Sky Arts announces first commissions for Art 50 Brexit project
Sky Arts announces a
diverse range of exciting new artworks examining what it means to be British in
the post-Brexit world as part of its landmark Art 50 project.
The works include a
‘state of the nation’ poem by the acclaimed Simon Armitage; a song book created
by choirs around the country; a comic film of different British dogs ‘talking’
about British culture; AI robots who will quiz people on what it means to be
British; and renowned playwright John Godber has written and will star in a
play featuring a Brexiteer and a Remainer as they take a tandem bike ride
across Europe
. Full details on all
commissions below.
Art 50, which launched
in March 2017 to coincide with the triggering of Article 50, is inviting
artists from all disciplines to submit ideas on the theme of what it means to
be British. Over 500 applications for the first round of commissions were
received and applications for the second round are now open. 50 projects will
be commissioned in total.
Guest judges for the first commissioning round included musician Roger Daltrey, former deputy mayor for education and culture Munira Mirza, dance artist Kenneth Tharp CBE and broadcast journalist Vick Hope.
Art 50 is a two-year
initiative funded by Sky Arts in partnership with three major UK cultural
organisations: the BALTIC Centre for
Contemporary Art, the Barbican, and Sage Gateshead. A selection of the
commissioned works will be displayed at all three venues on 23-24 February
2019, as Britain prepares to leave the EU. Storyvault Films will be making
programmes about the progress of the projects to be shown on Sky Arts.
Applications for the second round of commissions are now open at www.skyartsart50.tv. The closing date is 12 January 2018.
Art
50 is particularly interested in receiving visual arts submissions and has also
announced a schools project. For details, go to skyartsart50.tv.
Full details of
commissioned works below.
Phil Edgar Jones, Director of Sky Arts
and Chair of Art 50, says:
“The cultural voice of Britain is as mixed as its
people and Art 50 is amplifying that loud and clear as we prepare ourselves to
exit Europe. In this first round of commissions, the soul of our nation is
undergoing a creative make-over up and down the country; with Wales,
Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Yorkshire as just a few examples of where
we can expect to see and hear what it means to be British in a post-Brexit
world. We are also thrilled to be working with our partners - the Barbican,
Sage Gateshead, and BALTIC, whose public programme of events will feature a
selection of the 50 projects being commissioned in total for this ambitious
landmark project.”
Roger Daltrey, musician and guest judge, says: “This country has been
divided by the Brexit vote, but now we need to move on. I’m not a member of any
political party; I think that art should remain free of party political
judgement. For me, Art 50 is a way to bring together artists, filmmakers,
dancers, musicians and unite us again. It's fully inclusive - I like that.
Within the project there are older, established artists alongside the young and
up-and-coming, reflecting the best of diverse British culture using
poetry, music and comedy. Of course, as I know well, if there's one art form
with an ability to unite people it’s music. It’s proven that when choirs sing,
their heartbeats all go to the same rhythm – just as this project reflects the
diversity of what being British means, hopefully we will all come together as
one.”
The first round of commissions for ART 50 includes:
A new play from renowned playwright John Godber, whose Scary Bikers features a Yorkshire couple from opposing sides of the Brexit tracks setting off on a tandem ride through Europe. Scary Bikers opens at the Theatre Royal Wakefield on 8 February 2018 and will star Godber himself, alongside actress Jane Thornton.
DanceXChange, with one of the UK’s most acclaimed contemporary dance artists, Gary Clarke, will present Art 50/50, a new work based on the thoughts and feelings of the inhabitants of Birmingham – a city that was practically split 50/50 in the referendum. Art 50/50 will be researched with a small preview at Birmingham’s International Dance Festival in June 2018 and a full performance will be premiered at a site-specific location in the city during autumn 2018.
A film in which poet and playwright Simon Armitage explores post-Brexit British identity is a meditation on the relationship between Britain and Europe. As the dial on an old Bakelite radio moves from city to city - Brussels, Prague, Lyon - we tune into a film that combines sights and sounds associated with each nation with sections of the poem providing a corresponding narration. The question is, what happens when we turn to Britain on the dial? What do we see: dark satanic mills, the white cliffs of Dover baring their teeth at the continent? What do we hear: Jerusalem? Grime? Static?
Mad Dogs & Englishmen from Gadzooks is a light-hearted animated film in which dog breeds representing different UK regions are voiced over with unscripted conversations of people talking about British culture.
Royal College of Art teacher Libby Heaney will train artificially intelligent robots to chat to and quiz people online to gain an insight into what it means to be British.
The Barbican will present new pieces created by acclaimed UK theatre-makers Told by an Idiot, who will tackle the lack of diversity on the British stage by devising a new theatre piece with a group of 12 performers, six of whom have a disability; and New York-based duo Split Britches, who will take inspiration from the 1964 film Dr Strangelove and its iconic War Room, inviting members of the audience to join them in debating how to look forward in a rapidly changing world. The Barbican will also see the Los Angeles Philharmonic and world-renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel arrive for an International Associate residency, also delivering a Youth Manifesto - an open rehearsal with 150 musicians from the National Youth Orchestra and from around the UK, plus a book inspired by the thoughts of 40 young people from Britain, alongside 10 young people from America, on nurturing music for future generations.
A British Songbook by composer Alex Groves and theatre director Rebecca Hanbury connects choirs of all types - Gospel, NHS, Fishermen’s, and more - with a new songbook inspired by testimonials from disparate communities from around the UK.
Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre will deliver Urban Oratorio - five performances of live music, song and spoken
word about what it means to be Scottish and
British, based on local workshops with the long-term unemployed,
ex-offenders, people in recovery or with mental health issues, retirees,
refugees and students.
Photo-journalist Phil Hatcher Moore’s photographic portrait of
Welsh hill sheep farming will be displayed on roadsides and footpaths to
highlight the harsh reality of rural life.
Small Town Politics, an online sitcom co-directed by 28-year-old Gulliver Moore is inspired by his younger brother, who spent one year as the Mayor of Frome, Somerset, when he was just 21 years old.
Stock, a short film by 25-year-old Naqqash Khalid from Manchester, is a dark tale about immigrant anxieties where a young man finds himself voiceless when accused of crimes he didn’t commit.
New British identity symbols and fictional consumer brands for
millennials will be created by visual think-tank Common Vision.
Martha Barnett will deliver a darkly comic play told from a Northern Irish Loyalist point of view, a group who often feel British in Northern Ireland but outsiders in England.
Speaking about the
initial applications the judges commented:
Kenneth Tharp CBE, says: “For those whose notion of 'Britishness'
still resides in bowler hats, red double-decker buses, cricket greens and
pea-soup fog, it's so important to see a new generation of home-grown artists
redefining and giving voice to the Britain of today, in all its rich and
complex diversity. The range, quality and imagination of the initial ideas
submitted to Art 50, across multiple disciplines, were truly inspiring and a
testament to a creative spirit that is alive and well in Britain in
2017... that said I'm still a great fan of double-decker buses! “
Vick
Hope, radio and TV presenter, says: “There are some fantastic pieces from the
world of dance, which I can’t wait to see come to fruition, and it was
particularly awesome to discover some emerging visual artists from around the
country whose work wouldn’t have otherwise been brought to my attention. Get
set for lots of colour and creativity from the works going through to the next
round!”
For more information:
Roz Arratoon / Ellie Scott
Margaret_
+44 (0) 207 739 8203
Roz@margaretlondon.com / ellie@margaretlondon.com
http://www.margaretlondon.com/
About Sky Arts
Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated channel for the arts. It offers
something for everyone, whatever their passion, with entertaining programmes
showcasing the best of classical and popular music, theatre, opera, dance and
the visual arts, as well as original drama and comedy. Sky Arts is broadcast 24
hours a day and has over 1,000 hours available on catch-up TV, including
flagship programmes such as Portrait Artist of The Year, Landscape Artist of
the Year and The South Bank Show.
The channel is committed to supporting the arts by investing in the best
talent, both on and off screen, as well as through exclusive partnerships with
major UK and European cultural institutions, including National Theatre Live, Tate
and The British Library.
Sky is Europe's leading entertainment company, serving 22.5 million customers across seven countries - UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. The company has annual revenues of £12.9 billion and is Europe’s leading investor in television content with annual programming spend of over £6 billion. Sky has over 31,000 employees and is listed as one of The Times Top 50 employers for women. Sky is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SKY).
About the Barbican
A world-class arts and learning organisation,
the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms including
dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Its creative learning programme
further underpins everything it does. Over 1.1 million people attend events
annually, hundreds of artists and performers are featured, and more than
300 staff work onsite. The architecturally renowned centre opened
in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre, The Pit, Cinemas
One, Two and Three, Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, foyers
and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, a glasshouse conservatory , conference facilities and three restaurants. The
City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican
Centre.
About BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
BALTIC is a major international centre for
contemporary art situated on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead,
England and has welcomed over seven million visitors since opening to the
public in July 2002.
BALTIC presents a distinctive and ambitious programme
of exhibitions and events, and is a world leader in the presentation and
commissioning of contemporary visual art.
Housed in a landmark ex-industrial building, BALTIC consists of 2,600 square
metres of art space, making it the UK’s largest dedicated contemporary art
institution. BALTIC has gained an international reputation for its
commissioning of cutting-edge temporary exhibitions. It has presented the work
of over 396 artists from 54 countries in 197 exhibitions to date. balticmill.com
About Sage Gateshead
Sage Gateshead is an international home for music and
musical discovery located in the North East of England. Its local, national and
international concert programme runs all year round and incorporates all kinds
of music.
It is home to Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Folkworks
programme as well as providing a much broader performance programme. Sage
Gateshead offers an extensive Join In and Make Music programme that enables
everyone of every age or ability to become involved in music both at the venue
itself and around the region.
About Storyvault Films
Storyvault Films is an independent TV production
company making a wide range of high-quality factual and factual-entertainment
programmes for all the major TV channels in the UK and international
distribution. Formed in 2009, the company brings together a group of
award-winning producers and directors, alongside highly experienced production
management and expertise in casting and live and pre-recorded programming.
Our current and recent credits include three series of
“Portrait Artist of the Year” and two series of “Landscape Artist of the year”
for Sky Arts. Also for Sky Arts we produced eight series of The Book Show with
Mariella Frostrup, as well as live coverage of Antony Gormley’s “One and Other”
(The Fourth Plinth) “Objects of Desire” and a range of other single
documentaries. Our recent shows for BBC include “My Mediterranean
with Adrian Chiles”, “Melvyn Bragg: from Wigton to Westminster”, and a number
of “Imagines”, featuring Colm Toibin, Judith Kerr, Howard Jacobson and Marlon
James. We currently have a feature-length documentary in development
for the big-screen, and are co-producing new shows for ITV and
BBC2. Most of our productions are available for international
distribution.
