2016: IN OTHER WORLDS
Festival of Art & Ideas 2-10 September 2016 Across the City bristolbiennial.org
#inotherworlds
WELCOME Sing, breathe, connect, explore... Welcome to Bristol Biennial 2016: In Other Worlds. Step sideways into other points of view: bathe in a rainbow, breathe the air of the past, hear a galaxy of stars. Rediscover your senses in unusual pockets of Bristol. Artists from near and far offer fresh perspectives on our place in the world. Together, we seek greater understanding of the city, its voices and its fabric. Much is changing, but there’s still time to talk. Take a hand, cross a border, speak another tongue, taste a fresh idea... Hannah, Eva & Rowan Co-directors, Bristol Biennial
FESTIVAL HUB PHOENIX CAFé, All Saints Street, BS1 2LZ Make this your first point of call! Phoenix Café is an independent creative hub in the city centre. Meet friendly Festival Guides on hand with information and navigation advice. It’s next door to Our Colour (p.6) and hosts a series of festival events.
BOOK TICKETS Visit our website: bristolbiennial.org Most of our artworks are completely free to experience. For performances, talks and special events, we’ve kept our ticket prices very low at £5 or £3, to ensure as many people as possible are able to attend. Charging for tickets means we can make sure our artists are paid fairly for their work.
play your part
Playful, participatory projects & temporary communities
30
4
12 3
stop and stare
18
35
Exhibitions, installation, performance & spaces to reflect
37
8
22
10
Walks, roaming artworks & journeys across the city
14
6
ON THE HOOF
FEED YOUR BRAIN
38
28
Talks, lectures, discussion & ideas for curious souls
37
32
24
A-Peg, Lunch with Feeling, 2015. Photo © Roser Diaz, courtesy of Hand in Glove
#bearpitbanquet
BEARPIT BANQUET Festival Launch Party How does conflict become conversation? Gather in one of Bristol’s most contested public spaces for a night of celebration and dialogue. Bearpit Banquet will combine delicious homecooked food from around the world, live music from talented local performers and the launch of an international art festival. Bring your neighbours, meet some strangers, create a new community together.
Community Partners Bearpit Improvement Group aims to transform the Bearpit into a space that is welcoming, safe, diverse and inclusive. Saffron Records is Bristol’s first female youth record label on a mission change the way women are perceived within the music industry. 91 Ways Peace Café is a ground-breaking pop up (the first of its kind in Bristol) dedicated to bringing together the city’s 91 language communities via food in order to create a better, more united, Bristol.
4
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
2 September, 6-9pm DINNER SITTINGS: 6PM & 7:30PM The bearpit, BS1 3LY
UK ARTISTS
play your part
All welcome to this event. Booking your seat at the table will ensure that we can feed everybody, including those who cannot afford to pay.
Produced in partnership with Bearpit Improvement Group. Supported by Bristol City Council Neighbourhood Partnership Fund and Big Lottery Fund: Awards for All.
5
Liz West, Your Colour Perception, 2015. Photo Š Stephen Iles
#ourcolour
6
our colour Liz West Does colour change the way you feel? Drench yourself in the spectrum and see the office in a new light. Refracting light through translucent and reflective materials, Liz West transforms a functional space and turns colour into an immersive and embodied experience. Enter a vivid world, explore human visual perception and sense how colour affects our emotions and our bodies. Come bathe in the rainbow! Generously supported by rosco and Resolution Property. With thanks to Outset South West.
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
Visit the Exhibition 3-10 September, 10am-7pm The Pithay, BS1 2LZ
STOP AND STARE
Family Workshop 3 September, 10am-1pm The Pithay, BS1 2LZ
UK ARTIST
Drop into a free, playful workshop for families: especially suited for ages 3-12.
Liz West lives and works in Manchester, and has exhibited art nationally and internationally, including large-scale sculptural commissions for Natural History Museum, National Media Museum, Blackpool Illuminations.
