VIVID

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VIVID: Discussion & Screening

Join VIVID this Saturday (04 June, 5-7pm) for Reflections on The Stendhal Syndrome (2011) presented by THEY ARE HERE (admission free).

“Stendhal Syndrome is a psychosomatic condition that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world.”

Taking Graziella Magherini’s text The Stendhal Syndrome as a starting point, collective practice They Are Here will present testimonies and images exploring notions of beauty and the sublime, which they will present alongside a selection of related readings.

They Are Here is a collaborative and multi-disciplinary practice steered by Helen Walker and Harun Morrison since 2006. They Are Here work across media and types of site, having shown work in theatres, galleries, former warehouses/ shops, online and civic spaces. Institutions we have developed or presented work include: Battersea Arts Centre, Camden Arts Centre, CCA Glasgow, Chisenhale Gallery, Man & Eve Gallery, LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) Tate Modern, South London Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery. www.theyarehere.net

Reflections on The Stendhal Syndrome is presented at VIVID as part of ECSTATIC, an enticing season of moving image works and intervention exploring heightened states. Artists include: Abramovic/Ulay, Companis, Mark Leckey, Carolee Schneemann, Elisa Sighicelli and Andy Warhol.

ECSTATIC continues to Saturday 18 June 2011 (open Thu-Sat, 12-5pm, admission FREE)

VIVID | 140 Heath Mill Lane | Digbeth | Birmingham | B9 4AR
T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | www.vivid.org.uk

VIVID exhibition: ECSTATIC (13 May-18 June)

ECSTATIC | 13 May – 18 June 2011
open Thu-Sat, 12-5pm (admission free)

Artists: Abramović/ Ulay, Companis, Mark Leckey, Carolee Schneemann, Elisa Sighicelli, and Andy Warhol.

VIVID presents ECSTATIC, a visual and sensory season of moving image works and intervention exploring heightened emotions and altered states.

Carolee Schneemann. Meat Joy (1964). Image courtesy the artist.

EXHIBITION PROGRAMME
(Fri 13 May – Sat 18 June | open Thu-Sat, 12-5pm | admission free)

Turner prize winner Mark Leckey’s Parade (2003), is a compulsive repetition of images swirling past the silhouette of the artist. The subjects in Leckey’s video works lose themselves in the image, the music, in visual excess. They dress up, drop out. In Parade, the procession of images are suffused in a chemical haze; evocative of the garish neon impressions of the city at night-time.

Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy (1964) has the character of an erotic rite: excessive, indulgent, and a celebration of flesh as material: raw fish, chickens, sausages, wet paint, transparent plastic, rope brushes, paper scrap. Its propulsion is toward the ecstatic– shifting and turning between tenderness, wilderness, precision, abandon: qualities which could at any moment be sensual, comic, joyous, repellent.

In Relation in Space (1976) Abramović/ Ulay (1976) approach each other from different sides of the space and collide in the middle. The piece was the first in a series of provocative, ritualistic performances entitled ‘Relation Work’, which explored extreme states of consciousness and their relationship to architectural space.

Exciting young Italian artist Elisa Sighicelli presents Untitled (The Party is Over) (2009), in which fireworks explode against the night. Edited in reverse with a hypnotic rhythm that induces daydreaming, this video could be the depiction of a journey in a time machine.

Andy Warhol‘s Blow Job (1964) is a masterpiece of the complexities of voyeurism and duration. The 36-minute film shows a young man apparently receiving oral sex, the head and shoulders are tightly framed; and the actor is still, almost vacuous.  Occasionally self aware, his primary expression is one of boredom. Off screen space must be imagined by the viewer.

PREVIEW
(Fri 13 May | 6-8pm | admission free)
Ecstatic launches on Friday 13 May, 6-8pm, with ULTRAVIOLENCE I, a new commission and live intervention from Companis. This thoroughly immersive experience aims to assault the senses using fluorescence, intensely coloured light, sound and gesture. Marvel at the surreal, edible landscape and adorn yourself in white, if you dare!

DISCUSSION & SCREENING
(Sat 04 June |  5-7pm | admission free)
They Are Here presents Reflections on The Stendhal Syndrome, a psychosomatic condition that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place. Taking Graziella Magherini’s text The Stendhal Syndrome as a starting point, collective practice They Are Here will present testimonies and gather video evidence of this condition which they will present alongside a selection of related readings.

