About REFUGE

About REFUGE

REFUGE 2016 - 2022

This is NOT a drill - Produced by Arts House (Melbourne), REFUGE was a multi-year (2016-2021) transdisciplinary project between artists, emergency management professionals, local government, Indigenous and local communities, and academics exploring the role of artists and arts organisations in climate-related disaster preparedness. Central to this work is Isabelle Stenger’s concept of the ‘cosmopolitical’, how de-centering fact-sharing with values-alignment creates more meaningful participation, and how speculative approaches activate the public imagination informing feedback loops of research, policy and creative practice in the REFUGE project.

Every disaster is different. Every community is different. Therefore, every action in disaster preparedness, response and recovery is context-specific. Each year, new questions are explored in-depth as we collectively determine the imagined climate-related disaster scenario and what we will practice together. In 2016, it was a FLOOD; 2017, a HEATWAVE; 2018, a PANDEMIC; and in 2019, displacement. The Covid-19 pandemic moved REFUGE from North Melbourne Town Hall to online, where we revisited our collective work in Refuge: Pandemic with 3-part digital series. And, in 2021 we explored the vast multifarious dimensions of cumulative impacts, pandemic recovery, care and community relations.

Jen Rae was a core artist of REFUGE as well as a creator making collaborative multi-platform works each year. Click on each year below to find out about Jen’s projects in REFUGE.

You can find out more about the REFUGE project as a whole by visiting Arts House’s webpage, vimeo channel, or the media page.

Where we arrived after 6 years - REFUGE SHORT DOCUMENTARY (2021)

The beginning, where we started - REFUGE TRAILER (2016)