Mining is more than an industry, more than labour, as many North Easterners remember. When coal that was deposited beneath the region 300 million years ago was excavated, life above the surface – including the visual landscape and the social bonds of communities – transformed along with it. ‘Extraction’ makes a dynamic, multi-layered theme for this year’s AV festival, a month-long programme of arts events that kicked off last weekend in Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough.
Red Pepper caught up with Rebecca Shatwell, director of the biennial festival, and asked whether she considers the theme to be political. She said extraction was chosen for its three-fold power to relate to our sociopolitical situation, the practice of contemporary artists and the North East region.
From now until the 30th of March, local and international artists will offer their perspectives through film, music, visual art and walking tours. Some have recorded sounds from across the North East region that they’ll incorporate into live performance. The range of subject matter is vast, from the geology and mythology of Fingal’s Cave off the west coast of Scotland to labour on an oilfield in the Qinghai province of China (an uncut portrait of a 14-hour working day is playing throughout the month inside a former locomotive factory). While over 100 volunteers support the festival, Shatwell curates all events alongside a small team, lending the entire programme some ‘consistency’.
Examination of what we’ve been trained to ignore about the earth – how we’ve changed it, how it moves, its persistent capacity to move us – seems to be a unifying thread. On a planet where highways, businesses or occupying forces have altered nearly everything, the AV Festival provides a needed opportunity for people to re-experience place.
A full programme of events can be found here: http://www.avfestival.co.uk/
AV Festival 14: Extraction takes place from 1-31 March 2014.
#236: The War Racket: Palestine Action on shutting down arms factories ● Paul Rogers on the military industrial complex ● Alessandra Viggiano and Siobhán McGuirk on gender identity laws in Argentina ● Dan Renwick on the 5th anniversary of Grenfell ● Juliet Jacques on Zvenigora ● Laetitia Bouhelier on a Parisian community cinema ● The winning entry of the Dawn Foster Memorial Essay Prize ● Book reviews and regular columns ● Much more!
And you choose how much to pay for your subscription...
David Renton weighs up options for the left, in and outside of the Labour Party
Western leftists routinely ignore local demands from Taiwan, where support for the status quo is high. Brian Hioe looks at the tensions and misunderstandings surrounding Nancy Pelosi's visit
Arms sales both by and to Israel help sustain the oppression of the Palestinian people. Sam Perlo-Freeman reports on the scale of the trade and the UK’s involvement in it
Russia's deliberate targeting of Ukraine's museums follows a pattern of imperial powers looting and despoiling cultural wealth, argues Siobhan McGuirk
Blyth Brentnall describes how a group of activists in the UK has managed to disrupt the activities of one of Israel’s biggest arms suppliers