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VIVID | 140 HEATH MILL LANE | BIRMINGHAM | B9 4AR
T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | http://www.vivid.org.uk | Click here for directions

VIVID gratefully acknowledges support from Arts Council England and The Bond Company.

Museums at Night 2011

VISIT EASTSIDE FOR MUSEUMS AT NIGHT 2011
Friday 13 May 2011 | 6pm – late

Museums at Night 2011 sees hundreds of museums, galleries, libraries, archives and heritage sites unlock their doors for special evening events over the weekend of May 13-15 and Eastside is no exception!

Join VIVID from 6pm for the launch of ECSTATIC (13 May – 18 June), a visual and sensory season of moving image works and intervention exploring heightened emotions and altered states. ECSTATIC launches with ULTRAVIOLENCE I, a live intervention from Companis; a sly nod to Burgess’s coinage in ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘to do the ultra-violent’, the new work will be an intense yet playful experience as inhabitants of the exhibition space interact with coloured light and fluorescence. Adorn yourself in white, if you dare!

Elsewhere, Eastside Projects opens Narrative Show & Poster Club with a free public event from 6-8pm and Grand Union presents an exhibition produced throughout six-week programme SEARCH ENGINE from 12-8pm, including a talk at 6pm with SEARCH ENGINE artists and project curator, Marialaura Ghidini.

From 9pm, we join with our We Are Eastside comrades (7 Inch Cinema, Capsule, Eastside Projects, Fierce Festival, Grand Union, Ikon Gallery, and VRU) to bring you CAKEOLOGY - a late night Eastside fundraiser where rave meets the W.I. – expect T.99 and Tombola, Bizarre Inc. and Bunting, Acid House and Apple Pie! DJs include Greg Bird, Jock Lee and DJ Gershwin. Cakeology takes place at VIVID and tickets are £4 in advance, available here.  

Join us and show your support for arts in Eastside!

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VIVID | 140 Heath Mill Lane | Birmingham | B9 4AR
T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | http://www.vivid.org.uk 
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Home Movies at VIVID

Join VIVID from 10-12 March for HOME MOVIES, a three day exhibition of films selected by community curators from Hodge Hill, in association with Reel Access.

Writing in the Sand, courtesy Sirkka-Liisa Kontinninin/ Amber

There is nothing closer to us than home. Our home can mould us, sculpt us, create us and destroy us. Home Movies provokes concepts of belonging, development and memory. It ultimately tackles the issue of what is home – is it a building, is it a place, is it geography, is it identity and for us, what is it that makes us ‘Brummies?

THURSDAY 10 MARCH | 6PM | admission free

Preview event including exhibition discussion with the community curators from Hodge Hill, Yasmeen Baig-Clifford (Director of VIVID) and George Fleming (Director of Reel Access), Roger Shannon (Birmingham Film & Video Workshop) and Pogus Caesar (Birmingham-based photographer).

THURSDAY 10 – SATURDAY 12 MARCH | 12-5PM | admission free

Exhibition of documentary films, artist’s moving image, and archive footage of Birmingham. 

The Home Movies community curators are: Paula Elenor, Bryan Foster, Martin McNally and Ryan Smith. 

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VIVID | 140 Heath Mill Lane | Birmingham | B9 4AR 

T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | http://www.vivid.org.uk

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Home Movies is a project commissioned by VIVID and delivered in association with Reel Access – www.reelaccess.org.uk

Home Movies gratefully acknowledges support from Birmingham City Council via Birmingham Cultural Partnership.

VIVID’ is In Association With… 2011

VIVID is pleased to announce the artists selected for creative support scheme ‘In
Association with…’ Launched in 2009, ‘In Association with…’ is central to artist support at VIVID, and combines access to VIVID expertise and facilities with opportunities to present and test work with the public. The scheme encourages risk taking and supports interdisciplinary practice and emerging projects and partnerships.

In 2011 the scheme will support Eitan Buchalter, Companis, and Ayo & Oni Oshodi.

