travel

On 1st December PLATFORM's Agitpod mobile cinema will set off on it's return journey from Bristol to London, why not join us?  Read more

As one of five C Words Co-Realizers one of my jobs is to reflect on the events which take place in the gallery. Yet, within the walls of Arnolfini I find it hard to find intellectual space or critical distance from the work.  Read more

This evening I went to hear Kate Rich and Rasha Shaheen present the Feral Trade project. Kate and Rasha are about to embark on a trip to Iran, attempting to open up a new grocery trade route.  Read more

On Sunday afternoon, Virtual Migrants presented a performance and talk: The Centre Cannot Hold, Part 1. The performance examined the social inequalities around the issue of climate change. The following discussion looked at why those most effected are largely not the industrialised economies causing it; the connections between environmental crises and migration; and local Bristol history that connects to these wider issues.  Read more

We wake up to a view of corn and sunflower fields fast giving way to rows upon rows of apartment blocks in Istanbul’s outlying suburbs. Unlike the crumbling towers of Eastern Europe, many of these are new and shiny, as Istanbul spreads into the agricultural land to the west.

Our Belgrade-Istanbul sleeper curves down to the Sea of Marmara, as we chug through the outlying suburbs. As we get closer in, I can spot tens of tankers queued up, waiting to pass through the narrow Bosphorus. Many of these will be heading for Supsa in Georgia or Novorossiysk in Russia, to fill up with Azeri Caspian crude pumped across the Caucasus, destined ultimately for European or American cars.  Read more

Only in Brussels for 90 minutes, so not long enough to visit BP’s office on Rondpoint Schumann, adjacent to the European Commission.
This provides the company’s easy access for major EU lobbying of various EU institutions. BP — Extracting Influence at the heart of the EU, a report published earlier in 2009 by Corporate Europe Observatory and PLATFORM unmasked BP’s attempts to harness EU foreign policy and legislative power for its own benefit.  Read more

I’m waiting at Kings Cross - St Pancras with my rucksack for the 12:57 Eurostar to Damascus. The train isn’t quite direct yet — need to change at Brussels, Munich, Belgrade, Istanbul and Adana.  Read more