Published: 07 Jul 2016
A showcase of exceptional new work from disabled artists will be presented at Tramway, Glasgow, this September.
Tramway’s Unlimited Festival, which runs from Thursday 15 to Sunday 25 September, features a breath-taking range of innovative dance, theatre, exhibitions, talks and events.
Internationally acclaimed artists and exciting emerging talent from Scotland and across the world taking part includes Candoco Dance Company, Sheila Hill, Liz Carr, Marc Brew, Jack Dean, Claire Cunningham and Jess Curtis, Gary Gardiner and Ian Johnston, NCA Small Theatre, Cameron Morgan, Koji Nishioka, Makoto Okawa and Yasuyuki Ueno, Maki Yamazaki, Aaron Williamson,and Bekki Perriman.
From cutting edge performing and visual arts, the programme invites you to join the artists to explore and discover. Share reflections on life at 80 and the personal stories of the homeless; discover ceramic telephones from the 1880s; watch live absurd reinterpretations of YouTube self-help videos; and witness a chance encounter as a hundred year old mechanical monster emerges from the waves. Plus much more in a festival for everyone to enjoy, be challenged by and participate in.
The opening days of the festival include the world premiere of 43 percent, a dynamic new multi-media work by Gary Gardiner and Ian Johnston that explores the medical and social definitions of being human, and the Scottish premiere of The Way You Look (at me) Tonight from Tramway Associate Artist Claire Cunningham and Jess Curtis, which combines movement, music and text to ask important questions about how we perceive each other.
The opening weekend continues with RSC and television actor Tim Barlow reflecting on life at 80 in a new collaborative work, HIM, from theatre maker Sheila Hill and photographer / videographer Hugo Glendenning.
The world premiere of an international co-creation between Natalia Mallo and Gisele Calazans from Brazil and Glasgow-based Marc Brew, MayBe, looks at how chance encounters can act as catalysts of possibility, including the possibilities of love and intimacy.
Activist, actor and comedian Liz Carr explores a complex and controversial subject with the back drop of musical theatre in her new show Assisted Suicide, The Musical.
In Grandad and the Machine, Jack Dean presents a story that begins when a hundred year old mechanical monster makes an unexpected appearance, and only, possibly, Grandad can stop the chaos that follows.
Hiraeth is presented by Armenia's first integrated dance company bringing together disabled and non-disabled performers, NCA Small Theatre, who have collaborated to tell a story of the painful yet remarkable journey of the Armenian people throughout their history.
The second weekend of the festival brings the contemporary dance company of disabled and non-disabled performers Candoco to Glasgow with a double bill, Counteracts, featuring commissions from two of the most exciting artistic talents working in the UK today, Hetain Patel’s Lets Talk About Dis and Beheld by Alexander Whitley.
Drawing on her experience as a person with albinism, Jo Bannon unpicks a tangle of stories: the stories we tell of ourselves and the stories told about us in Alba.
A daily programme of events, conversations, actions and responses to Tramway’s Unlimited Festival, entitled What?, seeks to make shift happen by provoking and evolving discussions around disability and art. Full details will be announced over the summer.
Running throughout Tramway’s Unlimited Festival is a series of exhibitions surprises, delights and questions.
Ceramic slip cast telephones – ranging from ‘candlestick’ telephones of the 1880s to flip-top mobile phones from the 1990s - created by Cameron Morgan with Project Ability for the festival will be shown in a work titled Put your sweet lips closer to the phone.
Three Japanese artists will exhibit their work in the UK for the first time in a group exhibition of Japanese outsider art - Nama Āto, with Koji Nishioka’s intuitive black and white musical scores, Makoto Okawa’s colourful drawings and felt ‘Makoot’ dolls, and delicate drawings that challenge gender representation by Yasuyuki Ueno.
Glasgow-based multi-disciplinary artist Maki Yamazaki shows Pioneer [03], an interactive fiction computer game designed to exist beyond traditional gaming environments, inviting audiences to play as a non-white, disabled protagonist.
Interventions will be presented away from Tramway in city centre locations.
In Demonstrating the World, Aaron Williamson enacts everyday tasks with detailed step-by-step instructions in the style of YouTube ‘how to’ videos, questioning the intuitive negotiation of even the most habitual activity.
Inspired by her experience of life on the street, Bekki Perriman’s sound installation The Doorways Project features a series of recorded monologues telling of the intimate, sometimes humorous, often disturbing and most ignored experiences of homeless people.
There will also be a Family Day on Sunday 25 September, bringing Tramway’s Unlimited Festival to a close.