The inaugural commission of ‘In Association with…’ 2011 is Veer, a new work by live artist Eitan Buchalter. An important aspect of Buchalter’s practice is implicating the audience within the structure of the performance thereby forcing them to perform. This places the response of the audience at the centre of the work. Developed in collaboration with Fierce, Veer is a subtle yet radical public intervention on Saturday 05 March, which sees him
interrupt Birmingham City Football fans en route to St Andrews.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/veer-eitan-buchalter

From July-August 2011, VIVID welcomes Companis, a nomadic practice working between the interstices of artistic and curatorial practice. Companis, meaning to ‘break bread with someone’ was formed in 2009 and comprises Kaye Winwood and Siân Tonkin, who develop participatory artworks and experiences and engage audiences in acts of social or relational participation; specifically exchanges involving gift-giving, gestural or transient acts such as
eating, play and conversation.

For the final commission of 2011, VIVID are joined by twin sisters Ayo & Oni Oshodi whose practice centres on observations of behaviour in public and communal spaces while hidden. These observations are often noted and re-distributed in the site they were originally observed. Ayo & Oni usually hide within the environment they are focusing on, converting disused space into an observation outpost. Parallel to their visual arts practice, Ayo & Oni
write film-scripts and are currently working collaboratively on a novel.

To follow the progress of the ‘In Association with…’ artists, please visit www.vivid.org.uk

February at VIVID

THE GARAGE PRESENTS… (12 – 26 February 2011)

VIVID kicks off its 2011 programme with the launch of ‘The Garage presents…’ a brand new strand of one off events embracing music, live arts, installation, performance, and films. Join VIVID this February for a short season of sound and vision combining expanded cinema installation, music documentary screenings, artist’s film and video, and feature film.

PROGRAMME:

SAT 12 FEB | 2PM | VIDEO VALENTINES

VIVID presents a gloriously convincing romance directed by Woody Allen alongside independent shorts for Valentine’s weekend. Heart-shaped treats available too!

Hailed as one of the most influential romcoms of all time, Annie Hall (1977, 93 mins) reflects on the romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall. The film traces the course of their relationship from their first meeting and Alvy asks himself and the viewer where things went wrong. The result is a hysterical, poignant, and bittersweet look at the nature of love.

A kaleidoscopic journey into the parallel musical universe of cult music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties.

All Tomorrow's People. Image credit: ourtrueintent.com

In an out-of-season holiday camp on the Somerset coast, cult music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties serves up a heady combination of alternative music, crazy golf and chalet-living; all curated by a single band or artist. This post-punk DIY bricolage uses material generated by the fans and musicians themselves, on a multitude of formats including Super8, camcorder and mobile phone material, over the history of the festival, to capture the uncompromising spirit of a parallel music universe.

All Tomorrow’s Parties features performances from an eclectic mix artists including: Battles, Sonic Youth, Belle And Sebastian, Patti Smith, Animal Collective, Grinderman, Iggy and the Stooges, Portishead, Mogwai, Slint, Grizzly Bear, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Gossip, Daniel Johnston and The Boredoms.

Admission £2.

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FRI 25 FEB | 6.30PM - 8.00PM | Lis Rhodes Light Music * ^

Avant-garde filmmaker Lis Rhodes’ breathtaking installation Light Music (1975) is a dizzying celebration of the pivotal nature of  film as sound. Visitors are immersed in the beams of two dueling projectors; as the film flickers and flashes, Rhodes varies sonic frequency, alters amplitude, and plays with tone to create a groundbreaking and visceral cinematic experience.

Light Music is presented in association with George Saxon and Daniel Simcox. Doors open at 6:30pm and the piece will be screened at 6:45 pm and 7:30 pm (running time 25 mins).

Admission is free.

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SAT 26 FEB | 2PM | WOOF! WOOF! William Wegman Weekend ^

Coming of age in the 1960s, Wegman was an early exponent of conceptual art, well known for his use of irony, humour and satire. VIVID presents a selection of Wegman’s works taken from his 1970s series of cryptic videos which star his obliging canine partner Man Ray.

And who said the arts aren’t inclusive? Well behaved pooches welcome! 

Admission is free.

