Reflecting on the 2009 Tamil Diaspora Protests

An online image archive of the protests in Canada

SAVAC invites contributions towards an online archive of imagery about the protests in Canada. This collective archive will serve as a starting point for the discussions (described below). Submissions may include photography, drawings or video.

Organized by SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) in Toronto for the 2010 Tamil Studies Conference.

Please email communication [at] savac.net if you encounter any problems trying to submit your images.


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Reflecting on the 2009 Tamil Diaspora Protests:
A series of three artist-run workshops

Beginning in mid-2008, an extraordinary series of protests erupted in cities from Chennai to Ottawa against the escalation of the government military offensive in Sri Lanka’s north. These demonstrations, of which Toronto was a major epicentre, marked a critical moment in recent history and provoked vigorous debate. Information technology and new media provided both a stage and vehicle for these events; the production and circulation of digital information and images became a central organizing tool of the demonstrations. The “spectacle” of the protests – in Guy Debord’s sense of a spectacle being a “social relation mediated by images”– generated heated debate over the politics of immigration and citizenship, the occupation of public space, and the complexities of Tamil identity within the diaspora. To this point, however, much of this discussion has focused narrowly on Sri Lankan politics or questions of race and racism in Canada.

Through a series of artist-lead workshops, SAVAC seeks to initiate a broader dialogue concerning the social, political and performative efficacy of the 2009 Tamil diaspora protests. How can an examination of various images in the media enable a critique of the spectacle of the protests themselves? What voices and experiences have the dominant representations of these demonstrations silenced? How can the conceptual strategies of contemporary art provide new insights and an alternate language for understanding diaspora and transnational social mobilization?

This series will consist of three full-day workshops that will meet once a month from February to April 2010. The workshops will include several components, including hands-on exercises with the facilitating artists, and will address a wide-ranging set of issues: media representations of the protests, utilizations of digital media, the internet as an archive of current history, the centrality of sound and language, the contested nature of public spaces, and the intimate relationship between identity and modes of social performance. These conversations will also assist in organizing a SAVAC event for the 2010 Tamil studies conference at the University of Toronto.

We welcome all interested participants, including those with no artistic background. However, space is limited. Please send an email to register, including a short description of your interest in the workshop. A small number of selected critical readings will be circulated in advance.

For more information or to register please email communication [at] savac.net


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