© Sevda Semer

#voicesfrom: Sevda Semer, Sofia

Art Work and Text
#voicesfrom

 

These days, I so often read the news and then go draw. Today I read about human rights groups that warn that while England’s health system rushes to protect its workers, it must not ignore the slave-like conditions of those making rubber gloves. This has become one more way for me to ask myself if this current crisis is what it takes for us to understand that we’re here together.

We’re used to ignoring inequality or oppression by telling ourselves that it’s happening far away and has nothing to do with us. But it’s actually happening in a corner of my bedroom: that close. It’s not that human rights groups have become active recently, but I’ve been seeing a new awareness in conversations with friends, my grandmother or the people working in my grocery store: we’ve all realized that what’s happening on the other side of the world is indeed our business and should indeed interest us, because however far away, it will travel to you in a matter of weeks. So I do what I can, starting not far away, where I’m powerless, but where I can make a difference: outside my doorstep.

Sevda Semer is an artist and writer currently living in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her paintings, audio works, and videos are about documentation, archives, and the power of the personal to tease out larger conversations between us

 

COVID-19 currently has us all in its grip. We will therefor mainly use our contacts and share reports on the situation of people living in countries that are sidelined in the media and which, as it often does, are rarely heard or seen. We will also do it because people in low-income countries will be hit hardest by the pandemic!

#voicesfrom #covid19 #vidc #kultureninbewegung