Now in its sixth year, SUPERNORMAL is a three-day, experimental arts and music festival at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire, UK. It offers a platform for artists and musicians to work collaboratively and creatively for audiences seeking experiences outside of the mainstream, presenting a multidisciplinary spectrum of performance, sound and installation as well as action, discussion and intervention.
Supernormal action Image courtesy SUPERNORMAL Festival.
As the festival opens this weekend we catch up with Supernormal Co-Director Matilda Strang.
1. Why was SUPERNORMAL set up and how is it different to other festivals?
SUPERNORMAL is an independent, non-profit making experimental arts and music festival, which takes place at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire every August.
Beginning in 2010, the festival is an evolution of BIAW (Braziers International Artists Workshop), a London based artists’ collective that led a residency at Braziers Park from 1995-2010. Each year BIAW invited up to 30 artists of all nationalities to live at Braziers Park for two weeks, to explore their practice, exchange dialogue and experiment in a way that was mutually beneficial.
Braziers Park is a live-in community and School of Integrative Social Research. The house and grounds of the 17th century Strawberry Gothic mansion and Braziers Park has its own countercultural links spanning decades – from John Latham and R.D. Laing to Marianne Faithfull (and Mick Jagger), and is still home to Britain’s oldest secular community.
SUPERNORMAL has been born from a place that values the currency of ideas and imagination rather than commercialism and profit. The ethos and nature of the event draws inspiration both from its context and history. It is an event where 1,500 people come together for three days to contribute to and/or engage with the programme of performance, installation, activities, workshops, talks and discussions.
The festival is a place for improvisation and experimentation that provides a platform for artists to develop their practice. Due to the intimacy of the event, performers, artists and audience alike benefit from the freedom of the context, resulting in one off collaborations, unplanned performances and new partnerships.
2. How has SUPERNORMAL’s arts programme grown over the last years?
SUPERNORMAL has gained recognition over the years, which has seen an increase in audience size and income from ticket sales. The income from ticket sales supports the programme, which has subsequently got bigger and more varied. We are also lucky enough to receive funding to push our ambition with programming a little bit further. Through this we commission larger projects and widen our remit in terms of collaborating with others.
Benedict Drew Image courtesy Benedict Drew and SUPERNORMAL Festival.
3. Do you have any highlights from this year’s performance programme that you would want to recommend?
Yes, there’s the all new AV programme featuring artist Benedict Drew, Unconscious Archives, Paul Purgas (who will be presenting an improvised performance using extreme time manipulation with a classic Roland drum machine), Queen Bee of Irish Noise Vicky Langan and audio reactive visuals and ritual performance from Gnar Hest.
My musical highlights include AR Kane, Trembling Bells, Trash Kit, Karen Gwyer and Rhodri Davies. Also this year with funding support from the Sasakawa Foundation, we are working with label Blue Tapes to bring over two Japanese artists Check!!! & Leedian to perform. We are also working with Bristol based organisation Qu Junktions to orchestrate PLAYPEN, a durational 3 hour performance with 12 bands.
From the Visual Art programme, look out for film, performance and sound from a huge range of artists, with multiple happenings and performances across the site and a range of workshops and activities to take part in, including Max Eastley, who is working with Oxford Contemporary Music to explore Aeolian instruments, the Volunteer Opera, printing workshops, life drawing and a chance to build your own radio transmitter. Throughout the weekend The Supernormal Super Sensory Summer School (SSSSS) will run workshops that recreate and reimagine the history, prehistory and possible futures of Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research.
Vicky Langan Image courtesy Vicky Langan and SUPERNORMAL Festival.
4. This year students from the Glasgow School of Art MFA will be making a site-specific work for the festival. Can you tell me about how you started working with them and what they will be doing?
This year A-N kindly funded a research trip for members of the programming team to visit Scotland, with the intention of meeting artists and initiatives and forming new partnerships. Seven artists were chosen from the MFA programme at Glasgow School of Art to make new work for a series of plinths that will be installed across the site. For the project each artist is invited to consider the form of the traditional artist plinth whilst experimenting with their practice to make work that will exist outside of the formal gallery setting.
5. What would be your top tips for a first-time visitor to SUPERNORMAL?
Get involved!
6. SUPERNORMAL’s arts programme runs alongside three days of music, how do the two programmes work together?
The programme is considered as one. An example of this is our new programme strand this year, the Vortex, which will provide artists with a space to experiment with sound, moving image, music and performance. The Vortex enables us to present combined arts and enhances our ability to support experimental practice including new collaborations between visual artists, filmmakers and musicians.
7. SUPERNORMAL is very proud of maintaining its current size, describing itself as an intimate festival. How will the arts programme continue to grow?
Each year the programme is different and responds to current and on-going interests in contemporary and underground culture. We continue to work with a wide range of artists both nationally and internationally and will continue to build on partnerships with initiatives throughout the year. The festival is small — so be one of the lucky ones and get your ticket early!
SUPERNORMAL Festival 2015, 7 – 9 August 2015.
Matilda Strang lives and works in Glasgow. Alongside her position as Co-director for SUPERNORMAL, she continues to work with artists on projects that explore performance and installation.
