This year, Brighton Festival's Guest Artistic Director for 2010 will be the highly respected artist, cultural thinker and producer Brian Eno. Eno will be curating a fascinating collection of events across the city including 77 Million Paintings, Apollo, an exclusively commissioned sound installation and speaking on several occasions. His influence will also be felt right across the Festival programme as his key interests and ideas, ranging from social creativity to climate change and the environment, to a focus on generative art are taken up by our team of programmers. These topics will weave a thread through the genres of theatre, dance, books and debate, music and outdoor events, linking together projects by some of the outstanding companies and artists coming to this year’s Festival.
Brian Eno says of the appointment “I am delighted to be part of a festival which has consistently placed itself at the cutting edge of the creative arts in Britain. I hope to be able to show some recent work that has not yet been seen in this country, and also to develop new works especially for the festival. I would like this festival to provoke and entertain - and hopefully to start some social conversations which will persist long after it has finished. Aside from all that I look forward to a few weeks living in one of Britain's most pleasant cities!”
Andrew Comben, Chief Executive of Brighton Dome and Festival says “World-class direction and a captivating programme of events are what cement Brighton Festival at the heart of the UK and international arts scene. Brian Eno is bringing some extraordinary events to the 2010 Festival, along with the infectious energy and intellectual range of a polymath. Eno in many ways embodies the ideal festival curator with interests and experiences so eclectic and extensive. I’m really looking forward to what promises to be an exceptional Festival.”
Highlighted Brian Eno Events
Conceived by Eno as “visual music”, 77 Million Paintings is a constantly evolving sound and image-scape born from his continuous exploration into light as an artist’s medium and the aesthetic possibilities of generative systems. 77 Million Paintings premiered in Tokyo in March 2006 and has since exhibited in 13 countries. This free event will be in Fabrica throughout the Festival.
Brighton Festival has also commissioned an exclusive sound installation that will be mounted in various public locations across the city. This will comprise soundscapes created by Eno in an amalgamation of found sounds, sonic treatments together with his own unique musical composition.
The contemporary ensemble Icebreaker will perform a music arrangement of the 1983 album Apollo (Atmospheres & Soundtracks) by Eno live to the film of the original NASA footage of the Apollo moon landing.
Three additional key commissions in this year’s programme:
Hofesh Shechter’s Political Mother
Brighton Festival presents the world premiere of Shechter’s first full-length work Political Mother. This highly anticipated new piece from the internationally acclaimed Brighton-based company will be performed by 10 dancers of the Hofesh Shechter Company and accompanied by Shechter’s cinematic score played by a live band of drummers and guitarists.
Since exploding onto the dance scene in 2007, Hofesh Shechter has established himself as one of the UK’s most exciting creative forces, in demand worldwide. Following recent successes, including the 2009 Brighton Festival premieres of The Art of Not Looking Back and the engaging community project Bangers and Mash, Shechter is one of the most exciting artists to emerge in recent years.
Hofesh Shechter says: "It's great to be associated with Brighton Dome and Festival and to be presenting the world premiere of my next work with their generous support. Brian Eno is a legendary figure in the music industry; more importantly for me, he’s experimental and brave in his creation. It's inspiring to have him at the artistic helm of the festival this year."
Political Mother is commissioned by Brighton Festival, Sadler’s Wells, Movimentos, Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, Roma Europa and Mercat de les Flors with support from Theatre Royal, Plymouth. The development of the score was supported by Barbican Centre in collaboration with Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with support from PRS Foundation. Hofesh Shechter Company is the Resident Company at Brighton Dome and Shechter himself is Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells.
Rimini Protokoll Best Before
Best Before created by Helgard Haug and Stefan Kaegi, pulls the multi-player video game out of the virtual realm and plugs it into an intimate theatre setting for this UK premiere. A simulated city evolves as each of 200 spectators adds their personal touch, game controller in hand. At first you are an anonymous avatar but then you take on human dimensions as audience members clash, collaborate and negotiate the forces that shape reality here in the third millennium.
The work of Rimini Protokoll is a theatre of Münchausian escapades. Having created over 20 new works all sharing a very distinct style the company has attracted attention throughout Europe for blurring the line between reality and fiction. With non-actors such as construction flaggers, news reporters, professors of pathology, elderly women, unemployed air traffic controllers and retired miniature train enthusiasts, ‘experts in daily life’ are the real protagonists for Rimini Protokoll, as seen in Breaking News which had its UK premiere in last year’s Brighton Festival, the first time the company had been to the country.
Best Before is commissioned by PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Co-produced by Brighton Festival and Goethe-Institut, Hebbel am Ufer, Luminato – Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Rimini Apparat, The Cultch and La Bâtie-Festival de Genève. Supported by Arts Partners in Creative Development and the Federal Republic of Germany.
dreamthinkspeak
dreamthinkspeak are Associate Artists of Brighton Dome and Festival and have had previous successes in the Festival with their acclaimed site-responsive works including Who Goes There? (2001), Don’t Look Back (2003) and Underground (2005). Their work interweaves performance with film and installations to create extraordinary journeys that are visually layered, challenging and popular with audiences around the world. They will now present the World Premiere of their new project commissioned by Brighton Festival; a site-responsive, promenade installation inspired by The Cherry Orchard, marking the 150th anniversary of Anton Chekhov’s birth.
Working with locally based architects, 3D designers, modellers, film makers and performance artists drawn from a variety of countries, dreamthinkspeak will create a richly imaginative voyage through the interior spaces of a currently disused building in central Brighton, seamlessly slipping between time-frames and eras.
Notes to Editors:
- The 44th Brighton Festival runs from Saturday 1- Sunday 23 May 2010
- Brian Eno worked for NASA and crafted the Windows 95 start up noise. His music career has ranged from the early success in Roxy Music to fathering the ambient music movement, to producing some illustrious groups including U2, David Bowie and Coldplay. He has also created three successful iphone apps linked to his work, and this year curated The Sydney Opera House’s Luminous Festival
- Anish Kapoor was the inaugural Guest Artistic Director for Brighton Festival in 2009, turning Brighton into a city-wide art gallery with over 80,000 people engaging with his six works throughout May.
- The 2009 Festival featured 26 premieres and exclusives of which 7 were commissions by Brighton Festival. Total ticketed attendance achieved was 77% at 165 events with over 50% of performances sold out and in addition over 150,000 people enjoyed 11 free events during the 23 days of the Festival
- The annual three week Brighton Festival started in 1967 and is a leading commissioning and producing Festival which attracts over 300,000 attendances each year and contributes £20m to the local economy
- Brighton Festival was named ‘Tourism Event of the Year’ at the Tourism South East ‘Tourism ExSEllence Awards’ and also won ‘The Creative Industries Award’ at the Brighton and Hove Business Awards
- Brighton Dome and Festival Ltd, which produces the annual Brighton Festival also manages Brighton Dome year round and is a single charitable trust employing 75 permanent and 200 casual staff with an annual turnover of £7m
- Hofesh Shechter Company will be the Resident Company at Brighton Dome until Autumn 2011
- Brighton Festival is funded by Brighton & Hove City Council, Arts Council England and through the sponsorship department which raises over £500k annually
- The first Festival in 1967 controversially included the first ever exhibition of Concrete Poetry in the UK, alongside performances by Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins and Yehudi Menuhin