[NetBehaviour] Finsbury Park attack

[Marc.garrett]

Hi Steve & all,

Thank you for your generous support and understanding of what it's like working in the Finsbury Park area.

>Furtherfield isn't parachuted in like so many so-called socially engaged art projects often are, it is an established
>and integral part of its local community, so I can understand the shock waves that this attack must be causing.

You're of course right Steve, this is a social reality which separates us from the more established media art groups, galleries, and academia. And we've been working with all kinds of people here since 2004.

The mosque is only about a 100 yards away from where we are working together in the park.

We have noticed and experienced tensions here well before this incident, and this summer is surely going to bring us other challenges to deal with.

My heart goes to to all suffering from these soulless and ignorant attacks, whoever they are - it's wrong and sadly the news media along with unsavory billionaires, and particular politicians, have stoked up a fire in order for the poor to fight each other and suffer even more pain, while they at a distance - collect the proceeds :-(

Again,

wishing all well

marc

Marc Garrett

Co-Founder, Co-Director and main editor of Furtherfield.
Art, technology and social change, since 1996
http://www.furtherfield.org

Furtherfield Gallery & Commons in the park

Finsbury Park, London N4 2NQhttp://www.furtherfield.org/gallery
Currently writing a PhD at Birkbeck University, London
https://birkbeck.academia.edu/MarcGarrett

Curating, Touring Exhibition
Monsters of the Machine:Frankenstein in the 21st Century
At Laboral, Spain until Sept 2017 http://bit.ly/2eGdpw1
Visiting other countries soon...

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Finsbury Park attack
Local Time: June 19, 2017 9:51 AM
UTC Time: June 19, 2017 8:51 AM
From: steven at steven-ball.net
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>

Working at Furtherfield last I spent quite a bit of time in Finsbury Park. My impression was of a lively, ethnically and religiously diverse place where people and communities rubbed up against each other pretty well. Kind of rough around the edges, but that comes with the territory, very much like my own 'hood in Deptford, South London.

It's not clear whether the perpetrators were from the area, I suspect not, but we'll probably find out sooner or later.

The police are treating it as a terrorist incident, and it's clearly a direct attack on a group of Muslims. It's shocking but unfortunately not altogether surprising that something like this might happen, given the constant drip of Islamophobia in the media, in The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, by individuals such as Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins, political parties such as UKIP and EDL, a pernicious racism pervades. There is also currently a dysfunctional systemic failure at state level to be able to cope with even the most basis of governmental functions. It's difficult to shake the impression that this country, and London in particular, is in some form of terminal meltdown right now.

But communities persist, ties strengthen, and solidarity is forged in such emergencies. Furtherfield isn't parachuted in like so many so-called socially engaged art projects often are, it is an established and integral part of its local community, so I can understand the shock waves that this attack must be causing. More strength to you!

Steven x

On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 09:21, ruth catlow <ruth.catlow at furtherfield.org> wrote:

Thanks for asking Alan.

This attack happened last night at Finsbury Park Mosque which is about 100 yards from Furtherfield Commons.

Some people drove a van into a group of late night worshippers as they left the mosque. One of the attackers was apprehended and held by the group until the police arrived.

Last year Park Theatre (local partners of ours) commissioned a playwrite to worked directly with the mosque to produce the [Hurling Rubble](https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/hurling-rubble-at-the-moon-hurling-rubble-at-the-sun) plays about how extremist violence grows. We hosted our [Superdiversity exhibition](http://furtherfield.org/programmes/superdiversity-picturing-finsbury-park) this spring in which Katherine Stansfeld an artist and cultural geographer brought together more than 50 different perspectives of lives lived in the area. This area is bold in its expression of difference - its value and its difficulties - we love it.

We have yet to hear from our local friends. I'm heading up there now - full of sorrow.

~
Ruth

On 19/06/17 03:44, Alan Sondheim wrote:

Please please share any information anyone might have about this, apparently on Seven Sisters Road. This is terrible...

Thank you,

Alan
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