A WINTER STORY
SHUNT, 15 TO 18 OCTOBER ,LONDON,UK
Deep in the tunnels under London Bridge Station, a select group of young creative people, working in a variety of fields set out in an adventurous artistic laboratory. The group consists of a mix of nationalities (English, Greek, French, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish) working in collaboration, to create a critical intensity and develop a common language. The collective group’s whole name is ‘A winter story in the wild jungle hotpot milk between shallow apples’. The title is not meant to be literal. It’s meant to give nothing away and be hard to remember. The opposite effect of normal advertising. The shunt was a perfect trajectory for the ‘winter story’ to come together as it’s a space that engulfs you for the evening, takes away the line between the art and the viewer and encourages a whole evening of interaction with the works.
Working in disciplines such as artists, architect, critics, curators and musicians enabled us to create an atmosphere in the shunt that played with a large spectrum of your senses and emotions in a diverse way. For example in one (very large) room you had a collaboration between Sarah Trouche a performance artist and Benjamin Herr an architect in which he had built a landscape of shoes/ plinths designed to be stood on in positions the body would not normally hold therefore changing the architecture of the body. Through out the performance, gravity was experimented with by the duration of the time. This was located next to a peace by Hanna Husberg, artist, and Dere Gum, architect, in which they artificially bread plankton that took on the most fantastic green colour. Also in this room was a peace called Shrouded by Olan, artist, where she worked with Guillaume Paris to combine the fabric with the imprint of her blood after plastic sugary, which, visually kept the form of a face. This was then blended with the image of a religious fabric and animated so that the fabric appeared to be blowing, and the face would mutate simultaneously. Without the diverse range of interests and skills working together it would not have been possible to create such a strong impact one room. You were made to think of science, nature, growth, structure, movement, body, pain, violence, beauty, technology to feel safe, calm, threatened and confused in a seductive way. Without imposing any specific views on the chosen criticalities. We started with no objective of what as a group we wanted to achieve; nothing was tied down. Everything remained ephemeral encouraging the widest array of subjectivities.
I can’t go into details of every project however much I would like to there was just so much energy and fiction in the space. There were plaster blocks falling from the ceiling, Security demonstration of useless protective structures, French piggy back tours, silent tours, trips through the ‘rain’ sheltered by a man with umbrella. Plus so much more.
Without introducing any particular themes or direction lines, we have previously worked together and created workshops and shows in France and in England. Play, adventure and spontaneity were very important to the project for the artists still getting to know one and other and for the audience to create accessibility for the viewer. The play was kept by the experimental and openness to mistakes and new direction. We entered the space on the Monday morning with very loose ideas of what we wanted to do and opened the show on Wednesday with unfinished works, we wanted to open our processes to the public and let them transgress, not just impose our vision on the space.
We are having a catalogue printed, which will log the progress of the works and help us reflect on what was created. For details on future happenings or to find out more visit www.winterstory.org.
Artists Interpretation of Winter Story Laboratory from the perspective of a participant
Underneath London Bridge Station. I am looking for a small wooden door, the first step of a unique experience of the winter story show at the shunt
I am in, it’s difficult to breath there, humid, dark and strange
I don’t really know what I expect, an Arts laboratory. I face a long corridor a really long corridors I can feel water on my shoulders, its raining!
On my left I can see to women doing a live painting on my right four men inviting women for a French back tour
What’s a French back tour?
I am now on the shoulders of David, afraid, not sure about safety. I will be guided by them, discovering this laboratory
I feel unstable but privileged, I experience a unique way of visiting a show
Is it a show? I am to confused to define the work in front of me
Installations, live, sound, architecture, discussions, party, performance, I am submerge by the pieces.
Sometimes I discover small groups of people watching a performance creating a sort a private tribunal network inside the space.
To late for this performance
You have to be at the right place at the right time
But it’s a huge space I get the impression that everything is in process nothing fix or set up.
Artist are here to try to interact says David.
Tomorrow the show will be different.
Each day allows a new step for the pieces.
I need to know more about the group
They are a Group of European emerging artist architect performers, daring to put themselves in question, they reinvent their making in a constant relation with the public.
Without introducing any particular themes or direction lines, the artists have previously worked together and created workshops and shows in France and in England.
In the underground space the artist will find themselves “under pressure” and will reveal the sensation of these dangerous positions.
Dangerous certainly, to experience as public and as artist
The most importance here is not the pieces that I have seen but the experience that I just lived, that they just lived
Art in my point of view is made by event, accident and experiences, where artists, architects and critics try to found their place. They need to know what they are supposed to do with this world around and to re-engage in a dialog about imagination, artistic creation and reality.
Art today is something to experience, something in this place and time defined by an artist.
In this sense, can we say that contemporary creation becomes performative?
At the shunt during this week certainly, we just need to know now what they are suppose to do with the rest of this experience.
And how they will reinvent and re-engage the process of making art?
Guest collaborators:
ORLAN,Guillaume PARIS.
Artists:
Joseph AMADO, Yvan ARGOTE, Pauline BASTARD, Maxime CHANSON, David CHARPENTIER, Julie CURTISS,Jeanne GARGAM, Dere GUM,Aymeric HAINAUX,Benjamin HERR,Hanna HUSBERG,Emeric LHUISSET,Marie LELOUCHE,Chloe THORNE,Iris TOULIATOU,Sarah TROUCHE,Mathe TVEITAN,Katia YESLI,
CCC,EYE’n’EAR.
Currated by Sarah Trouche
1 comment:
kul post !
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