During the Eighteenth Century, Bristol was heavily involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade through the importation of raw sugar from the Carribean which was refined in sugar houses around the city. Berlin based artist Ana Bilankov investigates this historical fact in her digital video piece Sweet Home. Sugar is poured into a coffee cup and stirred until it is saturated and overflows, the sound of the spoon slowly scraping the bottom of the cup is emphasised and disturbing. The action becomes an attempt to stir history - the history of Bristol and its involvement in the slave trade and the personal history of the artist´s experience of displacement, migration and nomadism.

Sweet Home was developed by Ana Bilankov whilst in residence at Watershed in February 2002 and exhibited as a DVD Installation in March 2002.

During Ana's residency at Watershed, visitors were invited into the space to talk to the artist and contribute drawings about the notion of Sweet Home from their perspective. View the visitors image gallery.

This project was a collaboration between Watershed, the Research Centre for Contextual, Public and Commemorative Art, UWE, Bristol and the Institute for Art in Context at the University of Arts, Berlin.