Enemigos is one of the Enemies project's most ambitious and sustained engagements with radical collaboration across nations. Joining Mexico & the UK in the fields of avant-garde poetry and radical translation, Enemigos has seen seven different series of events in London, Mexico City and Xalapa, working with the Rich Mix Arts Centre, the British Council, Conaculta, the Hay festivals and the London Bookfair. Co-curated by Rocio Ceron and SJ Fowler, Enemigos has also produced a beautiful anthology of texts, exchanged between 8 London & 8 Mexico City poets, who transformed each other's work in original versions for the book.
Transmedia Borders
November Saturday 10th 2018
Rich Mix: Venue 2
8.30pm to 9.30pm - Free Entry https://transmediaborders.com
Transmedia Borders. Art Beyond Boundaries is a proposal that explores the possibilities of multidisciplinary and transmedia work in order to address collective creation and critical issues related to borders, migration and freedom from the threats in times like these. The creators of Transmedia Borders show their experience as migrants, both geographical and disciplinary, and open the possibilities of dialogue not only between nations but between artistic languages. They talk about how migrations and the appropriation of strategies can shape new forms of creation and call for community and the collective in order to generate meeting spaces.
The project has been presented, with different participants, for more than nine months in forums such as Spanish Cultural Center in Mexico, Chopo Museum in Mexico City, Hay Festival Querétaro, BBC 1000 Questions Forum, Writing as Performance Conference, Mount St. Marys University, Los Angeles, among others venues.
Transmedia Borders joins physical spaces with digital spaces. The website www.transmediaborders.com presents a large archive with documentation of the project's route, as well as sound, visual, digital pieces and diverse textual contents on the project.
ParticipantsPoets: Steven J. Fowler (UK), Caroline Bird (UK), Anthony Anaxagorou (UK), Rocío Cerón (MX). Visual artist: Rubén Gil (MX). Sound artists: Abraham Chavelas (MX) and Iris Garrelfs (UK).
Supported by British Council and Secretaría de Cultura de México-Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.
Enemigos at the London Bookfair - April Tuesday 14th 2015 at the Rich Mix Arts Centre
On the first night of the London Bookfair, four Mexican writers collaboratde and exchanged with their British counterparts in what was an original evening of literature. Each of the four pairs of writers presented a wholly unique collaboration, varying from art performance, translation, dialogue and discussion, and brand new collaboration. It was an evening of poetry and literature as original in content as it was form. Featuring Rocio Ceron & Holly Pester, Fabian Peake & Adriana Diaz Enciso, SJ Fowler & Amanda de la Garza & Carmen Buellosa & Nell Leyshon.
Enemigos 2015 also served as the launch of the Enemigos anthology in the UK! This beautiful anthology of radical translation features new work from 16 poets who have worked in pairs to translate each other's work in aberrant and inventive ways, featuring Tom Raworth, Alberto Blanco, Gaspar Orozco, Tim Atkins & many others.
Day of the Deaded - October 31st 2014 at the Rich Mix Arts centre
http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-day-of-the-deaded/
This event celebrated Día de Muertos in London; and featured a series of original commissions intended to gather friends to remember the dead in an evening of colour, sound, performance and poetry where our squeamish fear of endless nothing was inverted, and the celebrations of doom provoked, excited and enticed.
Enemigos in Mexico - October 3td to 11th 2014
Enemigos at Hay Xalapa / Cervantino festival in Guanajuato / Anthology launch in Mexico City
An extraordinary leg of the Enemigos project in Mexico during October 2014, thanks to the British Council, saw events at Hay Xalapa in the state of Veracruz, before travelling to Guanajuato and the famous Cervantino festival, before the Enemigos anthology launch took place in Mexico City with three events in one day. Six readings, three cities, three festivals and an unforgettable experience in Mexico. You can read blogs about the experience here http://www.stevenjfowler.com/hay-xalapa-cervantino-mexico/
Day of the Dead in Mexico City - October 31st 2013
The Enemies project had the rare chance to transplant to Mexico city during Day of the Dead 2013, as part of the Enemigos project and Festival Expandible, with Holly Pester and myself visiting Rocio Ceron & Amanda de la Garza. Our first performance was at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda, then Holly and I had a near hour long showcase at the Centro Cultural de Espana en Mexico, as part of Festival Expandible, where we were in residence, on the day of the dead itself. Thanks to the British Council & you can read all about the trip with in depth blogs here http://www.stevenjfowler.com/day-of-the-dead-mexico-city/
Enemigos in London - May Thursday 30th 2013
http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/enemigos-poetry-from-london-to-mexico-city/
This unique collaborative poetic enterprise between two of the world's metropolis' and their poets saw a host of British poets read their work, written or adapted for the project, followed by versions of a selection of those poems in Spanish, not translated but transliterated, depending on the methodology, means or style of their opposite number in Mexico city.
Thus the Enemigos project will not just commission new poems by 16 poets, but in the transition process between cities, countries and languages, wholly original new works that mirror and and shadow those original pieces. All will be published collectively by the Mexican publishing house EBL Cielo Abierto in late 2013, at the Mexico city reading in November. This reading, at the rich mix arts centre, is a chance to hear a selection of the most interesting British poets read their work and its Spanish language spawnings.
the wider book project features work from
Carol Watts & Enzia Verducchi
David Berridge & Alberto Blanco
Tim Atkins & Gaspar Orozco
Jeff Hilson & Pura Lopez Colome
Tom Chivers & Ana Franco
Tom Raworth & Rodolfo Mata
SJ Fowler & Amanda de la Garza
Holly Pester & Rocio Ceron