SEADS, the acronym for Space Ecologies Art and Design, is a transdisciplinary and cross-cultural collective of artists, scientists, engineers and activists. Refu Interim helps people who are new to Belgium find voluntary work within the larger social and cultural sector. For (Re)volver!, we invited both organizations with members from all over the world to join forces. Three artists from one organization entered into a dialogue about new creations with three artists from the other. Pangea Dialogues brings together three duos, each consisting of someone introduced by Refu Interim and a member of SEADS: Alessandra Ramirez (El Salvador) and Mei-Lin Man (the Netherlands and Hong Kong), Mohammed Radwan (Syria) and Ann Peeters (Belgium), and Eman Dawoud Radwan (Palestine) and Angelo Vermeulen (Belgium). The title of this project refers to an ancient supercontinent, when all the landmasses of the earth were still connected to each other. Pangea can be seen as a metaphor, a fairly literal image, for this project. It stands for an open collaboration between very different artists from here and there. The participants use their artistic practice as a source for intercultural dialogue. The artists of Refu Interim had carte blanche to freely do their own thing. During the creation process, they entered into regular dialogue with the members of SEADS. The works on display here – mixed media, collages and paintings – are silent witnesses of that shared learning process, of telling stories and listening, and of finding connections in each other’s differences.
Eman Dawoud Radwan, Andrea Alessandra Ramírez Chávez, Mohammed Radwan, Ann Peeters, Mei-Lin Ma, Angelo Vermeulen