WE ARE HERE,
AT THE RIO
SOUND ADVICE supported the launch of a new platform WE ARE HERE at the Rio Cinema for London Design Festival 2022. WE ARE HERE celebrates immigrant voices in the urban and cultural realm.
“The objects and aesthetics emerging from immigrant communities have long been marginalised or fetishised by the gatekeepers of western-centric global design institutions. Yet, design and culture thrives outside of these contexts, often in informal arenas – cafes, restaurants, shops and cultural venues or even on the streets – that diasporic groups have made their own. With community spaces under threat by successive Covid-19 lockdowns and the longstanding impact of gentrification on inner London, and amid Britain’s continuing struggle to create a post-imperial cultural identity, we take inspiration from the Sri Lankan anti-racism activist Ambalavaner Sivanandan, who said: ‘We are here because you were there.’” WE ARE HERE
All photography by Eric Ajani-Barberini
“The objects and aesthetics emerging from immigrant communities have long been marginalised or fetishised by the gatekeepers of western-centric global design institutions. Yet, design and culture thrives outside of these contexts, often in informal arenas – cafes, restaurants, shops and cultural venues or even on the streets – that diasporic groups have made their own. With community spaces under threat by successive Covid-19 lockdowns and the longstanding impact of gentrification on inner London, and amid Britain’s continuing struggle to create a post-imperial cultural identity, we take inspiration from the Sri Lankan anti-racism activist Ambalavaner Sivanandan, who said: ‘We are here because you were there.’” WE ARE HERE
All photography by Eric Ajani-Barberini