INNOVATIVE arts festival Wunderbar returns for its second year next month bringing an office chair rollerama and a pop up school to the streets of Newcastle and Gateshead.
Kicking off from 31st October 2011, the 2011 Wunderbar Festival will see a week-long series of over 20 different free exhibitions, performances and events spanning the Newcastle and Gateshead area.
Following on from the success of the first biennial festival in 2009, the dynamic Newcastle based team at Wunderbar led by creative director Ilana Mitchell and administrative director Tom Higham, work with artists to create installations and organise unexpected happenings designed to surprise and delight.
Ilana Mitchell explains: “Wunderbar Festival is aimed at nurturing a culture of curiosity. We are delighted to be able to bring it back to the North East again and this year’s festival will showcase even more home-grown talent from across the UK and the rest of the world as well as encouraging more public participation into the events.
“Designed to open people’s eyes to a sense of wonder, Wunderbar Festival will provide the most unusual of spectacles in everyday places as well as more traditional venues.”
The Wunderbar Festival is unlike traditional representations of art, extending an invitation for audience participation – creating a feeling of ownership.
This year’s highlights include a school, a library, a radio station, an office and a cafe being purpose built for the Festival run.
A School which is a ‘daily curriculum of enjoyment’ includes a series of events, classes and workshops that visitors can choose to learn from or participate in, developed by artist Harriet Plewis and a group of Year 9’s from Burnside College in Wallsend.
Bringing together the worlds of art, work and exercise in fun and unexpected ways artists Ellie Harrison and Adele Prince introduce the ‘Desk Chair Disco’ – giving participants a chance to playfully redress the work/life balance by taking their office chairs out on the town. A free-wheeling parade to the Disco will lead guests into the transformed empty office unit for a night of live rock and roll. As artist in residence, Ellie’s exhibition will open with a special guest performance by Edinburgh Comedy award nominee Josie Long, in her first Newcastle appearance.
In association with BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking at The Sage, Gateshead and Newcastle City Library, a ‘Human Library’ will travel across a number of destinations throughout the region creating a library with a difference – where books are people and instead of reading, people are invited into conversations. These ‘books’ feature life experiences that have been misunderstood either by stigmatisation, the media or culture, and aim to confront discrimination in all forms through small discussions.
Ms Mitchell added: “Rather than simply viewing a piece of art or watching a performance, people have the chance to make things with the artists and be artists themselves. The audience is the heart of Wunderbar Festival – it is a place for activity, spontaneity, society, interaction, dialogue and play – a festival with festivity at its heart.”
Wunderbar Festival is funded by Arts Council England, Newcastle City Council and the Big Lottery Fund. The programme includes a mix of ticketed and non-ticketed events and members of the public interested in participating in any of the open-call projects can register at www.wunderbarfestival.co.uk from the beginning of October.
EVENTS
We have chosen a few of the events that we like but for a full ist visit the site www.wunderbarfestival.co.uk
List of Events:
A School
WUNDERBAR HQ Monday 31st October – Friday 4th November, 9.30am – 3.30pm plus after school activities.
A School is to be created by Year 9 students from Burnside School in Wallsend. The idea is to do away with tiered classes, learning outcomes, league tables and hierarchy to see how things could be done differently. Members of the public are encouraged to come along and participate in the curriculum developed by the students.
Human Library
In the Human Library books are people and reading them involves sitting down for a conversation. Books include people whose life experiences have been misunderstood or misinterpreted in popular media and culture. The Human Library aims to challenge stereotypes and to confront stigma and discrimination.
Tuesday 1st November, Newcastle City Library, 11am – 3pm
Thursday 3rd November, Newcastle City Library, 3pm -7pm
Friday 4th November, Gateshead Central Library, 11am -3pm
Saturday 5th November, Sage Gateshead, 11am – 3pm
Newcastle City Library, Charles Avison Building, 33 New Bridge Street West, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AX ,Gateshead Central Library, Prince Consort Road, Gateshead, NE8 4LN
,The Sage Gateshead, St Mary’s Square, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 2JR,
Market Forces
Popcorn machines, massage chairs and a dancing cola can are the vehicles that Ellie Harrison uses to illustrate and explore the recent history of capitalism and our role within it. Includes The History of Financial Crises and A Brief History of Privatisation.
Tuesday 1st November– Sunday 6 November and continues post festival until 17th December
Vane, First Floor, Commercial Union House, 39 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6QE
Opening event – Tuesday 1st November 7pm
Desk Chair Disco
Desk Chair Disco is your chance to redress the life / work balance by reclaiming your ordinary office furniture and taking it out on the town. Wunderbar presents another new spin on the world of work, as we take over an empty office unit, transforming it with disco lights, DJs, live music and daring Desk Chair Derby displays! Bring your desk chairs and your dancing feet, and roll the night away.
Friday 4th October, 6pm until late Pandon Building, Trinity Gardens, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2HJ
Anniversary
A special version of a performance series that features solo, collective and multi-lingual recitations from memory of the entire Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Anniversary – an act of memory focuses on the importance and relevance of the UDHR, which the UN has translated into over 380 spoken languages, though not yet BSL or any other sign language.
Wednesday 2nd November 8pm, BALTIC
Free event, advance booking required through events@balticmill.comBALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead Quays, South Shore Road, Gateshead NE8 3BA
Life Without Buildings
The Life Without Buildings project begins now and will culminate in a radical structural intervention to a building or building site for Wunderbar 2013. As they begin their journey, Nicola and Tim invite you to join a bicycle ride across Newcastle, taking in sites of structural interest across the city, and creating a spectacle that celebrates the landscape surrounding us and our means to effect change.
Nicola Singh and Tim Bailey, xsite architecture
Sunday 6th November, 3.30pm – 5.30pm Free event – sign up in advance at www.wunderbarfestival.co.uk.You can book one of the free Scratch Bikes, which you will pick up at the start point, or come on your own.Meet at St James Church, Corner of Benwell Lane & Condercum Road, Newcastle to begin the ride, or for non-riders meet at the Byker/Ouseburn Regeneration Centre, Spillars Quay, Ouseburn, Newcastle for the finale celebration.
DISTANCE
WUNDERBAR HQ, online and other locations
A roaming performance festival within Wunderbar that explores our relationship with distance, now and into the future, DISTANCE invites you on an adventure that takes you both home and away.
Segueway
Segueway is a new experiment in filmmaking in which the whole film emerges from the interactions of participants – that’s you. Drop in any time during the festival to add your ideas and join in this improvisation.
The People Speak Monday 31st Oct – Friday 4th Nov, 11am-6pm Screening Sunday 6th Nov 2.30pm High Bridge Studios, 39 High Bridge, Newcastle NE1 1EW
Festival Pass:
To get in to all paid events, plus a guaranteed place at Anniversary and our opening event with Josie Long, and save money, buy a Wunderbar festival pass for only £18/ £13 concessions.
