News

Concrete and Glass Announce Line Up

19th Apr 2010

The line-up of artists, musicians and performers is announced for the second Concrete and Glass taking place from 13th-28th May 2010
Concrete and Glass is a unique music and art event that showcases innovative talent in both music and contemporary art. The festival provides a platform for both new and established artists – the result is a fertile mix of high impact installations and performances.

This year sees a new and exciting assortment of up-and-coming artists and musicians, including works created especially for Concrete and Glass, and with a strong emphasis on performance.

The inaugural Concrete and Glass event took place in Shoreditch, London in October 2008, with more than 100 artists exhibiting in 22 locations, and a similar number of bands performing in venues across Shoreditch.

The 2010 Concrete and Glass will take place in Hoxton, East London. The art exhibitions will be presented in collaboration with 20 Hoxton Square Projects with live sound art/music performances taking place around the corner at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen and The Macbeth.

Concrete and Glass is curated by Tom Baker (of Eat Your Own Ears), Flora Fairbairn and Paul Hitchman. For this year's event the organizers have also invited independent curators to contribute collaboratively to the event. These include Joana Seguro of Lumin, and Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery. Event partners include the Arts Council, Sound and Music, Rockfeedback, Contemporary Art Society and murmurART.

CONCRETE AND GLASS – PERFORMANCE
Three sound art & music performance events have been commissioned especially for Concrete and Glass by co-founder Tom Baker of Eat Your Own Ears, with support from Sound and Music (SAM). Details of the lineup of these performances and ticket prices are as follows:

VOLCANO THE BEAR live soundtrack to FISCHLI AND WEISS'S THE WAY THINGS GO
THE OWL PROJECT
Thursday 13th May 2010 at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen (doors 8pm)

CUTUP COLLECTIVE – SOLINA HIFI
ROCKETNUMBERNINE
MUSCLEHEAD DJs
Tuesday 18th May 2010 at The Macbeth (doors 8pm)

DAVID SHRIGLEY presents
MARTIN CREED
DAVID SHRIGLEY'S WORRIED NOODLES
PLEASE
Thursday 27th May 2010 at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen (doors 8pm)
Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, 2- 4 Hoxton Square London N1 6NU
The Macbeth, 70 Hoxton Street, Hoxton, London N1 6LP

CONCRETE AND GLASS – ART
Art Location:
20 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NT
Opening times: Tuesday – Friday 11am to 6pm, Saturdays 12 to 6pm

The contemporary art aspect of Concrete and Glass is being curated by Flora Fairbairn and Paul Hitchman. Details of the exhibitions are as follows:

A panel of art experts will select a “winner” who will be offered a solo show at the following year's festival. This year's panelists include John Kieffer, Creative Director Sound & Music, Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, and Sabine Unamun, of the Arts Council, as well as other representatives from the world of arts and music – names to be confirmed.

The winner from the first Heart of Glass was Kate MccGwire, who has since exhibited at a number of shows in London, Holland, Berlin and most recently at the Age of the Marvellous exhibition produced by All Visual Arts. Kate will be presenting a unique installation of her work at this year's Concrete and Glass using magpie feathers that she has been collecting especially for this show for the past 12 months (with support from All Visual Arts).

Upstairs, Shop & Office is an exhibition of the work of Tom Saunders and Idéfix Bloc, calling attention to two particular working methods and the works of art they produce. These works mobilise structures and language from the worlds of advertising, business and retail and in doing so ask important questions about how we make, display and sell today.

The Emerging Artist Derivative Contract is a conceptual artwork by Tom Saunders developed in reaction to the space, to the idea of the emerging artist and to the artist's dissatisfaction with his own art. Idéfix Bloc is a temporary artist identity formed solely for the exhibition. Operating somewhere between a collection and a cell, Idéfix Bloc aim to offer
alternative models for the conception and production of cultural objects. Through the de-individualization of their practice and appropriation of a
range of a working-model, they aim to develop a stronger and more direct critique of cultural production within Commercial Democracy. After the show, Idéfix Bloc disbands, ready to coalesce as a new identity when circumstances seem favourable.

The show is a collaboration between the artists and Will Conibear, Donald Eastwood, Hannah Barry and Guy Gormley.

Lumin has been invited by Concrete and Glass to commission two new collaborative performances and sound installations. Both pieces take a traditional instrument and deconstructed it. The two are using mechanical sources and through digital tools elevating them into something new, unique and contemporary.

The first piece, Techno Harmonium, is a collaboration between Felix Thorn and digital visuals artists Weirdcore. Used to doing reactive live visuals for cutting electronic acts and bands, Weirdcore have been asked to focus their attention on Felix's new machine, the Harmonium. The piece will open with an improvised live visual and audio performance on 13th May followed by a week-long installation.

Felix's Harmonium as a kinetic musical sculpture. Characteristics of electronic synthesisers can be traced back to mechanisms in early organ designs. The Harmonium make use of these pre-existing mechanisms by automating them for performance. The design of this machine aims to not only to match, but also to surpass the human performer by enhancing the machine with LEDs and movement that creates a truly multi sensory performance on the demand. For concrete and glass Lumin has invited visual artists and programmers Weirdcore to create video response for the piece. This will add a truly digital dimension both as a performance and visual installation. The Harmonium will then become the ultimate performer.

The second commission is for a variation of Kathy Hinde's Piano Migrations series: Piano Migration II – Video responsive instrument. This new piece will transform an old piano into a light activated instrument through video. For the live performance on 20th May Kathy will be joined by laptop musician Matthew Olden, cellist Simon McCorry and multi-instrumentalist Nahum Mantra to present a performance where image becomes sound and sound becomes image through a series of transformations realised through acoustic sound, live sampling, automata and projections. The inside of an old upright piano, rescued from destruction, is transformed into a light activated instrument. Video projections move across the surface of the piano strings, triggering small machines to twitch and flutter causing the strings to resonate. For one night, this installation becomes a site for performance. Video projections activate the piano strings, and simultaneously provide a graphic score for improvisation.

'SEEN' at Hoxton Square / a collaboration between the artist Martin Sexton &
musicians BO NINGEN

'SEEN' at Hoxton Square is the continuation of the 'Seen' series from The Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery, of Redchurch Street, that fuses a radical music performance with the curation of a 'show' by an inspirational artist.