[Bloquez l'empire!] [KADER] Report back from Artists for Kader: Mural Project and Weekend of Art

[Soutien Kader]

"I don't know much about States and borders. All I know is that the world is
round and that, unlike trees which have roots, people have feet for
walking." - main text on the mural

Report back from Artists for Kader: Mural Project and Weekend of Art

Over the summer, a group of Montreal artists came together to launch a mural
project in support of Kader. During the weekend of 9-10 August, Kader's
951st and 952nd days in sanctuary, the public was invited to come and watch
them finish the mural and participate in arts workshops in the grounds of
the church where Kader has lived for two and a half years.

*Photos of the weekend: http://photos.cmaq.net/v/murale_kader/
*Article in Le Devoir: www.ledevoir.com/2008/08/11/201043.html
*Article de la Pointe Libertaire : www.lapointelibertaire.org/node/691

The mural was created to support Kader as someone whose story is
representative of migration in the 21st century; who has struggled against
dehumanizing bureaucracy to be treated with dignity and respect; who has
inspired a broad network of support and resistance; who has refused to be
crushed by two and a half years of imprisonment, but has grown through the
struggle, most remarkably as an artist himself.

Though unable to leave the church himself, Kader has - through music, radio
and the communities around him - helped build and inspire struggles for
justice beyond the walls of St. Gabriel's Church. In this spirit, the mural
will be leaving the church grounds after its launch and exhibited in
different community spaces throughout Montreal over the coming months. (More
on the mural and the artists involved below.)

**Please keep in touch to find out where the Mural will be displayed in the
coming weeks and months (www.soutienpourkader.net).

**If you can FINANCIALLY SUPPORT the Committee to support Abdelkader
Belaouni, now is the time to do so! In addition to our public education and
political pressure work, we organize day-to-day support for Kader. Please
get in touch to find out how to make a donation. We NEED your support!

THE MURAL

The mural is the work of some 25 Montreal artists, writers, supporters and
friends of Kader's. The central image is Kader with his hands on his cane.
Below him are several of his supporters, crouched on the ground, chalking
the number of days that he has spent in sanctuary. As the lines they draw
float upward and encircle Kader, they are transformed into musical notes,
symbolising the way in which Kader's resistance and his very confinement
have become a creative force, inspiring new ideas, actions and social
relations. They meld into the skyline of Montreal, with the landmark Five
Roses sign prominent, situating us in the Point Saint Charles neighbourhood.
Spiraling around this central image, are the contributions of individual
artists and writers, which together form a long banner of resistance with
Kader at its centre.

Among the contributors:

Sarita Ahooja was born in Montreal and graduated from Concordia with a
Bachelors in Fine Arts in 1995. While working with the Zapatista networks in
Mexico, she organized two mural projects with youth from Indigenous
communities that were targetted by the Mexican army. She has been involved
with anti-capitalist and anti-colonial efforts for the past 15 years, and is
a founding member of CLAC, No One is Illegal-Montreal and Solidarity Across
Borders. "I believe that murals are a visual testimony to what marks a
people, and what defines a moment. They are a great tool to educate and
mobilize communities around issues that affect them directly, especially
when they are done as collective project."

Fortner Anderson is a poet. "It is important for me that Canada provide a
refuge and safe harbour for people fleeing violence in their home countries.
Our relative wealth and privilege obliges us to use our resources to help
those in need. To me, the case of Mr. Kader is clear.  Canada ought to
welcome Mr. Kader, who through his work, courage and integrity to his ideals
has shown us the true duty and function of the citizen, to inform and
instruct his fellow citizens showing by example how we are to live ethically
in this world.

Oscar Carrillo Arroyo. Political refugee from Mexico to Canada in 2000.
Activist with the CLAC from 2000 to 2004. Member of the Here the Other
Campaign (Ici la otra campaña) adhering to the EZLN's Sixth Declaration from
the Lacandon Jungle. Producer and host at Radio Centre-ville since 2000. "I
want to participate in the mural project because it is a way of helping my
comrade Kader, because I am an immigrant, and I have also suffered political
prosecution in Mexico and Canada. Because to struggle, by whatever means, is
to show dignity. We are without papers, without work, are 'worth nothing',
but we have dignity, we have speech, and this mural is a way of shouting our
rage, our chief weapon, the imagination ."

Shahrzad Arshadi is a human rights activist and Montréal-based
Canadian/Iranian artist. Shahrzad came to Canada as a political refugee on
December 24th, 1983. In the past thirteen years, Shahrzad has ventured into
different fields of photography, painting and video, enabling her focus on
issues of memory, culture and human rights. Shahrzad has exhibited her work
in various locations across North America and Europe.

