Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Derby
'Stagings' - Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival - 6th Edition
Works including single-screen, multi-screen and installation sited in 15 locations.
Curation of Artist's Trail
60 page catalogue - ISBN: 0-9551203-4-9
Principal funders; Arts Council of England, Northern Film & Media, Northern Rock Foundation, UK Film Council, Regional Screen Scotland, East Coast, Tesco. (Also curated and programmed minor editions of the Festival in September 2008 & 2009).
Davies research of the work of practitioners in the context of the history, theory and practice as it relates to technologies was fundamental to the curation and development of the festival. In particular Davies researched the relationships of Arts and Technology redefining the environment of the installations through the Festival theme. The Festival theme explored the relationship between performance and the moving image, incorporating a variety of different mediatized interventions, including; narrative drama, staged documentary, musical performance and artists’ live performance. Using a mixture of selected and newly commissioned work, the main focus is on the Artists’ Trail which links together a number of different site-specific architectural locations on the Elizabethan Ramparts.
The Festival is unusual in the UK, in its creative programming of artists’ film and video and independent cinema and explores new and innovative approaches to the exhibition and dissemination of moving image art. The Festival was one of a small number of new Arts Council regularly funded National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) created in 2011.
The 2010 edition featured the work of 42 artists and filmmakers from 20 different countries and included 15 UK premiers and 6 commissioned works. The commissions (selected from an international call) provide the opportunity for the creation of original new works as a response to the Festival theme and environmental location. Many of the commissioned pieces have toured to other venues beyond the Festival. In the case of ‘Stagings’ this included; People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, BJ Nilsen (also performed and screened at the ICA, London), Corin Sworn (subsequently screened at the Tramway, Glasgow), Zoe Walker & Neil Bromwich (subsequently screened at the Baltic, Newcastle), Deborah Bower & Mat Flemming (subsequently screened and performed at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011).
The audience attendance was 5850.
Total budget £148K.