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VIVID | 140 HEATH MILL LANE | BIRMINGHAM | B9 4AR

T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | http://www.vivid.org.uk

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* events also take place at Grand Union

^ events also take place at Eastside Projects

VIVID: call for proposals

Call for proposals:  2011  programme

Applications are now open for ‘In Association With …’, VIVID’s ongoing support scheme for emerging and mid-career artists and producers. Projects can be activated in February-March, August-September and December 2011.

The 2011 scheme provides:

* supported access to VIVID’s Garage space and facilities in the heart of Birmingham’s Eastside district.

* time to develop and test new creative ideas

* a support bursary of up to £500 per Associate.

Offering an open and versatile environment for thinking and working, the activity and outcomes of ‘In Association With …’ are completely governed by its users. Through it, we aim to provoke the evolution of new thinking, curatorial development and exchange, social interaction and critical engagement, new collaborations and emerging networks. The scheme encourages risk taking and aims to showcase a wide array of aesthetics from both the city’s vibrant visual, sound and film culture and far beyond.

Projects can be activated in February-March, August-September and December 2011.                   Application deadline: 28 January 2011.

Download full details on how to apply here.

Click here for details on past ‘In Association with…’ projects.

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VIVID | 140 Heath Mill Lane | Birmingham | B9 4AR

T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | http://www.vivid.org.uk

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VIVID’s Nightmare Before Christmas

Join VIVID on Saturday 18th December (8.30pm – late) for Nightmare Before Christmas, a Christmas knees up to mark the close of its 2010 programme. 

Nightmare Before Christmas will play host to a warped line up of winter horror, creepy electronica and spectral pop with DJ sets from COLOUR ; Lärmlicht; John Napier and Dan Le Trap  – expect a heady mix of jagged, dark, and drowsy sounds combined with intense, psychedelic, and ethereal footage. To get you in the mood, The Princes of Risborough have compiled ‘Jugend Horror Mix’ – a free playlist available for download.

Tickets cost £5 and are available in advance from theticketsellers.co.uk.

 The party closes VIVID’s LANGUAGE season (03-18 December 2010) which ends with work and performance by artist Aura Satz (http://www.iamanagram.com/index1.html). Satz’s work explores ghostly presence and illusions through performance and sound and is often focussed on unusual sonic devices, early musical instruments and automata.

Nightmare Before Christmas is presented as part of ‘The Garage Presents’, a brand new strand of one off events embracing music, live arts, installation, performance, digital and sonic media. Join VIVID’s mailing list at www.vivid.org.uk to keep up to date with all future events.

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VIVID | 140 HEATH MILL LANE | DIGBETH | BIRMINGHAM | B9 4AR

T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | www.vivid.org.uk

VIVID presents ‘Language’ (02-18 Dec)

THU 02 DEC – SAT 18 DEC 2010 | PREVIEW – FRI 03 DEC, 6-8 PM
LANGUAGE

VIVID presents LANGUAGE, an exhibition and events programme which explores the constructs of language and meaning from far reaching cultural perspectives.

GARY HILL, in collaboration with George Quasha and Charles Stein. Figuring Grounds (1985/2008) Video (color, stereo sound); 7:19 min. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of the artist and Donald Young Gallery, Chicago

EXHIBITION PROGRAMME:

Comprising an international selection of moving image, exhibition, discussion and print, the selection of works covers four decades, spanning films which reflect the post-Structuralist theories of the 1970’s to documented actions and contemporary works newly commissioned by VIVID.

Artists include: John Adams, William Burroughs, Barbad Golshiri, Gary Hill, Mona Hatoum, Valérie Mréjen, Aura Satz, Guy Sherwin, Margaret Tait, and Olivier Zabat.

SATURDAY 04 DECEMBER | 2PM | admission FREE
John Smith -Program 1

“The films of John Smith conduct a serious investigation into the combination of sound and image, but with a sense of humour that reaches out beyond the traditional avant-garde audience.” – Mark Webber. VIVID presents an anthology of John Smith’s work including Associations (1975); The Black Tower (1987); Gargantuan (1992); The Girl Chewing Gum (1976) and Om (1986). Courtesy Video Data Bank, Chicago.

