Monday 27 August 2012

Full Steam Ahead!

Exciting Times................

Hello again! I'm breaking the summer silence and will update you on my recent activity.

Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany
Hotel Europa: Sunny Beach
an excursion by Random People
Immediately after making Cock[le] Pit for Adain Avion, I set sail in an actual aeroplane for DOCUMENTA 13 in Kassel, Germany. Documenta festival engulfs this city in contemporary art. It was invigorating to see so much exciting work by a variety of international artists. Personal highlights were sound works by Janet Cardiff, a drawing installation by Tacita Dean and all of Ryan Gander's pieces. Whilst in Germany we caught up with artist friends in Hamburg. Random People's Esther and Dan have regularly exhibited at Experimentica in Cardiff and will return to make new work for this festival next November. Visiting their artist studio in the heart of Hamburg was a treat- being allowed into artist's personal space is a privilege. It will be a joy to see them and their work again.



It is full steam ahead over the next few months. Here's some information on what projects I will be working on...........

Farewell Cardiff by Secret Theatre, 2011
The Farewell Project: Collaborating with Secret Theatre
September 14/15 2012, Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff, UK

THE FAREWELL PROJECT is a goodbye party specifically made for a city. It is created and performed by Chad Dembski and Dustin Harvey. This duo from Canada first performed a farewell for Cardiff at last year's Experimentica 1.1. I am honoured to be contributing research, ideas and being involved in their performance process. It is great to be commissioned by them to respond to Cardiff and its history. I plan to bring my own perspective on the Capitol City of Wales to the table. Join us for the performances at Chapter, Cardiff in September.





For Future Reference, Residency at Flux Factory NYC
October 2012, Flux Factory, Long Island NYC. This project is supported by Wales Arts International

For Future Reference is a new body of work I am developing that aims to collect and archive a variety of predictions about my future. These examples of my future will be collected through visiting psychics, palmists, tarot readers and astrologers. This project idea stems directly from an experience on a trip to New York in 2007. Whilst on holiday there I visited a psychic and her prediction was alarming to me. This spurred me to investigate as many different narratives on my future as possible. I visited psychics in Wales and videoed the sessions. Each psychic had such different and confusing narratives of my future and what will happen to me. I will be using my time in New York to revisit that psychic and to create a site specific performance in response to this.

Flux Factory have invited me to be in an exhibition of Welsh and New York based artist's which is curated by Sam Perry. Watch this space!



For Future Reference: Mother Time Performance
Day of the Dead 2012 (1/11/2012), 13:05 National Museum of Wales, Cardiff UK

I have been commissioned alongside other local artists and musicians to make a new responsive work about an artist in this years Artes Mundi 5. This will be performed at the museum as part of the weekly context programme every Thursday throughout the exhibition. I will be exploring the day of the dead, the future, time and some of the themes within Teresa Magolles work.

Matt Cook

Experimentica 2012: Unseen
21st-25th of November, Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff UK

Artist Sam Hasler and myself have been invited to deliver the contextual programme for the annual Performance art festival Experimentica. We will be organising events and happenings that explore the themes in the work of the other artists and the festival. Information on this will be available in the Chapter Guide.

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