Friday 21 October 2011

Experimentica 1.1

Experimentica 1.1
Chapter Arts Centre
Weds 12th – Sun 26th Oct
Written by Chelsey Gillard

Now in its 11th year Experimentica is a festival of live and time-based art works that seek to be challenging, provocative and imaginative. This year the focus was on pedagogy (the art of teaching), art and performance. One of the main concerns is that each performer or participant must display energy, care and intelligence, and this year this was enhanced by the slogan “What do you care about?”

Most of the action takes place in the arts hub that is Chapter Arts Centre but this year there were also links with tactileBOSCH’s MOIST; a live city-wide art night, the Madeinroath free artist-led festival and other more obscure venues throughout the city such as Cardiff Central rail station.

Unfortunately I was only able to attend two days of this incredible festival, and although I managed to see a wide range of experimental work it just made me wish I could have seen more!

Here are my thoughts on what I managed to catch:

Iwan ap Huw Morgan: Gweledigaeth/ Vision
Billed as a “ritualistic performance” the audience were given little to form an idea of what to expect from this “visionary experience”. Being led into a theatre with no seats; except one, in the middle of the performance space, upturned; just added to the mystery.


Surrounding this toppled chair, was a debris riddled building site, lit by church altar candles. At one end a step ladder, the floor covered in brooms and buckets filled with various evil looking liquids, at the other end a man; bald-headed, tattooed, a noose around his neck, silent. From his resting place on the floor Iwan read an extract about doctors taking blood, Indian amputees propelling themselves on homemade skate boards, boils filled with puss, madness.

Iwan in his previous performance Gweld/Seeing
Image by Helene Roberts
Silence gripped the room again as he picked up a syringe which he handled like a well-practiced drug abuser. Instead of pumping harmful chemicals into his body Iwan plunged the needle into his groin and drew blood from his veins. As a vivid red line dripped down his stark white leg he proceeded to empty the syringe into his mouth and on his face, as though he himself were some sort of living sacrifice.

The performance was a rhythmic study of traditions, rituals; some familiar, like the boxer taping his hands before a fight, some strange and somehow otherworldly. The only noises throughout were Iwan’s heavy breathing and the occasional guttural declaration as he proceeded to destroy the various props by performing his almost religious ceremonies with them.

Somehow both destructive and constructive, the performance reached its climax as Iwan held a cloth or robe upwards, to heaven perhaps, and let out long animalistic groans to each side of the room in turn. As he stormed out of a side door the theatre was once again left in silence.

At first I didn’t know what to make of this piece, I’d never seen anything like it before. I left the theatre with a strange feeling of controlled aggression, like a boxer before the big title match. It wasn’t until the next day when I considered the work of the Expressionist movement that it began to make sense to me. The Expressionists were more concerned with creating a performance that gave a view into the emotions, rather than imitating the real world. Even though sometimes the audience had no way of knowing what the movements represented, I believe (whether this was his intention or not) Iwan has created a piece that perfectly portrayed the emotions behind the rituals he carried out; there was a real sense of the calm before the storm.


Secret Theatre (Canada) : Farewell Cardiff
Inside Chapter’s Stiwdio space Dustin Harvey & Chad Dembskia held a bittersweet celebration to say farewell to Cardiff and all the people, past and future, who have ever left the Capital City.

The space was decorated with white streamers and slightly deflated balloons, giving that slightly sad feeling you get when a really great party comes to an end. This summed up the whole performance, even though there was a lot of joy and laughter, the sense of something coming to an end was always bubbling under the surface.  

Dustin and Chad in the streamer decorated Stiwdio.

The two charismatic Canadians entertained the audience with touching goodbye songs, somewhat surreal sketches of interviews with local characters, and even provided local booze and Welsh rarebit. Undoubtedly the best part of the performance was the use of the projection screen; having earlier set up a camera outside in Chapter’s courtyard they streamed live footage into the studio all throughout the performance. Periodically one or other of the performers would run outside and perform over the top melodramatic scenes of goodbyes whilst epic parting songs were played indoors

So much work had gone into the preparation of this piece; it was almost as if all the time the two performers have spent in Cardiff was building up to this performance. They had collected recordings of general goings on around the city centre, taken photos of places they passed every day, and asked really meaningful questions like “Why do you live where you live?” and “Who or what do you want to say goodbye to?”. Obviously some answers were humorous, some quite sad but mostly they dung right into their own hearts and the heart of Cardiff.

