Bitter Rose

Abstract

An Invisible Knowledges Project (Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network & Centre For Contemporary Art, Glasgow) 
 by Tawona Sithole and Birthe Jorgensen with special guests / hosts: Gameli Tordzro / The Project Cafe, Sogol Mabadi / CCA, Alison Phipps / Woodlands Community Garden, Susan Brind & Jim Harold / Woodside Library, Life Mosaic / Gal Gael, Mara Menzies / Milk Cafe, Jasper Coppes & Open Jar Collective / Govanhill Baths, Bisan Abu Eisheh / Glad Cafe, Bitter Rose / Walk to Easterhouse and Cecilia Naa Densua Tordzro / Platform. 
 
 In French surrealist, writer and poet, René Daumal’s (1908-44) unfinished novel, Mount Analogue, Arthur Beaver recites the mythical tale of The Hollow-men and The Bitter-Rose to fellow voyagers on the yacht Impossible. According to the tale the Bitter-Rose is a magical plant that grows only on the most inaccessible peaks. If eaten, should one be about to tell a lie, one’s tongue will start burning. No one has ever been known, to eat a Bitter-Rose, and few people have ever claimed to have seen it. Legend has it that on sensing the tremors of human fear, the illusive rose will retreat into the rock.
 
 Bitter Rose is also the name of a nomadic installation that will be moved through the streets of Glasgow by foot. Alluding to the aesthetics of forced and voluntary journey, languages of poetry conflate with the formal terminology of travel and music of being adrift intermingles with that of being on hold. En route Bitter Rose will visit a number of organisations across the city and be visited by guests from a wide variety of back grounds that each in their way address what it might mean to be rooted or rootless today - or any other day. 
 
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 Tawona Sithole is a Zimbabwean writer, poet, musician and performer. He is better known as Ganyamatope, being a son from the ancestral family Moyo Chirandu. Over the ages, Sithole's family’s values have been maintained and expressed through the spoken word and mbira music. From Zimbabwe, living in Glasgow, sharing his heritage with lesser-known perspectives of his experience as an African. Using traditional influences, Sithole has developed a contemporary style of expression, often using humour to challenge stereotypes. 
 
 Birthe Jorgensen is a Danish installation artist working with what ever might come into reach to create worlds of bricolage, assemblage, sculpture, writing, sound and performance. She thinks a lot about how sacred and secular spaces are created in a materialistic, globalised age and about the workings of time, memory, loss and geographical displacement. An artist in her own right, Jorgensen also moves towards other disciplines and has collaborated with archeologists, human geographers, social scientists, linguists, dancers, musicians, writers, sonic artists and performers. She considers this as a way of finding strength in her own sense of displacement. 
 
 Sithole and Jorgensen are currently artists in residence with Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet). GRAMNet is a cross-departmental, academic network based at the University of Glasgow. GRAMNet aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, NGOs and policy makers working with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland by developing active collaborative research and development links, not only between the University of Glasgow and partners in policy making and the Third Sector, but also with those working in the field of sustainability, intercultural and international development. 
 
 Invisible Knowledge/s is a new programme presented by Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network and the Centre for Contemporary Arts that addresses knowledge production within the city. The aim is to make knowledge that for whatever reason may be invisible, more visible and to find creative ways of exploring the interplay between different kinds of knowledge/s.