Inherited Incantations – Installation

Art27 Scotland promotes arts and culture for the common good. We believe culture is a human right, as outlined by Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”

Art27 Scotland

Inherited Incantations – an installation led by Shatha Altowai and communities in Edinburgh, Scotland and Hadhramaut, Yemen.

South Side Community Centre

Festival of Migration

The Festival of Migration bursts with artistic energy in multiple artforms, catalysing conversations around one of the greatest topics of our time. Together we can create a new future that celebrates our diversity, collaboration and connectedness.

Inherited Incantation explores the “incantation” practices of family protection in different cultures. Led by award winning artist Shatha Altowai, this multi-sensory installation has been developed and created through an exchange driven by women communities in Edinburgh and Hadhramaut, Yemen.Inherited Incantation refers to the shared motivation of women all over the world to protect their families from harm. This deep primal instinct has taken shape in physical form through charms, songs, embodied creative expressions, oils and water, nature and metals etc for millenia and is common to all cultures. These potent symbols and objects continue to prove meaningful today although they are often more of folk culture than magic. Yet in some cultures the line between folk memory and religious practice is uncomfortably thin and an ever-present risk to women’s safety in an increasingly fundamental world. “I chose this theme because safety and community are important to me. I believe that by sharing knowledge and experiences across different cultures, we can build connections and promote understanding. To me, culture is all about coexisting and merging within the community. For me, expressing culture in a society that is culturally different from my own can be a challenge, but I always strive to search for commonalities and connections rather than focusing on differences and contradictions. She notes one comment from a participant during the workshops that stood out for her “&quot;What was once accepted as tradition may now be recognised [in Scotland] as a form of discrimination&#x27;&#x27;.&#x27;&#x27;I believe that cultural integration is a two-way street, and by being open and willing to learn from each other, we can build a stronger and more inclusive community together” Shatha Altowai. When Shatha started this project she was struck by how important these material and intangible cultural expressions are, particularly in a forced migration experience, and how familiar ways of life that may be forgotten regain significance and provide comfort in a world where human beings have little control of what is happening to them. As an artist-in-exile, Shatha’s lived experience strongly informs her artistic practice as she negotiates her future through shifts of identity and perspective brought about by displacement. This creative community exchange is made up of artworks from women in Edinburgh, many of whom have a migration background, and a small group of women artists through a transnational partnership with Artzone gallery in Yemen. Our thanks go to Abeer at Artzone for her guidance and support. The installation will be exhibited in both Yemen and Scotland during the Festival of Migration.------------------------------------------------------------------------------ <a href="https://art27scotland.org/shatha-altowai/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Shatha Altowai </a>is a Yemeni artist based in Edinburgh, UK. She has presented at several art galleries in Yemen and beyond. She graduated with a Bachelor&#x27;s degree in Information Technology with Honours from the University of Utara Malaysia (2014) in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. After earning her degree, Shatha held several administrative and technical positions in the Yemeni private sector. In 2018, she left those positions and decided to fully engage in her passion for art.Much of Shatha’s work reflects aspects of life in her society, and the suffering caused by the ongoing civil war in Yemen. Through her figurative, cubist and abstract paintings, Shatha seeks to shed light on issues such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), women, coexistence and families in Yemen. Shatha was awarded the IIE-Artist Protection Fund (APF) Fellowship which was hosted within the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh (2020-2021). Shatha is a current artist in residence at Art27scotland where she works to deliver a socially-engaged art practice within the Southside of Edinburgh.A﻿bout Artzone Academy:A﻿rtzone Academy is based in Mukalla, Yemen. It works to assist the visual artists in their skills and careers and to deliver significant workshops in the arts and culture sector in Hadhramout, Yemen.A﻿rt27scotland: We are artists and activists that take our mission from Article 27 of the Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to participate in the culture of their community. We see cultural rights as indivisible from human rights and a driver of citizenship and democracy. As an arts and human rights organisation, we centre the promotion of Dignity, Justice, and Peace through our cultural role in civic society, articulated through great art and great stories.The Festival of Migration is a call to action. We need to change the narrative and challenge closed minds. Migration has always been a part of our country’s reality, and a driver of our nation’s economic, social, and cultural wealth. At the heart of this festival is a desire to make our world and our city peaceful, to respect the dignity of every person and to celebrate all cultural expression as the glue that binds us together to face an ever-uncertain future.

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Inherited Incantations – Installation

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Inherited Incantations – Installation

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