Abdelkader Belaouni is 'one of the gang'. He is currently taking a degree at
the school of St. Gabriel Church, Point St. Charles .

Marguerite Bilodeau: Composer of many songs, writer, musician, pianist,
sings accompanied by her guitar. Painter and author of the play "Taxes for
Peace". Activist for justice and peace for twenty years and part-time nurse.
Member of Échec à la guerre, Ploughshares and Raging Granies. "Everyone has
the right to their place in the sun of justice and peace. For more than five
years, Kader has been like a seed in this soil to grow and blossom. He has
become surrounded by gardeners who believe in him and with patience and
perseverence have the same sense of justice and peace. Despite his handicap
he has acted autonomously and as an agent of information, a source of hope.
Kader deserves all our support."

Tatiana Gomez is Kader`s friend. www.tatianagomez.com.

Freda Guttman is an artist and activist. In more than forty years of active
research and practice, her work has been featured in numerous solo and group
exhibitions in Canada, the United States and internationally. Her work is
allied with her activism, and is often used in direct action and
fund-raisers. "Participating in the making of the mural is an honour for me.
Kader is a special person but at the same time, he represents the injustice
millions face when they are forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in
other countries."

Rawi Hage is a writer and a visual artist.

Rachel Heap-Lalonde is a member of the Vichama Collective and the Coalition
for the reappropriation of the arts (with a small "a") by Everyone (with a
big "E'"), CrapN' (the french acronym) ... "I decided to participate in this
collective project in honour of Kader and of all those artists who are part
of my community, which we construct day by day, together."

Nidal El Khairy is an illustrator living in Amman, Jordan. After completing
a Bachelor's in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, he
moved to Montreal. He was also active in several grassroots organizations,
such as the Coalition against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees, and
participated in group shows such as the Artists against Israeli Occupation,
in both Montreal and Tokyo. "People all over the planet try to seek a better
life, and that's all my brother Kader is trying to do. I wish I was next to
him to stand in solidarity. Kader will soon be free of the chains of
selective bureaucracy."

Youssef Kacem is a friend of Kader's. "His situation really touches me. I am
participating for Kader, for us, for all who are fighting for a bit of
justice - and against borders."

Laura MacDonald is a friend of Kader's who likes to make comics, and music
with her local marching band.

Nahed Mansour is an artist producing works shown outside of an art context.
She believes that this mural project, dedicated to our friend Kader, will
show only a glimpse of the support he has within the community.

Farha Najah is a feminist activist who was born and lives in Montreal.
"This mural is a way to show and express Kader's struggle for dignity. This
very struggle holds a vision of a world where people are able to migrate
without having to face borders, a world where people do not have to live in
precarity with the threat of deportation, a world where people work and live
together as a community.   It is in this vision of a just world and in
solidarity with Kader, who has been an inspiration in his resistance against
a flawed immigration system, that I chose to take part in this collective
artwork."

Babar Shaheen, born in Pakistan, graduated from Punjab University in law,
worked with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Amnesty
International for about 15 years. He came to Canada as a political refugee
in 2002. He writes poetry in Urdu , Punjabi and English, mostly about
political awakening and fighting against injustices. In 2005, he walked with
Kader from Montreal to Ottawa in the march organized by Solidarity Across
Borders to demand for status for all. "I cannot tolerate the injustice done
to my friend Kader ."

Marco Silvestro is a resident of Point Saint Charles who works with the
Point Libertaire collective for autonomy in the neighbourhood.  He
prioritizes direction action, and is notably participating in a mural
project on a wall which divides the neighbourhood in two, a project which
has been been criminalized because it was not authorized. Marco in involved
in supporting Kader because he believes that everyone deserves dignity,
respect and freedom. "Kader is a friend and an artist whose right to remain
here has not been respected by a state that only seeks greater economic
profits for those who are already rich. Kader's mural should remind us that
we are all migrants; that our parents, grand-parents, and grand-grandparents
were migrants; that the earth belongs to those who live in it, not to
"states" or "nations" which claim the right to refuse access. No borders!
Smash the State!" www.lapointelibertaire.org

Other contributors include: Magda Baczkowska, Bita Eslami, Graham Latham,
Claude Otter and the Immigrant Workers Centre. Thanks also to the Carrefour
d'Éducation Populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles and St. Gabriel's Church for
the use of their space to construct the mural.


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