This weekend just gone saw east London host the ‘This Is Not A Gateway’ festival. I’m going to put it in their own words:
‘This Is Not A Gateway {TINAG} is a voluntary organisation that creates arenas/platforms for those whose point of reference is the city. Working across disciplines, TINAG encourages inter-cultural dialogue and rigorous production…’ – so there we go.
The festival was made up of a mix of exhibitions, films, workshops, discussions groups and seemed very interesting – but unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend… however if I could have I would have personally been really interested in the following:
Exhibitions:
4 in particular, all at café Otto in Dalston… one was a series of drawings exploring the ‘strangeness of people living in cities’ by Karolin Schnoor... the others showed various photographic work from Laura Braun (Dalston Postcards), David San Millian Del Rio (Passerby) and Gesche Wuerfel, Tristan Fennel and David Kendall (A Line Is There To Be Broken) – which was a collection of ‘photographs that scrutinise struggles between transformations of ‘place and ‘space’... studies of disruptions in ‘everyday life’ and the landscape’.
Film:
A selection of screenings called ‘Ways of Living: A film screening in epic chapters’ which was related to travel, migration, tourism, location and the wider concept of the journey. I really have a habit for enjoying, appreciating and wanting to pull apart depictions of travel in film – how it’s presented, what it comes to symbolise… the nature of changing ‘places’ on screen… and also, conversely, the way in which locations and travel impact upon the production and dissemination of film. So this would have been a treat.
Discussion:
‘This Is Not A Gateway {TINAG} is a voluntary organisation that creates arenas/platforms for those whose point of reference is the city. Working across disciplines, TINAG encourages inter-cultural dialogue and rigorous production…’ – so there we go.
The festival was made up of a mix of exhibitions, films, workshops, discussions groups and seemed very interesting – but unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend… however if I could have I would have personally been really interested in the following:
Exhibitions:
4 in particular, all at café Otto in Dalston… one was a series of drawings exploring the ‘strangeness of people living in cities’ by Karolin Schnoor... the others showed various photographic work from Laura Braun (Dalston Postcards), David San Millian Del Rio (Passerby) and Gesche Wuerfel, Tristan Fennel and David Kendall (A Line Is There To Be Broken) – which was a collection of ‘photographs that scrutinise struggles between transformations of ‘place and ‘space’... studies of disruptions in ‘everyday life’ and the landscape’.
Film:
A selection of screenings called ‘Ways of Living: A film screening in epic chapters’ which was related to travel, migration, tourism, location and the wider concept of the journey. I really have a habit for enjoying, appreciating and wanting to pull apart depictions of travel in film – how it’s presented, what it comes to symbolise… the nature of changing ‘places’ on screen… and also, conversely, the way in which locations and travel impact upon the production and dissemination of film. So this would have been a treat.
Discussion:
Specifically ‘Writing the City: Regeneration and Literature’ which had the aim of considering ‘how might literature and community arts intersect with architecture urban design, planning and development’… which was chaired by Sarah Butler of Urban Words.
Workshop:
‘Influencing the City: The art of making space’ which saw ‘young urbanists present their different experiences and new models for creating and running independent urban cultural [workspaces]’. Essentially it seems this was mainly about considering how creative ‘hubs’ all over Europe have appeared in urban areas and were initially provided by governments or authoritative bodies but are now appearing through different frameworks. Quite interesting in considering the likes of official exhibitions spaces such as galleries and bars in areas of London like Shoreditch that also inter-mix with unofficial exhibition spaces like walls/alleys/coves – mainly out on the street.
Thanks to the inter-web I can take a look at some of the stuff online but obviously it’s not as good as if I had been able to go! Still… names to remember for the future and some food for thought from just hearing about what some of the festival was about… Also, there are plans to publish a Festival Anthology – so hopefully there’ll be some interesting bits in there when it comes along!
Workshop:
‘Influencing the City: The art of making space’ which saw ‘young urbanists present their different experiences and new models for creating and running independent urban cultural [workspaces]’. Essentially it seems this was mainly about considering how creative ‘hubs’ all over Europe have appeared in urban areas and were initially provided by governments or authoritative bodies but are now appearing through different frameworks. Quite interesting in considering the likes of official exhibitions spaces such as galleries and bars in areas of London like Shoreditch that also inter-mix with unofficial exhibition spaces like walls/alleys/coves – mainly out on the street.
Thanks to the inter-web I can take a look at some of the stuff online but obviously it’s not as good as if I had been able to go! Still… names to remember for the future and some food for thought from just hearing about what some of the festival was about… Also, there are plans to publish a Festival Anthology – so hopefully there’ll be some interesting bits in there when it comes along!
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