Impact case study database

Birrell’s body of research has deepened cultural understanding of and shaped public attitudes towards the contemporary global concern of forced human displacement. By providing alternatives to dominant media narratives and modes of engagement, the research has benefitted two main groups: enabling curators to engage audiences in new ways; and creating new opportunities within the creative and cultural industries. Birrell’s work has enabled the development of new partnerships and helped to preserve cultural traditions that shed light on political and cultural issues. The research has also enabled two organisations within Scotland – the CCA and Creative Scotland – to deliver their strategic objectives and reach new and larger audiences.

Birrell’s work has been used by commissioning curators in Scotland (Glasgow’s CCA, the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery), Europe (Athens and Kassel, as part of documenta14) and the United States (Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art) to engage the public with urgent global issues of the refugee crisis, migration and the barriers to it. Four of Birrell’s works – Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Fugue, Criollo and The Athens-Kassel Ride: The Transit of Hermes – featured in the international quinquennial documenta14 (d14), which took place in Athens and Kassel throughout 2017 and attracted a global audience of 1,200,000 (making it the most frequented contemporary art exhibition of all time). Explorations of neocolonial and neoliberal attitudes from global north to global south were at the heart of d14, with the humanitarian crisis of the escalating war in Syria taking centre stage. Birrell’s research was pivotal in enabling Adam Szymczyk, d14 Director, to widen and deepen public understandings of forced human displacement, provoking rich public discussion on the European refugee crisis and simultaneously demonstrating the efficacy of art in providing alternative understandings of the plight of refugees worldwide. Specifically, for Szymczyk, Birrell’s research provided ‘a larger metaphor for what [ d14] wanted to achieve.’ As Szymczyk states, Birrell’s project ‘allowed us to make a very clear statement’ in relation to the humanitarian crisis and was ‘paradigmatic for the type of approach that we wanted to explore in documenta’ acting as ‘a kind of embodiment of the idea of the project of documenta 14.’ The d14 research was reviewed in the New York Times and The Observer and Birrell was interviewed by CNN. His Symphony of Sorrowful Songs was one of just two selected by internationally acclaimed artists Naeem Mohaiemen (2018 Turner Prize nominee) and Didem Pekün to discuss in their e-flux article on d14, with Pekün stating: ‘As the concert finished, I walked out in a trance state. Leaving the hall, I saw a number of friends who were personally wounded by political problems of their geographical locales, and we looked at each other quietly.’ [S1]

This engagement is mirrored in other public exhibitions of Birrell’s work, with outputs prompting extensive discussion and debate in broadcast, print and online media, and exhibition visitor comments. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) in Virginia Beach, USA, programmed Birrell’s work as part of the 2019 group show, Charged! (featuring just 6 artists), a decision based specifically on what they saw as its ability to engage the public in difficult dialogue and reflection. Heather Hakimzadeh, Curator at MoCA, has said ‘The aim of the exhibition was to explore the ways in which artists connected emotionally to their audience through technology.’ She invited Birrell to exhibit Triptych because ‘it included an element that was missing in the other works in the exhibition: stillness. Triptych provided emotional undercurrents that demanded silence and listening skills to facilitate reception.’ MoCA is in a region of the United States which has a heavy military presence and the museum has what the curator describes as a ‘moral obligation to our community to discuss uncomfortable issues in a manner that encourages many voices and differences of opinion,’ something which Birrell’s work was able to fulfil. She says, ‘Through Triptych the understanding of displacement and loss could be conveyed with deep emotional resonance in a space that could enable further discussion and exploration,’ the work making ‘a meaningful contribution to the dialogue we have begun in the museum.’ [S2]

The effectiveness of Birrell’s research is further evidenced by the collective voices of journalists and audiences, who repeatedly comment on the work’s ability to move its audience: ‘its overriding sense of a world in endless exile makes it an essential experience.’ Neil Cooper, The List, 2018; ‘What is evoked is a sense of absence, of loss.’ The Scotsman, 2018; ‘A cumulative emotional impact likewise builds in Ross Birrell and David Harding’s Triptych […] it feels desperately heartfelt.’ Hettie Judah, The I. The most frequently used audience description for the Edinburgh Art Festival was that it was ‘moving’, a word included in 13% of comments. Audiences described it as ‘An overwhelming, powerful and beautiful piece. [The] singing almost moved me to tears.’; it was ‘Very powerful and moving.’ Refugees who visited the EAF exhibition were also moved: ‘It made me think of my country. In a sad way, but the exhibition was wonderful.’ [S3]

Birrell’s work has also supported a wide range of new opportunities for solo Syrian artists and the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO), all of whom are refugees themselves. Symphony of Sorrowful Songs centred around a recital by classical musicians, who had fled the Syrian civil war. SEPO performed in collaboration with the Athens State Orchestra, on the opening weekend of d14 (April 2017) in the 2,000-seat Megaron Concert Hall in Athens. Reflecting on the experience, Soprano Racha Rizk describes the opportunity not simply to perform but to represent the work, in remembrance and tribute to those suffering in Syria. Following the d14 concert and showings of the film, she was invited to perform in Canada and with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In the days prior to the d14 concert, SEPO and Rizk also performed a concert of Arab music at the Eleonas Refugee Camp in the South East of Athens. Syrian composer and violinist Moraly’s performance of Fugue has led to a number of other high-profile professional opportunities to participate in visual art contexts, including performing: at the opening press conference of d14 in Kassel; as part of Australian-Aboriginal artist Gordon Hookey’s book launch also part of d14 in Kassel; in the Scottish Parliament as part of the EAF 2018; and as a participant in ‘Residing in the Borderlands,’ a series of talks and screenings by cultural experts from diasporic communities, at SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin 2019. Exhibitions of Triptych, which includes elements of the d14 performances, has extended the global reach of both the research and the musicians. [S4]

