Back in Gdansk

                                           Alernativa opening

So we have been back in Poland for 4 days now and so much has happened.  After a long journey from Birmingham we arrived at Wyspa laden down with baggage.  We managed to take a quick snooze before the opening of Alernativa, an art festival organised by Wyspa taking places around the shipyard.  It was an immense opening; over 50 internatioanl artists are showing at Alternativa which will run until the 30th September.  It was a great opportunity to meet new artists and to catch up with our own Post Industrial artists.

On Sunday Roma and I accompanied Aliceson to Kuznica a small town on the Hel peninsula.  A couple of weeks earlier Aliceson found a fishing buoy washed up on the beach close to her accommodation on Wyspa Sobieszewska. It’s a beautifully made object and Aliceson decided to embark on a 3-hour train journey to return it to the fishing boat it belonged too. She researched a code written on the side of the buoy and found out where it originated.  So on Sunday morning we set off with her to re-unite the buoy with its owner.  When we arrived at Kuzica train station we were greeted by a sea of mosquitoes, much like our trip to Puck during our last visit.  It was quite terrifying!

After walking along the coast for a few minutes we found the gate to the dock, and by chance met a man who recognised the buoy as belonging to his friend.  Unfortunately the owner could not collect it so we left the buoy with the dock security guard happy in the knowledge it would be safely returned.  For Aliceson, the discovery of this buoy instigated the development of a side project to her main exhibition pieces, more will be revealed about this later.

Monday was a particularly busy day, were Aliceson embarked on a boat trip around the shipyard Island, the make shift boat (adapting an existing rowing boat) became a floating monument to the shipyard.  Roma and I were lucky enough to hitch a ride on the speedboat which towed Aliceson’s boat.   It was amazing seeing the shipyard from sea level.   It’s wonderful having the opportunity to realise this performance, footage taken from this trip will form a video pieces which will be shown during the exhibition.  We want to say a big thank you to Nick for towing the boat along and making this all possible.

Our other Post industrial artists are working hard developing and installing their works. Louie and Jesse are slaving away on their installation in a kiosk outside of Wyspa,  and Matt is continuing to conduct interviews and develop his installation in Modelarnia. Today has been a day of cleaning and preparing Modelernia, it’s a big job and we’ve had to be very resourceful when clearing the space as we have limited storage.  It all starts again tomorrow!

Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau

                                          Screen shot from Liverpool Fugue 2010

As an artist Matthew is interested in the idea of the flaneur. A flaneur being someone who experiences an environment by walking through it, in order to understand it. He is also interested in the parallel idea of the fugue, which is a state of psychological breakdown accompanied by loss of identity and long periods of seemingly aimless wandering. People who undergo dissociative fugues have been known to travel many hundred of miles, suddenly becoming aware of what has happened but having no explanation of how they got to where they are.

He views walking as a critical process. ‘When you walk, you think. Your thoughts are led by what you see and you reflect upon your environment. To walk in a post-industrial environment is to begin to understand the history of such an area on a human scale. To exist as an individual in a post-industrial landscape is a way of challenging that environment and its inevitably de-humanising nature.’

Matthew works predominantly with sound, whether video, performance or installation, his works are often led by the sound, particularly spoken narration.  This narration is then underpinned by soundscapes made from his recordings.

Matthew has previously undertaken residencies at the Royal Standard in Liverpool, and the Lombard Method in Birmingham, both in 2010. During these residencies Matthew focused on the post-industrial landscapes of each city and made work that dealt with the micro-histories that exist in such environments.

Liverpool Fugue - A lecture with slide-show given on the opening night of The Festival, a solo exhibition at The Royal Standard in Liverpool

http://blip.tv/file/4363624

This is Not a Public Right of Way - A video made as part of a residency at The Lombard Method in Birmingham, in Summer 2010.

http://blip.tv/matthewgiraudeau/no-public-right-of-way-3718970

louie+Jesse

                                   

louie+jesse are a visual/sound/performance art collective of two core members, with varying associates. Having trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, they work in multiforms such as performance installation, sound sculpture, and site-specific video, combining an enthusiasm for new technologies and materials with an analogue aesthetic. They are particularly interested in the interplay between external space and personal body, their pieces are often politically engaged and respond to place, history and community. 

Previous works includes  Capillary a large scale installation developed as part of the Ganze/Teile exhibition in a derelict office building in East Berlin, July-August 2010.  This installation consisted of vast quantities of bright industrial drainage tubing carry sounds from one place in the building to another. The tubes disappear and reappear through the many holes in the floors, ceilings and other areas, not limited by rooms or straight walls, some paths traceable and some unclear.  

                                 
 histoires concrètes is a project realised by louie+jesse in PeerGrouP’s P.A.I.R. (www.peergroup.nl) – a temporary residence for artists. It consists of two six-metre containers where the artists lived and worked for one month (Nov/Dec 2010). Situated in a remote rural location - between fields, wood and mudflats, near the village of Finsterwolde.  The final piece for this project formed an unconventional map of the local area, inviting physical experience of place and exploring both the limitations and potential of ‘history’ and communal narratives. Made from local clay soil, the sculptures embody the different processes evident in the landscape, and changed radically daily with the weather.

