Year 2023
Topics: gentrification; creative placemaking; collaborative artmaking; urban space
Urban regeneration policies and actions have improved the area Elephant and Castle in London, at the cost of marginalising local minority communities, especially the Latin American business owners who have made a strong presence in the neighbourhood since the 1990s. The vibrant cultural scenes of the Latin American community have been under erosion due to the displacement of their homes and businesses, while new residents arriving in the neighbourhood struggle to foster a sense of community.
MASS ART MOVEMENT is a workshop-campaign designed and executed to facilitate the self-expression and collective environmental attunement of the local residents under a time of rapid social and environmental change in the urban space. This event took place in April 2023 at the newly refurbished Elephant Park, led by team leader Haiyi He alongside a Spanish artist-translator and two volunteers. Surveys at the end of the workshop found the event to be highly inclusive and successful in forging a sense of community amongst people from diverse backgrounds.
Seeing its initial success, the project amassed support from Judy Aitken, the curator of Southwark Council and Southwark Heritage Centre. The culmination of this project resulted in a sixty-page publication documenting the process from research, conceptualising, to execution and publicity work. A total of seventeen artworks were created by the participants. In addition, eight artworks were created by Haiyi He to represent the BAME businesses in Latin Clusters while engaging in conversations with the shop owners, which were screenprinted by the artist on postcards and distributed around. These works were exhibited at the LCC graduation showcase, which took place on the London College of Communication campus at Elephant and Castle in June 2023.
Haiyi He 