About the project

Locus - an art project with refugees, asylum seekers and members of the local community from Portsmouth. Artists Ania Bas & Les Monaghan were in residence at Portsmouth Friendship Centre for a year working with the participants to explore their personal LOCUS.

The residency took place between October 2009 and September 2010.

Some of the works developed during the residency continue their post-project life. This blog is being updated with any news on where the work can be seen, played, encountered. If you are interested in learning more contact Ania on aniabas{at}gmail{dot}com

Paper mobile phones
















Mobile phone = a tool to survive, to stay in touch, to be connected, to hear the news (bad and good), to be contactable, to call for help, to be able to leave house, to prove one's existence.

We made to date a number of paper mobile phones - they all are accurate copies of the real phones that belong to the asylum seekers we are working with. To each mobile phone only one message is attached - one they would like to be remembered.

Photo Month

In November and December we will be working with photography. During couple of sessions we worked first with photographic paper and explored ways of taking pictures without camera.

Monthly visits to All Saints Centre
















Every month we go to All Saints Centre where British Red Cross together with parnter organisations runs weekly drop in sessions as part of their Refugee Orientation Project.

During one of our visits service users were asked to finish the sentence, we gave them starting points.

Paper month - final work
















Post it note circular collective work

This is our collective work to celebrate the month full of paper! Each person drew a personal story on a series of post it notes attached to large grey sheets. The work is circular and presents itself at it best on a round wooden table we work around during the sessions.