INTERVIEW
BRAVE EXHIBITIONS
CLAIRE DUPREE TALKS TO JOEL THOMSON ABOUT THE NEW ITERATION OF BRAVE EXHIBITIONS FESTIVAL, WHICH SETS OUT TO MAKE CONNECTIONS AND BREAK BOUNDARIES There is more to Brave Exhibitions than meets the eye. Keen music lovers may notice that the Cluny-based festival, now in its third year, has grown quite considerably since its inception, but that’s not the whole story. On course to become a shining example of what principled, ethical and diverse programming can be, it has been shaped by a collaborative effort to give the region a basis for what ‘better’ could look like. Organiser Joel Thomson sets the scene: “The first two years were pretty much an experiment in whether or not I’d be able to pull that sort of an event together and make a success of it, and I intentionally wanted to do as much of it myself as possible, to teach myself how to be a festival producer. I’ve always liked to learn how to do things myself before delegating tasks to others. Of course, it could have all gone horribly wrong and I could have found myself massively out of my depth, but I think it worked out alright.” Building on the festival’s growing reputation as a place for musical misfits to find something new to love, some of this year’s many highlights include noise rock titans Part Chimp; urgent alt. punks Blóm; celebrated avant artist Nuha Ruby Ra; experimental polymath Kapil Seshasayee; endearing post-punks Trash Kit; psychedelic noise collective GNOD; dark dance band Evil House Party; Newcastle’s
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electro folk artist Me Lost Me; composer, turntablist and performer Mariam Rezaei; found sound electronic project Late Girl; genredefying electronic composer and viola player Astrid Sonne and improviser Shelly Knotts among many others. Joel gives special mention to Sunday night’s headliner, CURL. “There are no artists on the bill that I’m not really looking forward to seeing, but if I had to pick one that I’m particularly excited about it would be CURL, a collective made up of producer and MC Brother May, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer Coby Sey, and Oscar-nominated composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Mica Levi formerly of Micachu & The Shapes. I’ve been obsessed with everything Mica has ever done and was pretty desperate to get one of her projects on this year’s bill. They are going to be an absolutely perfect end to this year’s festival.” This year’s event sees a considerable step up in terms of both artists performing and the general scope of the event. “I think having a year of sitting in my flat by myself during lockdown really helped me to get my ideas together for this year’s festival, and think about some great people and organisations I could approach to partner on some activity.” Enter partnerships with Salford’s Fat Out Festival, North East music support agency Generator, Black-led feminist community
