higher level of courage, vulnerability and risk. Participants were attracted and curious about where the project might take them. CAP is grateful to all of the participants in particular, who took risks in being part of and supporting this project and demonstrating how the arts as resonance, has an important role to play in this context of peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

Funders

Community Relations Council (CRC) | Local Council Funding.

Key peace-related issues addressed in the project

Cultural Recognition, Conflicted Histories. Project held a safe container to explore how the expressive artmaking processes and spontaneity might reflect practices in peacebuilding and conflict transformation