To realise his work, Birrell has created employment for film crew, production companies and photographers in Europe, Buenos Aires and New York, documenting Criollo and The Athens-Kassel Ride projects, enabled through GBP99,000 Open Project funding from Creative Scotland, e.g. support crew member Mark Wallis was required to learn new skills, including acquiring horse trailer driving certification, and has subsequently been hired by one of the leading Long Riders, Peter van der Gugten, to provide support and to film a long ride from Mexico to Canada. [S5] The Athens-Kassel Ride also prompted the first ever Arravani Festival, organised to celebrate the Arravani breed. The festival was held in the mountain village of Prastos, Arcadia, in April 2017, and was attended by 50 Arravani riders from across the region, members of an Arravani Society in Germany, and around 500 local villagers. The first ever festival of its kind, the Arravani Festival brought wider public attention to the Arravani breed and provided information on the principles of Long Riders and the Charter of Reken, which calls for the right to ride across borders. As participating Long Rider and Board member of the VfD (the largest network for recreational riders in Germany), David Wewetzer has used The Athens-Kassel Ride as the focus of 20 presentations at regional meetings of the VfD across Germany, highlighting the political and cultural challenges of the Long Rides. In 2018, fellow Long Rider van der Gugten self-published a two-volume book documenting his experience of The Athens-Kassel Ride. The riders also made their own website to document the ride. [S6]

By enabling the curator of the Edinburgh Art Festival to engage the public with the refugee crisis, Birrell’s research has supported EAF to build a new relationship – which they continue to sustain and develop – with The Welcoming, an Edinburgh based refugee resettlement charity. As part of their activities, EAF also held a workshop and festival visit with a Syrian men’s group in partnership with the charity the Thistle Foundation in Craigmillar, a national Centre of Wellbeing. Due to the relevance of the subject matter, Birrell’s research also paved the way for EAF to use the Scottish Parliament as a venue for the first time – something they had been attempting to do for a number of years – hosting a concert performed by SEPO and thereby extending its audience beyond the usual visual art audience to reach both a music/ performing arts and broader civic audience. [S7]

A central part of Birrell’s work has focused on preserving cultural traditions that are at risk of being lost. His work with SEPO, Rizk and Moraly seeks to preserve and celebrate the music and poetry of Syria. The Athens-Kassel Ride: The Transit of Hermes honours the people throughout history who have used horses in long-distance travel and exploration and the cross-border routes they followed. The project was developed in collaboration with four participating Long Riders – van der Gugten, Wewetzer, Szolt Zsabo and Tine Boche – who used the project to promote best practice in Long Riding at public events along the route. The team was joined for agreed stages by local riders and, when they arrived in Kassel on 10 July, they were welcomed with a public reception attended by 2,000 people, including 30 riders from local equestrian associations. The ride was welcomed by the CEO of documenta gmbh and the Culture Minister of Hessen, and attracted a substantial amount of press interest, including TV and radio news coverage in Hessen and in Slovenia. The ride was also the subject of an exclusive deal with d14 and Zeit Magazine, which has a print circulation of 2,000,000 and selects just one artist for each iteration of documenta. Birrell’s Ride featured as the cover story on 10 June, published to coincide with the opening weekend of d14 in Kassel. [S8]

Finally, Birrell’s research has played an important role in enabling arts organisations in Scotland to increase their audience figures and meet their strategic objectives. Birrell’s ‘highly topical’ work has been identified by EAF Director, Sorcha Carey, as a leading contributor to a 95% rise in international press coverage in 2018. [S7] The festival also saw an increase of 8% in visitor numbers from the previous year. [S3] The Transit of Hermes at CCA for Glasgow International 2018 was attended by approx. 6,000 people, the second largest attendance recorded at the CCA since its inception in 1992. Because of its trans-European nature and connection with d14, the CCA exhibition addressed their key objective to show international work and support international networking for Scotland’s artists and curators. It also fulfilled one of their programming aims: to highlight and include discussion and work around immigration and the changing demographics of Europe, Scotland and Glasgow. As CCA Director Francis McKee states: ‘One of the underlying themes of the exhibition was border crossing which was easily read in the light of immigration issues across Europe and that chimed well with our broader public engagement programme which focuses on diverse communities, refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow.’ The show also enabled the CCA to support objectives of its funder, Creative Scotland, to internationalise Scottish art, in this case by bringing Creative Scotland-funded international projects by Scottish artists/ researchers back to Scotland and making it available to local audiences. Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts at Creative Scotland, confirms that the project met their objective to directly support artists ‘to undertake projects of scale, ambition and international significance’ and to support ‘the opportunity for an artist based in Scotland to achieve high levels of professional/ industry recognition for their work.’ Creative Scotland also recognised the ‘benefits of the work in terms of public engagement and audience development/ diversification in Scotland through further touring and presentation of the work.’ [S9]