7
#dearcity
STAND UP DEAR CITY Tom Stone Ever walked the city with your eyes closed? Tom Stone invites you on a mission to walk and map the ‘state of mind’ of east Bristol. In a series of playful group walks investigating the neighbourhood of St George, physical architecture becomes less important than the rhythms, ambiances and hidden signs of life.
Tom Stone is an artist based in Bristol. Stand Up Dear City is an ongoing project conceived as a way of interrogating city life through different themed walks. It recognises (and celebrates) the ever-shifting nature of the city and the importance of group exploration.
8
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
The Walks ALL WALKS START & END AT: ST GEORGE LIBRARY, BS5 8AL
Day 1: Into the unknown
Sun 4 SepTEMBER, 2-5pm
ON THE HOOF
Day 2: A different rhythm Tue 6 SepTEMBER, 2-5pm
Day 3: Down the rabbit hole Thur 8 SepTEMBER, 2-5pm
UK ARTIST
The Map 5-10 september Mon: 3–7pm. Tues & thur: 10am–2pm. Wed & fri: 1–5pm. SaT: 11am–5pm. ST GEORGE LIBRARY, BS5 8AL
Tom Stone and walk participants will co-create a layered map of their findings. Visit a growing exhibition and add your ideas to the installation.
Supported by Friends of Troopers Hill & St George Library
9
Emily Parsons-Lord, The Airarrium, 2015. Photo Š Peter Cheng
#greatdying
10
THE GREAT DYING Emily Parsons-Lord Have you tasted the air of another time? The Great Dying was the largest extinction event in Earth’s history, when over 96% of species died out - and emissions of Carbon dioxide are even steeper today. In one of the most air-polluted areas of Bristol, Emily Parsons-Lord creates a beautiful, minimalist installation in which the air of The Great Dying is carefully released in response to human presence. Take time, take breath.
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
3–10 September, 10am-6pm Eastville Roundabout, BS5 6XA
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
STOP AND STARE
Emily Parsons-Lord is an artist based in Sydney. Her practice investigates air, informed by research, climate science and critical dialogue with materials.
Atmosphere and Attitude 5 September, 7pm THE NEW PLACE, BS5 6PN
Emily Parsons-Lord will be in conversation with Dr Richard Pancost and Prof Steve Lewandowksy, University of Bristol, discussing the science and psychology of climate change.
Supported by Australia Council for the Arts and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol.
11
#futurefete
Hengrove Mounds Festival of Ancients Jo Hellier
Photo Š Jo Hellier
How will we be remembered?
12
Discover a fĂŞte set in the future, celebrating the past. Imagining how people might commemorate our era, Jo Hellier invites the community to build a surreal folk festival, reflecting on sustainability, collectivity and what gets lost in translation. Join a day of festivity, featuring music, dance, food and colourful costumes.
Jo Hellier works with performance, installation and sound. She explores ecologies in the widest sense, looking at natural ecosystems and comparing them to human structures.
FESTIVAL COMMISSION STOP AND STARE UK ARTIST 10 September, 12-4pm Hengrove Mounds Nature Reserve, BS14 0BY
Supported by Bristol City Council Creative Seed Fund and Knowle West Media Centre.
13
#heybristol
HEY BRISTOL Natalia Skobeeva How would you greet a newcomer to the city? In an interactive sound sculpture, over 40 distinct voices welcome visitors as they cross the threshold into the city. Tackling today’s issues of migration, transnationalism and miscommunication, Hey Bristol reinforces humanity and personal encounter over citizenship status, economic divides and political borders.
2-10 September, 24HRS BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS RAILWAY STATION, BS1 6QF
Supported by Network Rail and Bristol Temple Meads.
14
Natalia Skobeeva is a Russian-born artist, now based between London and Belgium. Her work crosses borders of media, and she has presented in festivals around the world.
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
THE SWEARING DOOR Natalia Skobeeva Have you ever been given a label?
ON THE HOOF
In a second sound installation, passers-by are randomly assigned a label by an unseen authority: a playful but pertinent reminder of the words and prejudices that divide our society.
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
2-10 September, 24HRS THE BEARPIT, BS1 3LY
Supported by Bearpit Improvement Group
In Search of Lost Words 9 September, 10-11AM MEET AT: Phoenix CafĂŠ, BS1 2LZ
Natalia Skobeeva joins psychoanalyst Tamara Dellutri to lead a walking discussion group, moving across the city in search of a mother tongue, what gets lost in translation, and a common language for Bristol.
15
#flawless
(F)LAWLESS CHAMP & Carina Ahlskog Can we connect at a distance? Six artists attempt to collaborate across international waters. Within the vastness of the world wide web, they test the theory that art is borderless, boundless and limitless (with a Wi-Fi connection). Leave the safety of a concrete outcome and embark on a voyage of (F)Lawless adventure.
Image © Jack Wilson (CHAMP)
Burn your passport, bring your sea legs!
16
CHAMP is an open community, a mutually supportive network and an artist-run space based in Bristol... and They Are Very Glad You’re Here. Carina Ahlskog is a visual artist from Nykarleby, Finland, with a background in modern dance and physiotherapy and a fascination with movement. Project curated by Catherine Bourne, 2012 Bristol Biennial director, whose current research explores notions of failure in the context of communication.
Supported by Phoenix Café, Meanwhile Creative and Bothnia Biennale.
FESTIVAL COMMISSION ON THE HOOF
See the Project Unfold
Final Group Performance Fri 9 September, 12-4pm Millennium square, BS1 5DB
17
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
UK ARTISTS
2-10 September flawless2016blog.wordpress.com
#galaxyofsuns
Š Silversalt Photography, courtesy the artist and Anna Pappas Gallery
a galaxy of suns
18
Michaela Gleave with Amanda Cole and Warren Armstrong Have you heard the stars sing? Experience a large-scale immersive choral performance alongside the UK launch of an interactive smartphone app. The app plays the sounds of the stars as they rise and set over 360Ëš of the horizon, tailored for the exact location of the listener. A Galaxy of Suns will sing the skies above Bristol, bringing distant stars into the streets, homes and pockets of people across the city.
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
4 & 8 September, 8pm Staple Hill Tunnel, BS16 4TE
Smartphone App play your part
Free download from agalaxyofsuns.net during the festival. Unlock the contents from these locations – North: Narroways • East: Troopers’ Hill • South: Victoria Park • West: Clifton Observatory Park • Central: Phoenix Café
Produced in association with Experimenta Media Arts. Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and by Arts NSW. Created in Bristol with Gurt Lush Choir.
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
A Galaxy of Suns is a project led by Australian visual artist Michaela Gleave, in collaboration with composer Amanda Cole and app developer and digital artist Warren Armstrong. Michaela Gleave’s projects question our relationship to time, matter and space.
19
PLAY YOUR PART ON THE HOOF STOP AND STARE FEED YOUR BRAIN
CALENDAR Page 4 6 8 10 11 12 14 15 15 16 18 22 23 24 26 28 30 32 33 34 34 35 35 36 36 37 37 38
FRI 2
Bearpit Banquet Our Colour Stand Up Dear City The Great Dying Attitude and Atmosphere Hengrove Mounds Festival of Ancients Hey Bristol The Swearing Door In Search of Lost Words F(Lawless) A Galaxy of Suns Performances for Pets Workshop for Humans Nootropics and The Last Frontier of (Un)Consciousness Liquid Presence The Floating DIY City Better Than I Imagined All Work and No Play #SmartCityDampDataCitizenSpectaculecture Sing for your Supper Commons Club The Pineapple Party Undercover The Festival Big Screen Half World Art Spin
SAT 3
SUN 4
MON TUE 5 6
WED THU 7 8
FRI 9
SAT 10
#performforpets
PERFORMANCES FOR PETS Alex Bailey & Krõõt Juurak How do we create culture for other animals? Imagine a performance created especially for your household pet, performed at their home. Through practical research and consultation with pet psychologists, Alex Bailey & Krõõt Juurak bring an experience of theatre and contemporary art to domestic animals. Each performance is adjusted to the specific audience member’s character and willingness to engage or interact.
Alex Bailey (UK) and Krõõt Juurak (Estonia) are artists and performers currently working and living in Vienna. Collaborations include Animal Jokes (for Animals), Animal Show and they have performed at the homes of pets in Zürich, Erlangen, Berlin and Vienna.
22
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
Performances for Pets
STOP AND STARE
5–8 September, 1 hour slots YOUR HoME OR garden, Bristol
A Workshop for Humans
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
9 September, 2-3pm The Inns Court Centre, BS4 1TR
All Work and No Play: Open Discussion 9 September, 10-11AM Phoenix Café, BS1 2LZ
Krõõt Juurak & Alex Bailey join Claudia Capocci in an open discussion reflecting on the relationship between voluntary labour - of pets and artists - and our wider political economy. Supported by Bristol City Council: Filwood, Knowle & Windmill Hill Neighbourhood Partnership
23
Image courtesy of the artist, ft. Eadweard Muybridge (Animal Locomotion, 1887, plate 537)
#lastfrontier
24
Nootropics and The Last Frontier of (Un)Consciousness Nina Stuhldreher Do you think in images or words? In a surreal multimedia performance-lecture, Nina Stuhldreher recounts an artistic research trip which accidentally turned into a Doctor Whovian robinsonade. Join her for a journey into the artist’s brain and relive encounters with the unexpected: volcanic outbreaks, exploding nuclear plants, political upheavals, bodyless hands, faceless agents, and George Orwell resurrected as a precog android, dreaming of rotating pyramids!
FESTIVAL COMMISSION INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
FEED YOUR BRAIN
Nina Stuhldreher describes herself as a reality researcher who operates with artistic strategies. She is an ex-photography prodigy, ex-new media curator, ex-magazine editor, ex-collaborative workforms junkie and has now set off to explore her own image-based way of thinking.
6 & 8 September, 7pm / 6pm Cabot Cruising Club, BS1 6UB
Supported by Cabot Cruising Club & Federal Chancellery Austria
25
#liquidpresence
LIQUID PRESENCE Daina Pupkevičiūtė How do we connect our past, present and future? Over six days, Daina Pupkevičiūtė sets foot in three different port cities: one reminiscent of childhood, one of artistic awakening, and another of a future yet unknown. Mediated by screens, Daina performs in Kaunas, Lithuania and Turin, Italy, before arriving in person in Bristol. Witness a measured, precise and powerful ode to a crossing of the European continent, in search of presence, connection and possibility. Supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture, Centrespace and Bristol Marina. Co-presented by torinoPERFORMANCEART and CREATurE Live Art Festival.
26
FESTIVAL COMMISSION
Live Performance:
9 September, 7:30pm Bristol Marina, BS1 6UH
Live-streamed Performances: 4 September, 6:30pm 7 September, 7:30pm Centrespace, BS1 1EA
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
STOP AND STARE
Video Installation: 5-10 SEPTEMBER, 10-6pm Centrespace, BS1 1EA
Daina Pupkevičiūtė is a performance and sound artist, born in Kaunas, Lithuania. Working with autobiographic material, she explores questions of identity, belonging, physical and political resistance and our relationships with ourselves and other humans.
27
#thefloating
THE FLOATING Conway and Young with Amy Spencer How do we write from the water? Twelve writers, each hailing from a different Bristol neighbourhood, embark on a water-borne workshop. The Floating is a temporary publishing project taking place on land and water, reflecting on the geography of the city and contemplating freedom. Discover the resulting words as they’re published experimentally and installed outdoors on the Harbourside.
28
FESTIVAL COMMISSION UK ARTIST
ON THE HOOF
Conway and Young have been collaborating since 2006, using design to engage people in discussing and rethinking the social, political and environmental. Amy Spencer is a Bristolbased writer and creative writing tutor.
8-10 September, 24 Hours/day Bristol Floating Harbour, BS1
Download a map of the artwork locations from bristolbiennial.org Supported by Bristol Ferry.
29
#diycity
DIY CITY Marieke Warmelink & Jasmin Moeller How can we take back control of the city? DIY City operates as a new civil service in the municipality of Bristol. Tackling Bristol’s underlying stories, the artists play the role of consultants - although they were never asked to provide anybody with their research. Through a series of performative interventions Moeller and Warmelink offer the city and its citizens a cooperative platform to investigate, propose and work with alternative ways of decision-making. Supported by Colston Hall and The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
30
30
FESTIVAL COMMISSION play your part
Jasmin Moeller (Germany) and Marieke Warmelink (Netherlands) are interested in the friction between everyday life and the imagination. Together they use public space and observation as starting points for playful performance.
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
Phase 1: Outdoor Office
Fri 2 Sep, 6-8pm: The Bearpit Sat 3 Sep, 1-3pm: St Nicholas Market Sun 4 Sep, 12-2pm: Bedminster PARADE
Phase 2: Open Workshop
Wed 7 Sep, 6:30-9pm Colston Hall, 3rd Floor
Phase 3: Presentation of Findings
Fri 9 Sep, 7-8pm St Werburgh’s Community Centre
Supported by Cabot Cruising Club & Federal Chancellery Austria
31
Sophie Chapman and Philippa Taylor, Aspiration Suits, 2015. Photo Š Lucie Rox
#betterimagined
32
Better Than I Imagined Claudia Capocci Why do you volunteer? Better Than I Imagined is a project run exclusively for Bristol Biennial volunteers, aiming to recognise their critical role within and outside the festival. Artist duo Aspiration Suits will lead a workshop engaging the collective interests of the volunteers, while Claudia Capocci leads participants through Artist’s Therapy discussion groups. When you meet our volunteer Festival Guides in September, keep an eye out for signs of quiet rebellion. Supported by the Gane Trust, Arnolfini and Bristol Student Union.
FESTIVAL COMMISSION UK ARTIST
FEED YOUR BRAIN
Claudia Capocci is a Bristol-based curator. Her work revolves around heightening a sense of presence, facilitating creativity and championing the autonomy of artworks and artists.
All Work and No Play: Open Discussion 9 September, 10-11AM Phoenix Café, BS1 2LZ
Claudia Capocci joins Krõõt Juurak & Alex Bailey in an open discussion reflecting on the relationship between voluntary labour - of pets and artists - and our wider political economy.
33
SATELLITE PROJECT
#SmartCityDampData CitizenSpectaculecture Paul Hurley and Caleb Parkin A new performance exploring how sensor tech and data can be made and used by citizens for the common good. Expect musings on collaboration in (and on) other worlds, through a playful mélange of performance and poetry.
FEED YOUR BRAIN
7 September, 7:30pm Data Dome, At-Bristol, BS1 5DB
Photo © Lee Pullen
play your part
SING FOR YOUR SUPPER Hannah Sullivan Imagine a world where song is currency. You are invited to a supper, in which one song is exchanged for one hot meal. Enter a world where songs exist in your memory, not in digital devices, and bring your voice to the table.
6 September, 6pm Phoenix Cafe, BS1 2LZ Photo © Artur Tixiliski & Sabrina Shirazi
SATELLITE PROJECT
COMMONS CLUB KWMC with Paul Hurley and Caleb Parkin
Photo © Ibolya Feher
SATELLITE PROJECT
play your part
10 September, 11am Phoenix Cafe, BS1 2LZ
FEED YOUR BRAIN
Join an informal discussion about how the collective act of ‘common-ing’ can form networks and create social change. Knowle West Media Centre will talk about The Bristol Approach, a commons-led project, while artists Paul Hurley & Caleb Parkin introduce hOur:Bristol, a new creative time bank for the city.
THE PINEAPPLE PARTY Megan Clark-Bagnall From plantation to plate in the UK, pineapples make an epic journey of 5,424 miles. In the form of an outrageous Georgian dinner party, Megan Clark-Bagnall leads a whirlwind tour of this not-so humble fruit. Expect sea-crossings by slave ship, 1980s gay icons, and a touch of Club Tropicana...
3 September, 6pm Phoenix Cafe, BS1 2LZ
35 SATELLITE PROJECT
SATELLITE PROJECT
UNDERCOVER Hand in Glove Hand in Glove have invited an artist to infiltrate, ingest and interrogate the Biennial. Watch your backs. It could be her, it could be him. It could be you. The result of their investigations will be revealed online as the festival draws to a close. Intel may be leaked along the way.
ON THE HOOF
2-10 September handinglove.org.uk Photo Š Roser Diaz
FEED YOUR BRAIN
THE FESTIVAL Doggerland Responding to Bristol Biennial 2016, artist-led research platform Doggerland will co-commission creative and critical reflections on the festival. The resulting writing will be distributed online.
2-10 September doggerland.info
36 SATELLITE PROJECT
SATELLITE PROJECT
BIG SCREEN Bristol Experimental & Expanded Film (BEEF)
3-6 September, 6:30-7pm Big Screen, Millennium SquarE, BS1 5DB
STOP AND STARE
From immersive photochemical experiments to analogue-digital interrogations to humorous found footage, BEEF presents a programme of its members’ work that celebrates the alternative world of experimental film and artists’ moving image.
2-10 September The Old Malt House, BS2 9EB
FEED YOUR BRAIN
Photo © Stephen Cornford
HALF WORLD Loft 6D Fiction, myth and legend provide us with entry points to other worlds. Loft 6D host a series of lectures, performances and exhibitions, curated within a visual backdrop to provoke dialogue and debate in reaction to the current state of our world. Visit loft6D.co.uk for the full schedule.
37 SATELLITE PROJECT
#artspin
ART SPIN Explore art, en masse, on wheels! Art Spin is a fun and playful way to encounter art in alternative places across the city. Take a tour of the festival, including A Galaxy of Suns (p10). Bring your bike or hire at a discounted rate from one of our cycle partners.
ON THE HOOF
4 September 2016, 6-9pm MEET: the bearPIT, BS1 3LY Supported by Art Spin Toronto, our inspiration. Our partners Cycle the City & Jake’s Bikes are offering bike hire for 25% discount (quote In Other Worlds).
TRY OUR FESTIVAL APPS Search the App Store or Google Play and download our apps for your smartphone – for the full festival experience!
38
Memberoo
Apps4Arts
Using ground-breaking sensors (pictured) at festival venues, Memberoo allows you to join our community, collect points along the way and unlock art rewards and special offers.
For those on the move - our interactive festival guide is a onestop-shop to access all the information you need to navigate and plan your journey.
FESTIVAL MAP Our projects cross the city: in neighbourhoods, communities and unusual locations. All are easily accessed by public transport, cycle routes, driving and walking. Visit bristolbiennial.org for an interactive festival map and directions!
ACCESS INFORMATION We believe art is for everyone, and have worked hard to make our artworks accessible to as many people as possible. If you have any questions about access or would like to let us know how we can make an event accessible for you, please email hello@bristolbiennial.org - we’d love to hear from you.
FESTIVAL TEAM Hannah Clark Eva Martino Rowan Lear Steph Li Rachael Baskeyfield Georgia Hall
Artistic Director Executive Director Director of Engagement Technical Manager Engagement Co-ordinator Guide Co-ordinator
Thank you to our incredible volunteers and supporters.
PARTNERS
supporters
FUNDERS
Printed by Park Lane Press on FSC certified paper, using fully sustainable, vegetable oil-based inks, power from 100% renewable resources and waterless printing technology.