In this workshop Vilk Collective, Iranian/UK musicians and activists explore the historic relationship between Iran and Britain and invite you to ask any questions you have about Iran.
Winston Churchill called Iran’s oil “a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams.” From the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later renamed BP) to the CIA/MI6 coup that overthrew Iran’s first democratically elected leader Mossadegh in 1953, British hands are all over Iranian history. Iran was part of Britain’s ‘informal Empire’ and most of us were never taught any of it. How is that history playing out in what we are seeing today and what can we do to support the people of Iran? We will end the session together in music, with a collective learning and singing an Iranian song.
Vilk Collective is the boundary-blurring musical collaboration of Roxana Vilk and Peter Vilk, musicians, filmmakers and community artists whose work is rooted in migration, memory and collective voice. With heritage spanning Iran, the former Czechoslovakia and the UK, their music weaves Persian folk, jazz, dub, funk and global rhythms into something both ancient and future-facing. Recently artists-in-residence at Trinity Community Arts Centre in Bristol, they created the award-winning Lullabies project, (featured on BBC News) celebrating the 96 languages spoken across the city, and went on to tour their immersive gig show Circle/دایره in collaboration with light installation artists Squidsoup, selling out venues including Bristol Beacon, Arnolfini and Freedom Festival Hull and Migration Matters Festival Sheffield.
BBC Radio 6 favourites and UK Jazz Expo alumni, Vilk Collective’s work is driven by deep community collaboration from refugee choirs to primary schools, creating powerful spaces where diverse stories are sung, shared and celebrated. They are core members of Dovetail Orchestra Bristol, the first Orchestra of Sanctuary for Refugee and Asylum Seeker musicians in the UK and currently co-composing the music for The Paper Cinema’s new production. Vilk Collective have also been commissioned to make documentary films for MTV, Amnesty International, Al Jazeera English and BBC focusing on human rights, cultural identity and freedom of expression.