THURSDAY 09 DECEMBER | 6PM | admission FREE
Valérie Mréjen, Pork and Milk (2004)

A documentary in which Mréjen interviews ten Israeli Jews who traded their ultra-Orthodox traditions for secular ways, and conveys their stories with long, unbroken takes, filmed at incisive angles using natural or available light. Courtesy Aurora Films.

SATURDAY 11 DECEMBER | 2PM | admission FREE
Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider, Speaking in Tongues (2009)

At a time when 31 US states have passed “English Only” laws, four pioneering families put their children in public schools where, from the first day of kindergarten, their teachers speak mostly Chinese or Spanish. Speaking in Tongues uses this scenario to explore the provocative notion that being bilingual can be a national asset. Taking us beyond rote arguments and stereotypes, this intimate documentary witnesses the joys and challenges of four diverse children on their journey to become global citizens. Courtesy Patchwork Films.

THURSDAY 16 DECEMBER | from 6.30PM | admission £2
6.30PM: Samuel Beckett – Not I *
7:15PM: Aura Satz

A rare screening of BBC 2 footage documenting Billie Whitelaw’s 1975 performance of Samuel Beckett’s 20-minute dramatic monologue Not I. The film sees a single spotlight fixated on a logorrhoea of fragmented and jumbled sentences uttered by ‘Mouth’ and which obliquely tells the story of a woman who having been abandoned by her parents has lived a loveless, mechanical existence. *Excerpt from BBC 2, The Lively Arts: Shades, Three Plays by Samuel Beckett. (courtesy BFI)

Following the screening, artist and writer Aura Satz presents a responsive work for VIVID which considers the physical articulation of sound and the body. Using a Chladni plate, some tuning forks, and other such contraptions, Satz performs an annotated, illustrated, fragmented talk on sound, its visualisation, and the utopian belief in a universal alphabet.

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LANGUAGE is presented as the closing season for VIVID’s 2008-10 PIONEERS programme, which juxtaposes contemporary practice with key historical works informed by the moving image. LANGUAGE is supported by National Lottery through Arts Council England, Birmingham Cultural Partnership.

VIVID | 140 Heath Mill Lane | Digbeth | Birmingham | B9 4AR
Tel: 0121 766 7876 | Email: info@vivid.org.uk | Web: www.vivid.org.uk

Karen Mirza & Brad Butler

THU 04  – SAT 20 NOV 2010 | open Thu-Sat, 12-5pm | admission FREE.
PREVIEW – Wed 03 Nov, 6-8 PM

KAREN MIRZA & BRAD BUTLER
The Daily Battle

Continuing their current body of work The Museum of non Participation, VIVID presents The Daily Battle, a new exhibition by London-based artists Karen Mirza and Brad Butler.

For The Daily Battle Karen Mirza and Brad Butler are occupying a column space in the UK/Urdu newspaper The Daily Jang (translated back into English as: The Daily Battle) as a temporary site of creative contemporary discourse about the role of art in society. Each day of the exhibition a different cultural thinker will publish a text that is their own interpretation of this context. 100 copies of The Daily Jang will be delivered to Vivid each morning as the focus of an installation within the exhibition.  

Column contributors include Nada Raza, Sara Wajid, Gemma Sharpe, Rahila Gupta, Auj Khan, Shanay Jhaveri, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler.

Within the exhibition Mirza and Butler will also present their award winning film The Exception and The Rule. Shot in Pakistan in 2009, the film avoids traditional documentary modes and within the context of civil unrest, incorporates performances to camera, classic observation and public interventions. The Museum of non Participation is an ongoing interest in seeking out thresholds in language and intervening in new possible sites of exhibition and (non) participation. Mirza and Butler phrase this within their practice as an exploration of the politics of translation, translation within language and a performance of the condition of the ‘untranslatable’.

The Daily Battle is presented as part of VIVID’s LANGUAGE season, a series of exhibitions, talks, and films exploring the constructs of language and meaning from far reaching cultural perspectives.

For further information about Karen Mirza and Brad Butler please visit http://mirza-butler.net/. The new commission is supported by National Lottery through Arts Council England, Birmingham Cultural Partnership and The Daily Jang. 

VIVID| 140 Heath Mill Lane | Birmingham | B9 4AR
T: 0121 766 7876 | E: info@vivid.org.uk | http://www.vivid.org.uk