Tramway’s Unlimited Festival is produced by Tramway and Glasgow Life and supported by Creative Scotland.
The festival is a distinct part of the ongoing work throughout the UK and internationally of Unlimited - an arts commissioning programme delivered by Shape Arts and Artsadmin which offers talented disabled artists funds and mentoring support to develop, produce and show ambitious work.
Works presented at Tramway’s Unlimited Festival include commissions from the Unlimited programme.
Chair of Glasgow Life, Councillor Archie Graham, OBE, said: “Tramway’s Unlimited Festival is one of this year’s must see events, packed with brilliant new work by internationally acclaimed and emerging disabled artists. With work from leading Glasgow-based choreographers among the highlights of the programme, the best in Scottish arts will be at the fore as we present a festival that celebrates, questions, and invites everyone to join us at Tramway this September.”
Jo Verrent, Senior Producer, Unlimited, said: “It’s fantastic to have so many of our commissions feature in Tramway’s Unlimited Festival alongside other amazing pieces by disabled artists from across the globe. We’re looking forward to seeing the commissions discussed, shared, interrogated and celebrated through discussions and debate. I’m especially pleased to see the focus on emerging artists too - a real chance to shift the cultural sector across the whole of the UK by empowering a new generation of disabled makers and creators. I can’t wait!”
Leonie Bell, Director, Arts and Engagement, Creative Scotland, said: “The Tramway Unlimited Festival represents over six years of strategic support through UK and international partnerships that has taken advantage of large scale opportunities such as London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 in order to nurture, support and present work by some of the UK’s most ground-breaking artists.
“The Tramway Unlimited Festival presents us with a vibrant programme that aims to showcases amazing artistic ambition and shifts perceptions of disabled people. Scotland is renowned for its professional disabled artists and performers, many of whom are in demand internationally, with invitations to perform across Europe and in Brazil, India, Australia, Singapore and Korea.”
Find out more at www.tramway.org/TUF
Tramway
25 Albert Dr, Glasgow G41 2PE
0845 330 3501
ENDS
Listings
Project Ability/
Cameron Morgan | Put your sweet lips closer to the phone
15 – 25 September (Closed Monday 19 September)
Tramway 5
Outside
In| Nama Āto
15 – 25 September
(Closed Monday 19 September)
Tramway 5
Maki Yamazaki | Pioneer
[03]
15 – 25 September
(Closed Monday 19 September)
Upper Gallery
Bekki Perriman | Doorways
15 – 25 September
Times and locations
available in September
Aaron Williamson | Demonstrating
the World
16 & 17
September
Times and locations
available in September
NCA Small Theatre | Hiraeth
15 & 16
September
4.00pm
Tramway 1
21st Century
Challenges | 43 Percent
15 & 16
September
7.00pm
Tramway 1
A Tramway
co-production
Claire Cunningham
and Jess Curtis | The Way You Look (at me) Tonight
15 & 16 September
8.30pm
Tramway 1
A Tramway
co-production
Jack Dean | Grandad
and the Machine
17 & 18 September
2pm
Tramway 4
Sheila Hill | HIM
17 & 18 September
4pm
Tramway 1
Marc Brew Company |MayBe17 & 18 September
7pm
Tramway 1
Liz Carr | Assisted
Suicide: The Musical
17 & 18 September
8.30pm
Tramway 1
Jo Bannon | Alba
23 & 24
September
7pm
Tramway 4
Candoco Dance
Company | Counteracts
23 & 24 September
8.30pm
Tramway 1
Family Day
25 September
12noon – 4pm
Tramway is a leading international art-space which commissions, produces and presents contemporary arts projects and has been at the heart of the changes that have seen Glasgow re-born as one of Europe’s leading centres for contemporary visual arts. Based in the south of the city and a former tram depot, Tramway has a high quality, agenda setting, experimental and dynamic programme; it is one of the most sought after and prestigious spaces in Scotland for artists to present new work. Tramway enjoys a very strong reputation for working closely with and being artist led in its approach. Its 2016/17 season continues to place contemporary dance at the heart of the venue’s performance programme, with work by leading and emerging choreographers and companies.
Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme offering talented disabled artists funds and mentoring support to develop, produce and show ambitious work. Delivered in partnership by disability-led arts organisation Shape Arts and arts-producing organisation Artsadmin, Unlimited aims to embed work by disabled artists within the UK and international cultural sectors, reach new audiences and shift perceptions of disabled people and is funded from 2013-16 by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland. The British Council and Arts Council England funds Unlimited International. Spirit of 2012 funds Unlimited Impact to support young people, extend geographic reach and ensure legacy.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. For further information about Creative Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland
