New Art Exchange, Nottingham Trent University & Walker Art Gallery (National Museums Liverpool) present:
“Lying-down-on-the-ground” Sonia Khurana ©2010
“Lying-down-on-the-ground� Sonia Khurana Devised and directed by artist Sonia Khurana as a live participatory event during Liverpool’s Biennial
Do you want to be part of a public live arts event?
We are looking for participants in an international artwork by acclaimed artist Sonia Khurana, to be part of the artwork by giving some of your time on either of the key dates below. Or you could help bring the important artwork to life by helping as a volunteer facilitator.
Key dates and venues:
Opening weekend of the Liverpool Biennial: SUNDAY 19th SEPT 2010 in the area around Lime Street Station from 1:00pm - 4:00pm Long Night of the Liverpool Biennial THURSDAY 18th NOV 2010 at the Walker Art Gallery from 6:00pm - 10:00pm Register at e: biennial@nae.org.uk or t: New Art Exchange on (0115) 924 8630
Lying-down-on-the-ground
The live event welcomes people with both arts and non-arts backgrounds to join in. Khurana invites people who can be comfortable with the experience of lying down in an outdoor public space. As participants lie down, their shapes are traced using chalk. Over WKH WLPH SHULRG D EHDXWLIXO LQWHUORFNLQJ WUDFH RI LPDJHV LV OHIW RQ WKH à RRU Lying Down aims to work on so many levels, with the input of different participants and audiences. It’s a fairly simple, essential and non-threatening form of social interaction, and Khurana has drawn large numbers of audiences to participate into this act of lying down. As an ongoing, public performance event, it continues to take place across various international cities, the most recent being Nagoya, Japan as part of the Aichi Triennale and earlier in the summer a workshop derived from this project, at New Art Exchange in Nottingham. Lying Down has both playfulness and poetry, but it gets us thinking on some essential issues: embodiment and resistance; our awareness of the space we occupy; what meanings we give to images of a body lying down; our simple, everyday acts, and how we attach sense and meaning to them, but how that sense and meaning is dislodged when those acts are performed in unfamiliar settings; what happens, when things we do on our own, are done as a group activity or collective utterance?
VOLUNTEERS* – your role as facilitators is to help make the live, and mostly silent, event run by communicating with the audience and participants. You also act as a catalyst for the act of lying down and for the activity of tracing people’s bodies as they lie down. You keep track of what goes on and of who takes part, you encourage, you pass on information to participants and to the general public, you help co-ordinate visitors in the live space over the period of the event.
*Please note YROXQWHHUV ZLOO QHHG WR EH IUHH IRU D EULHĂ€QJ E\ 6RQLD .KXUDQD RQ Fri 17th
September (afternoon) as well as the date of the live event on Sun 19th September as above. There’s also an optional artist talk/workshop for visual and performing arts students, to involve some volunteers in late September 2010. If you can also take part in the second event on Thurs 18th November, there is a VHFRQG EULHÀQJ on Wed 17th November. For up to date information please visit: www.nae.org.uk/lyingdown.php
Producer/Consultant Dave Ellwand www.daveellwand.co.uk Consultant: design & art work David Thomas Crawley www.davidtcrawley.co.uk