At the end of the performance both left the space and stood outside with handwritten cardboard signs saying “Farewell Cardiff” whilst waving at the audience inside. Some random people passing in front of the camera even joined in with the send-off. Although at some points the performance felt a bit disjointed and maybe didn’t flow as a whole piece, you could clearly see how much these two artists loved Cardiff and the people who live there. It certainly was a fitting tribute to the friendly, multicultural, proud city.


André Stitt: Amnesia
André Stitt is considered one of Europe's foremost performance and interdisciplinary artists, practicing and producing work in many areas since 1976. His wide range of work includes performance art, painting, drawing, installation, digital print, video, photography, and relational activity. He also produces music and tours with his 60s inspired band The Panacea Society. Born and raised in Belfast, he was an impressionable teenager during the Troubles.

In this performance Stitt explored his drink and drug riddled past and his often controversial work through spoken word and projections. Almost narrating his life in his lilting yet harsh Irish tones he would occasionally break out from his space behind a desk and perform what he terms “akshuns”, often acting out a part of his life, like when he used to dress as a woman or shouted slogans into a megaphone such as “Art is not a mirror, it’s a f***ing hammer!”.

Much of Stitt’s work focuses on difficult themes such as oppression, freedom, consumerism and alienation. During the time he was addicted to drugs lots of people threw the word “redemption” around whilst discussing his work, yet interestingly Stitt never felt any redemption through his performances.

André Stitt


Stitt has travelled the world, making an impression wherever he goes. Now drink and drug free Stitt is still explosive and intriguing. American ND Magazine described him as "Arts best kept secret and last live wire" and he certainly is an absolute inspiration.



Elbow Room: Intercourse
Elbow Room asked “Is there something you’ve always wanted to tell someone you know? Or would you like to meet a stranger in a mirrored room?” and they gave couples (some previously known to each other, some not) the opportunity to do exactly this. Couples or individuals signed up to spend ten minutes in Chapter’s Common Room while an audience gathered round TV screens in the Café Bar to watch a live fed of their antics.

Intercourse believe many private lives are being acted out in public arenas and wanted to investigate the ethics of public observation and surveillance, whilst also looking at human interaction. Some of the key points for exploration were; what is and what is not acceptable behaviour and the concerns that arise when filming or recording members of the public. 

The group wanted to set up an ongoing discussion around the experience and invited the participants to join the spectators to discuss their time within the Common Room. Unfortunately due to the positioning of the viewing area this experiment wasn’t as effective as it could have been. In a small corner of the noisy Café Bar, it was difficult to hear what was going on in the Common Room and it often felt overcrowded as a lot of people wanted to see what was going on between time scheduled shows. 

Chapter Arts Centre
From: http://elbowroom.org.uk/page16.htm

It will be interesting to see if this event is taken further and what conclusions Elbow Room draw from the experiment. Whilst watching I didn’t see anyone do anything particularly daring or outrageous and maybe this was because even though they were in a closed room they were aware of an audience that they were likely to bump into in the centre. Not perfect but certainly very interesting.

What would you have done with the opportunity?


Matt Cook: Automatic Walking
Working around the quote "Walking is like drawing on the landscape, every time one travels through the city a trace is left behind, on the traveller and the place through which he has travelled" Matt Cook undertook a two week research project taking a series of walks around the city of Cardiff.

Route maps and other research documents were displayed in the Theatre foyer and more were added to the exhibit each day of the festival. Eventually Matt hoped to create a map of his experiences and hopefully discover more about the city and himself. 

Matt on his travels
From: http://www.chapter.org/24306.html

Unfortunately I only saw this project in its infancy but even then it promised to be a thought provoking and worthwhile venture.






To go back to the question posed by Experimentica’s manifesto; “What do you care about?”
My answer would have to be the continued growth of Wales’ arts and performance scene and Experimentica has once again succeeded in bring new and exciting art and performance to Cardiff. Long may it continue.


For more on Chapter Arts and the artists involved in Experimentica 1.1 please visit: http://www.chapter.org

For more reviews of performance in South Wales please visit my blog: www.hypercriticreviews.blogspot.com








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