Sunday 14 June – 12.00 – 17.00
admission free
Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5RT
Start your Supersonic Sunday at Minerva Works. A host of Birmingham’s best independent spaces present an afternoon of avant-garde performances, workshops and talks. Expect brutalist composition, contemporary improvisation, punk protest art and poetic robotics.
DISSIDENTS AND DREAMERS: ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN ART FROM THE EAST AND WEST
Centrala Gallery / Unit 3
Gee Vaucher/ Oskar Kasperek /Radosław Włodarski
Centrala Gallery presents a selection of punk protest art and documents, produced before the fall of the Iron Curtain from the East and West, including works by Gee Vaucher, Oscar Kasperek and Radosław Włodarski. Gee Vaucher’s iconic imagery made with Anarcho-punk band, Crass, was inspirational to the ‘protest art’ of the 1980s and still resonates today. Vaucher has always seen her work as a tool for social change.
From the same period but on the other side of Europe and under a different political system, Oscar Kasperek’s work is equally provocative and thoughtful, from his portraits of fellow prisoners, to his use of stamps, which leave small traces in the environment to present a dialogue with the surrounding world. In conjunction with the exhibition, Centrala Café will be presenting the contemporary work of Radosław Włodarski.
14.30 -16.00 Talk
Centrala will host a talk with artists Gee Vaucher, Oskar Kasperek and Nic Bullen, discussing their experiences in punk counter-cultural production. Chaired by John Robb, editor of Louder Than War.
[TO]FASHIONFISSIONFUSION – TADAS STALYGA
AND MATTHEW SPRINGER
Home For Waifs And Strays / Unit 9
[to]fashionfissionfusion is a flux of bodies, soundscapes, projections and languages. It is a meeting point for the cinematic, theatrical and performative. It can be seen as performance (or, in a sense, a happening) as performers negotiate the present moment, which enters the work and forms its backbone. It can be seen as theatre, but not one where the border between the performer and the audience is reinforced, where the lines, movements and sensibilities are rehearsed beforehand. It can be seen as cinema, but without a priori script, narrative or conclusion; one where editing, filming, acting, soundscape, narration happens simultaneously. There are no shots, actions or sounds which are unfit; knowing, not knowing, clarity and confusion trade places.
www.hfwas.co.uk
FIZZLE PRESENT REACT
Stryx / Unit 13
An exciting programme drawn from the best of Birmingham’s thriving improvised music scene. Featuring British improv legends alongside talented young musicians making their mark on the national circuit, expect cutting-edge electronics, immersive string duets and acoustic free jazz at its best.
www.stryx.co.uk
SARAH ANGLISS, TRACE: MUSIC AND POETIC ROBOTICS
JOHN CAGE: VARIATIONS VII (SCREENING)
Vivid Projects / Unit 16
In this short performance devised and presented by Sarah Angliss (composer and roboticist) and Emma Kilbey (actor), breaths, gestures and other human actions seem to be echoed in changes to lamps, cups and other objects. You can choose to observe these events as they unfold, or influence them further by hooking yourself up to the set.
In 1966, ten New York artists and thirty engineers and scientists collaborated on a series of innovative dance, music, and theatre performances, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering. The ten artists included John Cage, whose Variations VII was the next to last in his series of indeter- minate works begun in 1958, and which made increasing use of electronic equipment and systems to capture and manipulate sounds present at the time of the performance. Don’t miss your chance to see this rare and historical film, consisting of archival footage of the performance and documentary interviews.
Vivid Projects is a collaborative agency and project space, exploring all forms of media arts practice.
www.vividprojects.org.uk
BEND YOUR TARMAC THROUGH MY EARS:
HONOR GAVIN PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST TALK WITH AIDEEN DORAN
Grand Union / Unit 19
Musician and writer, Honor Gavin, talks to artist, Aideen Doran, about their shared interest in Birmingham’s architecture and the influence it has had on their artistic endeavours.
They will talk from within the setting of Im Bau, an experimental research space devised by artist Aideen Doran. Im Bau brings together Aideen’s research on Birmingham as a space for artistic, economic and ideological production.
The talk will be followed by Honor Gavin performing sounds from Yes Manzoni, a sonic celebration of Birmingham’s twentieth century urban transformations.
Grand Union is a gallery and artists’ studios that supports the development of artists and curators through provision of high quality work space and an experimental programme of free exhibitions and events.
www.grand-union.org.uk
