DaDaFest 2020, 27 November-3 December
DaDaFest were one of the first disabled-led arts organisations in the UK and an integral part of the campaign for greater equality and access for disabled people.
Over three decades later they are still going strong, challenging social attitudes and pushing boundaries in the disability arts scene.
The 2020 festival features a range of online events, films and workshops with the theme of Translations. There is even a fitness class and an educational board game you can download. Featured artists this year include Chanje Kunda, Alexandrina Hemsley and Nicola Smith.
Explore this year’s DaDaFest online:
A medley of visual, audio and text from artists Tammy Reynolds and Natalia Bedkowska, exploring what happens when disabled people control the public gaze.
As a midget, Tammy is used to non-consensual documentation from the general public. As a disabled photographer, Natalia is used to barriers put in the way by non-disabled people for her to make work.
Online, 28 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Using a mock interview format, each artist will represent the overlap of various social and political identities of deafness, race, faith, gender and sexuality. The video work looks at the power of translation, showing that interpretation often cannot match the rich visual language of artists.
Online, 28 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
In her new film, Maelstrom Under Glass, artist and choreographer Alexandrina Hemsley explores the landscapes of the body and ways we can embellish body, mind and spirit. Hemsley’s film blends movement, with dance for camera, theatre and live art.
Online, 28 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Coming from different countries with different cultures, Indonesian artist, Hana Madness, and UK-based Alexis Maxwell explore the shared experiences that link their narratives together.
Expect to see their unique practices blended together as they make use of illustration, animation and sound to explore the barriers for ‘mentally disabled’ artists in both Indonesia and the UK.
Online, 3 December, 1pm. Premiere event, free, booking required.
A new, spoken-word film exploring how the words of a doctor translate to the patient. Poet Helen Seymour uses her own experience of disability and of being a patient to develop an entirely new piece within a digital format.
Online, 28 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Broken Biscuits: Unheard Voices
An experimental film documenting the stories of Yemeni newsagents. The film was inspired by artist Amina Atiq’s original play Broken Biscuits. The play visited her grandmother’s Yemeni-British living room in the 1970’s. In response to the Covid-19 restrictions and as an alternative to staging the play, Amina has adapted her creative process and produced an experimental film titled Unheard Voices.
Online, 29 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Inspired by a series of online videos encouraging people to keep fit whilst dancing in their chair, artist Nicola Smith questions what happens when bodies behave differently from perceived norms. Nicola examines the ways that conditions and disabilities impact on a person’s mobility, or how they interpret information.
Online, 29 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Play an educational board game and take on the role of someone living with chronic illness, otherwise known as a Spoonie. The board game takes the theme of ‘translations’ and creates situations where you’ll need to decide which activities are worth spending your limited amount of energy on, in an attempt to finish the game with the most happiness.
Online, 29 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Chanje Kunda is a performance artist with complex PTSD. Her latest project is a short film that seeks to make invisible disabilities visible and valued. The project was inspired by the concept ‘mad pride’ which seeks to celebrate the lives of people with severe and enduring mental health disabilities.
Online, 1-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
The Misunderstandings of the Other Side
An exploration of how the world of neurodiverse people differs from the world of neurotypical people. Neurodiverse artist, Gold Akanbi, will focus on women of colour, who are first and second generation immigrants.
Akanbi will give a multi-sensory experience to the audience, to understand how neurodiversity both enhances and diminishes the lives of those on the autistic spectrum.
Online, 2-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
This intimate and moving experience looks at wellbeing through an artistic response to the physicality of weather and being ‘alone’ or ‘lonely’. We are the most connected ‘on demand’ generation yet seem to have lost touch with who we are and where we fit in the world. We mediate our life through technology and screens. Are we ever truly where we are and present?
Online, 1 December, 7.30pm, free.
Scars communicate different meanings, lived experiences and emotional changes as a script on the body. Like translated texts, they can be interpreted in different ways. Through photography, artist Ngozi Ugochukwu uses her lived experience to explore the scars on her own body, each telling a story from her life.
Online, 30 Nov-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Artists Natalie Amber and Clare McNulty have created a series of podcasts with contributions from within the disabled community. They take a humorous and informed deep dive into the taboos, the stigmas, the mysteries and the misinformation that surrounds disabled people.
Online, 1-3 Dec, available all day from 8am, free.
Since 2014, artist Dominic G has been building Weasel Nation, a platform presenting music, sculptures, an interactive video game and workshops on creating clay sculptures and drawings of his creations, the Wicked Weasels.
Reflecting his belief that art can bring the world together, and including his strong political, pro-disabled, anti-racist and anti-establishment ethics, Dominic will be creating a Manifesto for Weasel Nation.
Online, 3 December, 1pm. Premiere event, free, booking required.