Bridging Worlds – Live interactive art installation
Bridging Worlds – Live interactive art installation
October 11 @ 10:00 am – 12:30 pm IST
Bridging Worlds is a live interactive art installation that invites participants to perform in a piece of self-reflective theatre, imagining what it might feel like to suddenly flee their home due to a threat to their safety.
Book Your Place
Free admission
Artists
Mary Dillon, Humanitarian, Applied Ethnomusicologist and Art Activist
Berta Quiñonero, Social Justice Advocate
Full Event Details
Bridging Worlds is an interactive art installation that invites participants to perform in a piece of self-reflective theatre, imagining what it might feel like to suddenly flee their home due to a threat to their safety. In an age where social media and news channels broadcast harrowing images of genocide, war, and famine around the clock, we risk becoming desensitised—losing sight of the human stories behind these atrocities which are causing people to become displaced.
The piece consists of a long chain of several different textiles and coloured materials, linking one ‘place’ to another. On this chain, objects which symbolise travel are placed along it e.g. rucksacks, travel tags, tickets etc. Photos with descriptions are also attached, which tell the stories of different people who have been forcibly displaced throughout the world.
Participants are asked, ‘What would you take with you?’, and after they transit through, they are invited to share their own thoughts and add it to the chain. Materials will be available at a workstation for those who wish to spend time writing or creating something to add to the chain. The setting becomes a metaphor for bridging different worlds and transitioning from one place to another.
This piece seeks to cut through the desensitisation around forced migration and refocus attention on the individuals whose lives are turned upside down when they are forced to leave behind everything they know. It does not dwell on statistics or specific geopolitical contexts. Instead, it simply invites participants to engage with personal stories and consider what it might be like to find themselves in a similar situation.
This piece was created as an awareness raising project as part of the Creativity and Change course in Munster Technological University, 2024. The artists are Mary Dillon and Berta Quiñonero and are joined by Tetiana Vysotska, Noreen Scully and Margaret Cotter.
Speaker Biographies:
Mary Dillon is a humanitarian, applied ethnomusicologist and art activist. Driven by a passion for culture and social impact, she has worked with humanitarian organisations in Greece and Ireland, collaborating with people from displaced communities through creativity, education and research. Through community music and interactive art projects, she helps to share and highlight messages of social justice.
Berta Quiñonero (she/her) is a passionate social justice advocate based in Dublin, Ireland, with over five years of experience working and volunteering with displaced communities. She works in communications and advocacy for a non-profit organisation focused on social integration through sport. Berta is also part of an organisation called Europe Must Act, where she coordinates communications. Deeply committed to equality, integration, and collective action, Berta is active in grassroots initiatives aimed at building more inclusive and connected societies.
Organisations Involved / Partner Organisation(s):
