POSTPONEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT
In light of the recently announced national lockdown, we are very sorry to announce that we have taken the decision to temporarily postpone Restless Worlds, our kinetic sculpture artwalk for MANIPULATE Festival. Whilst we designed the project to be able to proceed under tight coronavirus restrictions, the government’s message at present is very clear – we must stay at home to prevent the further spread of coronavirus, particularly in light of this new more transmissible variant. Our highest priority is keeping our audiences, artists and communities safe, and we therefore cannot bring you this work at this moment.
Restless Worlds was created to bring joy, intrigue and escapism during a difficult year, and it will still do so, as soon as we are able to bring the work to you. Our incredible commissioned artists have been creating extraordinary, intricate and beautiful worlds, which are ready and waiting to be unearthed, as soon as we are able to share them with you safely.
Any tickets already purchased will be fully refunded, and we will contact all bookers to advise them as soon as new dates become available. If you would like us to contact you to advise as soon as new booking dates become available, please click here.
However, don’t despair! There are many more things to experience very soon at MANIPULATE, including all the visual theatre and animated film in our DIGITAL FESTIVAL, running from 29 January until 7 February. To find out more or book your tickets, click here.
In an exciting new venture for MANIPULATE Festival #14, we have commissioned eight kinetic artworks in a new live promenade project called RESTLESS WORLDS. Through the project, audiences in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow can enjoy a live, artistic, outdoor experience in their city during this particularly challenging coronavirus winter.
The project represents a new way of working for us, which came about because it was clear that a live, indoor festival of performance was not on the cards for 2021, owing to Covid-19. We wanted to think of ways that we could create some certainty amidst a lot of unknowns, offering an experience for audiences to put in the diary and look forward to for the middle of winter during the pandemic. Being a subsidised, non building-based organisation, the financial impacts of the pandemic have been in many ways less severe for us than many of our peer organisations, and so we wanted to create a project which would generate substantial work for artists and utilise the incredible skills of our community of makers and designers, many of whom have struggled greatly throughout this time.
We’re working with artists from across Scotland, some in collaboration with international partners. These include puppeteers, filmmakers, animators, sculptors, video artists, theatre makers and designers, presenting some of Scotland’s leading creative talent alongside bold new voices. Each piece will comprise a visual artwork and a bespoke accompanying soundscape or BSL video which audiences will download to their device in advance of the trail.
Artists were given the parameters that the piece must involve autonomous movement (whether from animated screens, automata, motors, lighting, water, gravity etc) and should operate completely unsupervised, tucked away in windows where audiences can discover them. Artists Shona Reppe, Gavin Glover, Samuel Watterworth, Lucas Chih-Peng Kao and Katanari, Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, Jessica Innes and Guy Bishop, have interpreted this with eight totally distinct and engaging artworks which audiences can unearth as they follow the trail.
The works will visit the foyer of the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh between 21 January and 1 February, various locations across Aberdeen between 4 and 10 February, and various locations across Glasgow between 13 and 21 February.
For tickets and information please click here