INTERVIEW
ART & LIT
MIDDLESBROUGH ART WEEKENDER CLAIRE DUPREE TALKS TO LIAM SLEVIN ABOUT MIDDLESBROUGH’S IMMERSIVE ARTS FESTIVAL The largest contemporary art festival in the North East returns this year in its most-loved real-life form. Middlesbrough Art Weekender takes over venues across the town from Thursday 30th SeptemberSunday 3rd October, and brings with it exclusive exhibitions, immersive experiences and eye-opening installations. Artists are recruited for the festival through an open call; Liam Slevin, co-founder of MAW and curator of The Auxiliary Project Space, explains that it’s one of the most exciting parts of the process for him. “We had over 110 applications this year and it really shows the level that artists are operating at in the North East, despite the challenge of the last 18 months. We selected 10 artists and that exhibition will be happening at The Auxiliary Project Space, it’s a mix of painting, drawing, installation, video and performance.” Liam explains that this year’s festival had to cope with unprecedented challenges. “Outside of the North East Open Call it
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has actually been a tricky year for selecting artists; bringing in artists from abroad is a real challenge due to the unfortunate mix of Brexit and Covid. This also meant programming large touring international installations was a no go. But like everything, limitations can be very exciting and lead to more creative responses!” The theme around this year’s event is Infrastructure, which artists have responded to in various ways. The successes of the festival are numerous, including a North East exclusive of work by American artist Gordon Matta-Clark, whose films Splitting (1974) and Day’s End will be shown at 32 Albert Road. Splitting documents the artist’s use of a chainsaw to bisect a New Jersey house scheduled for demolition, transforming the house into a temporary sculptural environment; while Day’s End documents his ambitious and controversial deconstruction project at Pier 52 on the Hudson River.
