Eight International Artists will descend upon Swansea in the next week to build and put their finishing touches upon their major artworks, which will be installed in outdoor and public spaces across Swansea for the event Art Across the City 2009, which runs from 18 April to 10 May.
Each artist has responded to Swansea in their artwork, drawing on a number of different elements from the city’s history, heritage, people and landscape as well as the current developments.
Amongst the 8 brand new commissions will be a performance on Swansea’s Sail Bridge that will turn it into the world’s biggest musical instrument. Artist Paul Granjon has teamed up with local dance group Dynion Dance and choreographer Douglas Comley to create a performance that sonically activates the bridge by the movements and rhythms of the dancers. The bridge will be ‘played’ as the opening performance of the Art Across the City event on Saturday 18 April at 6.15pm.
Another project, by Irish artist Aisling O’Beirn presents a series of drawings that depict familiar and less noticed aspects of Swansea, including street furniture, derelict hotels and ships as well as iconographic buildings. The drawings will be published weekly in Swansea’s local paper The Evening Post, beginning on Monday 13th April will also be shown on billboards across the city.
The project has been organised by Swansea arts charity Locws International. Director David Hastie says “These new commissions, which are all displayed in public spaces across the city are all about Swansea and pick up on some intriguing aspects of the city making the whole event not only an exciting visual spectacle, but also a fascinating insight in the past, present and future of the city.”
Locws International:
