News

This Collection

• 9th Aug 2010

At the McEwan Hall, Edinburgh for two evenings in March 2010 a successful showcasing of talent is displayed. This Collection is about the merging of poetry and film, two mediums long thought to be of exclusive interest now combine to make sense of the visual images of the words.

The founders Stefanie Tan and Claire Askew both met in Edinburgh and from there one never looked back as they share common cause. Firstly there is Stefanie (or Stefa, as she likes to be called) who is an independent film maker now based in Glasgow. Claire is an editor of the fashionable, Do It Yourself magazine, Read This Magazine and writer of a blog, One Night Stanzas. There are obvious connections and it is hardly surprising to see the flowering of this event after it germinated over 18 months before this display.

There is a firm DIY spirit with all of this as “there are no sponsors, no funding from universities and public organisations”. As well, it is regarded “slightly punk” in ethos “relying on the kindness of strangers”. The whole collection relies on the grassroots, budding talent burgeoning through as contributions come from anyone who feels they are good enough to help, all contributions are equally valid and appreciated by way of there being “a conscious decision not to have one ‘supreme’ head”. The decision instead is to have several others involved, not just the poets and filmmakers, but volunteers such as Dominique and Jacky De Groen taking charge of the press relations. “People generally want there to be a leader, but we are trying to make it as fluid as possible” Stefa clearly has a strong head fixed on, as is needed.

With the Edinburgh Fringe having just started too, This Collection will hope to make further impact on the left field art scene. “Phase one is getting the 100 poems adapted by filmmakers”. This has been largely done as the April collection “we’re already considering a Phase two… We are hoping other creative people in other cities will see This Collection as a model for their own collections and collaborative work”.

Inspirational and above being boxed in by petty labels is a hard way to live in art, though it is one aspect which makes this such a unique event. This Collection is clearly about Edinburgh which according to Claire, “is such a fabulous city and we’ve had heaps of support from other artists, but we go above and beyond that”. When Stefa replies there is a little uncertainty “I don’t really know [where we fit into the art scene] there are attempts to curate grassroots events and interventions, but I wonder, the contradiction between rolling out a PR campaign that is impersonal for events or situations designed to connect people to a place”. This is going to be about humanity, not money or some other materialistic motivation the motivation is to be found in the ether of consciousness which exists out with some four walls of a building. “We feel there needs to be a restoration of creative activity for the people away from the market and not just regulated for social therapeutic purposes”, art for art sake which Claire takes a step further by saying “it is about finding new audiences”.

On August 15th there will be another showcasing of This Collection on the 15th and 22nd August in collaboration with Utterspoken Word, campaigning to keep the Fringe free for all down at the Banshee Labyrinth Cinema.