Aliceson Carter

Aliceson Carter, Homage to the 1968 Paris protests and the legacy of Marcel Duchamp, 2008

We would like to introduce the practice of each artist taking part in the Post-Industrial Revolution residency . We begin with Aliceson Carter. Her Art practice revolves around observation, and as such reflects the world around us. She graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2009.  During her time there she made a piece of work where she paid homage to the 1968 Paris protests and the legacy of Marcel Duchamp (who died in Paris in 1968). She carried a urinal from his Paris residence to Birkbeck University in London, documenting the journey in a 5hr video piece. This was shown at 1968: Impact & Implications conference in July 2008.  Since graduating she has taken part in a research lead project in Berlin, documenting the Berlin border of today with Kodachrome photographic film from the 1980s, when the Berlin Wall was in force.  A 2010 residency in Sweden documented the Tranäs Cruising event, an annual parade of hundreds of restored vintage American cars around the town.  She has also recently travelled to Kansas to record the last days of Kodachrome processing for my Kodachrome Pre Paid Processing Packet Project.  In all these projects she has been interested in exploring the community, history & locale. This has lead to making work that focuses on the sense of time & place and our interactions within them. 

Matt's daily reports from his Post-Industrial Revolution experience

Kate and I unfortunately had to head back to Birmingham leaving our artists in good hands of our project manager - Marta. Thus we can't keep you as much updates as we wish. Surprisingly Matthew turned out to be enthusiastic blogger.  You can read almost daily reports from his Post-Industrial Revolution experience in Gdańsk on his blog http://ashortdescriptionofmypoo.blogspot.com/

It was fascinating read for me. It is always interesting to read what people from other countries think about your country, and Matt has got a lot to say. I can't wait for more! 

Week one of residency

So it’s been a busy time for Post Industrial Revolution.  Roma and I embarked on the first of two-scheduled trips to Poland last week, initiating the second part of the project. We set off a little under the weather but powered through.  After a day of re -familiarising myself with Wyspa, Modelarnia and the shipyard,  as well as discussing practicalities with Marta and Roma we were good to go.

Two of the four British artists, Aliceson and Matt arrived bright and early Friday morning.  We then embarked on a busy day, dropping off artists baggage at the accommodation, beach frolics, and a spot of lunch followed by a trip to Wyspa.

                                                        Monument at Westerplatte

The following day we got all touristy and jumped aboard a ferry to Westerplatte, historically significant as the location were Germany invaded Poland on 1st September 1939, initiating the Second World War.  We visited a monument dedicated to the 182 Polish Solders who lost their lives defending the city, keeping the Nazi’s at bay for a staggering 7 days.   The ferry trip offered fantastic views of the shipyard from the water showing just how vast the Gdansk shipyard really is.  The afternoon was spent exploring the shipyard on foot, the highlight being Aliceson’s discovery of a huge polystyrene cube!  We are hoping to borrow or possibility rent this object for the exhibition.  After talking to Marta I discovered that scrap or discarded object in the shipyard can be borrowed or rented rather then taken.  I rather like this idea of loaning found materials.  Different parts of the shipyard are owned by different companies or individuals, so it’s just a case of finding out who owns the polystyrene.  The day was rounded of with dinner, an opportunity for the artists to meet different members of the Wyspa team and indulge in some tasty polish delicacies.

                                           Matt and Aliceson surveying the cube

                                                        Exploring the shipyard

Sunday involved an epic journey to a town called Puck to witness 400km, a project in which camper vans filled with artists and art visit small towns in the surrounding area of Gdansk.  We went part of the way by train and the remainder packed into one of the artist's camper vans.  Unfortunately upon arriving at our destination we were engulfed by a plague of mosquitoes! It was almost biblical.  The event was cancelled but we took it as an opportunity to explore the town.  We then stopped off for a beer in Gdynia, the second largest city making up the try cites of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot.

                                          Louie and Jesse explore the shipyard


Monday marked the arrival of the artist duo Louie and Jesse. Their first day in Gdansk followed a similar formula to that of Matt and Aliceson's, the difference being we had the opportunity to explore the residency studio space within Wyspa and store room facilities.   This is where I came across our old friend Lech Walesa, this model of him was installed in Wyspa's gallery space during my last trip to the shipyard a year previously.

                                                        
                                           

After a trip to Modelarnia and more exploring we bid farewell  to our artists.  We will be returning to Gdansk in two weeks time to see how they're getting on.

British artists arrived to Gdańsk!

Gdansk Shipyard famously the “Cradle of Solidarity’’ and a key industrial site within Polish History shall play host to four emerging British artists intending to explore its heritage.

The Artists’ visit marks the final stage of Post Industrial Revolution, an artistic residency exchange developed between the UK and Poland focusing on the former industrial areas of Birmingham and Gdansk, in particular the districts of Digbeth and the Gdansk Shipyard.  

The artists from the UK has just begun the one month residency from the 5^th of May until the 5^th of June 2011, using it as a period for research and for the production of new art works directly responding to the Gdansk Shipyard, its historical and social context.  These newly create art works will be displayed in an exhibition at Modelarnia, a former industrial space, originally utilized for the building of model ships and part of the Wyspa Progress Foundation.  The exhibition will take place from Friday 3rd until Sunday 12th June.

British artists taking part in the residency are louie+jesse (Jessica Mautner, Louie O’Grady), Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau and Aliceson Carter.

 

The comparisons between Digbeth and the Gdansk Shipyard as post industrial sites are of significance, each city has at some stage been deeply affected by the demise of industry, its movement abroad, and more recently the development of cultural and leisure industries in these former industrial areas.  Co-curator  of Post – Industrial Revolution Kate Pennington – Wilson outlined ‘The focus of this residency exchange is for artists to develop work which responds to these environments, reflecting this shift in usage as well as the change in social, political  and industrial history of such spaces’.