People's Bureau (2014—) — Social Art Library

By

Rebecca Davies & Eva Sajovic

A photograph showing people seated around tables in an open cafeteria-style space within an indoor market. Some people are working together to make bunting while others are receiving a shoulder massage.

Peoples Bureau collects and makes visible the diversity of cultures, skills, networks and resourcefulness present in areas that are undergoing urban change.

Peoples' Bureau (PB) is a collaborative practice running from London and Stoke on Trent. It is a programme of artistic actions that enable community representation delivered by artists Eva Sajovic and Rebecca Davies.

PB supports skill and knowledge exchange around the concerns of the communities it works with, with the view of strengthening the links within these and towards a collective competence in the process of constructing meaning, making decisions and taking actions for themselves. It was set up in 2014 and was based at the Elephant and Castle shopping centre - one of the most contested sites in the capital, currently undergoing a vast development that has been and will continue to permanently displace thousands of people who live and work here.

By engaging with amultitude of stakeholders including the local residents, the developers, universities, the local council, art institutions, activists and the media, the PB creates a vibrant platform for contestation, negotiation and organisation. The underlying belief is that pre-packaged information, selected by a class of people defined as professionals in light of profitability does not lead to a greater competence of the individuals and communities but to a dependency and displacement.

Peoples’ Bureau works with communities to support them in gaining confidence to hold the ‘professionals’ in these processes to account and in turn impact on the decisions that affect their livelihoods.

The project no longer takes place at the shopping centre - sadly this centre was closed in 2020- but the two artists continue to collaborate with locals in the area and as part of the broader social art network in the UK.

More information: https://www.peoplesbureau.co.uk/

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Eva Sajovic

Eva Sajovic is is a Slovene born artist photographer, living and working in London. Her focus is on socially engaged, participatory practice through which she explores the drivers ofglobal displacement such as regeneration, poverty, trafficking, culture and climate change.

http://peoplesbureau.co.uk/

Rebecca Davies

Rebecca is an artist with an embedded participatory practice that involves illustration, performance and event. She graduated from RCA in 2010, receiving the Sheila Robinson Prize for Drawing. In 2013 she was made an Artsadmin Associate Artist. She has run outreach and participation programmes with Tate Modern, Turner Contemporary, South London Gallery. She continues to work with Whitechapel Gallery, leading on the Whitechapel Community Workshops. Rebecca now lives in Stoke On Trent where she collaborates with artist Anna Francis and residents of Portland Street on The Portland Inn Project. She is currently supported by Arts Council England on her research and development project in partnership with AirSpace Gallery.

https://cargocollective.com/rebeccadavies

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