Discovering the Living Space: an exploration of space, real and imagined, in times of movement and migration

Description

Discovering the Living Space through works by artists Ruth Rix and Helga Michie.

As a young girl, Ruth Rix was constantly on the move with her mother, the artist Helga Michie.
Michie had come to England on a Kindertransport, escaping from Vienna and leaving behind her
family including twin sister Ilse Aichinger, a famous Austrian writer. Living in rented rooms in
shared houses witnessing frequent comings and goings, mother and daughter heard shocking
stories of the fate of family members who had stayed behind in Vienna. Rix’s paintings reflect this
fractured world of moving huts and see-through houses with talismans like staircases and dogs
witnessing everything (https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/filmed-interviews/).

An exploration of space, real and imagined, in times of movement and migration, Rix’s
work spurs connections with poetry, literature, history and music. The event encourages the
audience to discover art in space, to fathom meaning through sound in a room.

The musical performance will take place in the Robert Cripps Gallery of Magdalene College.
The panel discussion on the lived experience of migration and movement in Europe in this very
moment includes speakers from the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement and
Jimmy’s Shelter.