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NVA and the National Theatre of Scotland Press Pack Press contacts Chamberlain AMPR 020 7240 5220 Ben Chamberlain 07931 723 988 [email protected] Jill Cotton 07838 144 992 [email protected] Emma Schad – National Theatre of Scotland 0141 227 9016 07930 308018 [email protected] Contents Press release Background research Press release NVA, in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland, presents Kilmartin Glen, Argyll 4 – 16 September 2007 Preview: 3 September 2007 Press performance on 4 September 2007 www.halflife.org.uk Following the hugely acclaimed Storr Project that took place in 2005 on The Isle of Skye, HALF LIFE is a major new landscape work and the first co-production between renowned innovators NVA and the National Theatre of Scotland. NVA has built an international reputation for monumental art installations animating remote rural settings. For the first time, the interventions will be staged throughout the day and a theatrical performance will take place at night in one of Europe’s most renowned prehistoric regions. HALF LIFE offers a physical and emotive experience which reveals the dark but inspiring mindset of Scotland’s early Neolithic inhabitants. The extraordinarily rich heritage of Mid Argyll has a remarkable story to tell, through thousands of years of intense marking of living rock formations and the raising and building of henges and burial complexes. It carries the beginnings of a truly cultural landscape, looking out onto the much feared Corryvreckan, the third largest whirlpool in the world. From 4000BC to 500BC, Kilmartin Glen operated as a unique burial and ceremonial complex. The bodies of the deceased were subjected to protracted and complex manipulation, through generations of special practices, before being finally laid to rest. It is this fascinating ‘dialogue with the dead’ that forms the basis for the work. HALF LIFE starts by day, when audiences are invited to explore a series of atmospheric sites and installations based around known and rarely seen prehistoric landmarks, over a 150 sq mile area of stunning Highland landscape. The routes follow interpretations of recently recovered archaeological field notes, previously unpublished, which give invaluable insight into the area. Like private diaries, they reveal some of the breakthrough moments in contemporary archaeological thinking, bringing inspiring thinking out of the academic world to a new audience. Discoveries include previously unvisited cup and ring marked stones carved 3000 to 4000 years ago and recently revealed bronze-age hill forts, encircling magnificent chambered burial cairns and configurations of standing stones. It is the sheer density of ancient monuments that takes the breath away. With walks and bike routes ranging from 15 minutes’ to 3 hours’ duration, an ideal visit might last 2 days for those who wish to take in the entire programme. As well as untouched locations, NVA’s interventions will take on dense forestry plantations, which are manipulated to create intriguing new entrances and vistas around chosen sites, while new audio compositions enhance the smallest living sounds and micro acoustics of the natural environment. In the evening, a powerful outdoor production will be staged in an atmospheric forest location at the entrance to Kilmartin Glen, centred around a circular sculptural set constructed from hundreds of felled logs. Seen through the eyes of a renowned archaeologist, in HALF LIFE the realms of the living and the dead seem to merge, bringing to light the remarkable beliefs that focused the ritual activity in our earliest societies; beliefs that still echo through the present landscape. The powerful creative team includes Angus Farquhar and Mark Murphy, renowned for his previous dance choreography with VTOL. A captivating score will be played live by harpist Rhodri Davies and violinist Angharad Davies, both creating an extended improvised repertoire, through the use of a remarkable range of materials including bones, slate and stones to draw subtle and unearthly sounds from their instruments. The script for the evening performance will be written by Thomas Legendre whose recent novel The Burning has received huge critical and public acclaim. For further information, please contact: Ben Chamberlain, on 0207 240 5220 or email [email protected] Or Emma Schad on 0141 227 9016 or email [email protected] NVA, The Storr: Unfolding landscape: “…It really did feel as if we were looking at something happening in another world, heaven perhaps” Observer, 7 August 2005 HALF LIFE Journey into the Neolithic Kilmartin Glen, Argyll 4 – 16 September 2007 Preview: 3 September 2007 www.halflife.org.uk Times to be confirmed Tickets: £20/£12 (concessions) Available from 6 June 2007. For further info and to book online visit www.halflife.org.uk To book by phone call Hub tickets on 0131 473 2056 Tickets will also be available from Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll, from Mid-August 2007. HALF LIFE is an outdoor event, please wear appropriate clothing in case of rapid weather change (full walking gear recommended). Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Evening performance content is not recommended for under 12’s. For more information on NVA please visit: www.nva.org.uk The National Theatre of Scotland please visit: www.nationaltheatrescotland.com Accommodation We recommend that you be prepared and book your accommodation now, here are some websites that may be of help: www.roomfinderscotland.co.uk www.visitscotland.com Artistic Team Day events Creative Director: Angus Farquhar Designers: James Johnson / Simon Costin Sound Curator: Barry Esson Sound Composers: Lee Patterson / Toshiya Tsunoda Book designers: Skratch Night performance Creative Director: Angus Farquhar Co-Director: Mark Murphy Writer: Thomas Legendre Designers: James Johnson / Simon Costin Sound Curator: Barry Esson Lighting Designer: Phil Supple Composers: Rhodri Davies /Angharad Davies About NVA NVA is an environmental arts charity based in Glasgow. Founded by Angus Farquhar in 1992, the company has built a powerful reputation through the delivery of temporary and permanent artworks across Europe. NVA’s mission is to encourage international, pioneering artists to collectively produce highly complex and ambitious site-specific events, festivals and interventions. The company works across all media, promoting strong cross-cultural community work within technologically groundbreaking initiatives. Currently employing 5 core staff we employ up to 100 additional staff and contractors over each project period. NVA is an acronym of nacionale vitae activa, a Roman term denoting ‘the right to influence public affairs’ – a core value of the organisation. The vision has always been to transform natural landscapes and urban settings as a basis to change the way people see their environment. It takes what is ‘there’ as a starting point for uncovering underlying realities about time, politics, geology, history, culture, and belief. Exploring how places shape, and are shaped by, their inhabitants. NVA has created some of the UK’s most critically acclaimed contemporary art works and performances, including presentations in gorges, on mountainsides, and other extraordinary and remote locations Projects: NVA develops long term capital projects, such as the multiple award winning Hidden Gardens sanctuary in Glasgow. Productions: NVA produce medium sized repertoire projects, like Pain and The Gimmick, that can be restaged and taken to different venues. Artworks: NVA create one-off artworks and events that have long development periods with rapid growth and contraction around the production, such as ‘The Path’ and ‘The Storr: Unfolding landscape’. Events: NVA curate urban visual art festivals which open up cityscapes to the public. Light Festivals such as Radiance Glasgow 05 and GLOW NewcastleGateshead 06, illuminate iconic buildings and showcase some of the best visual art light works by a wide variety of artists both national and international. At the heart of this work is a commitment to continue good environmental practice in minimising impact and pollution to such an extent, that the company has redesigned the lighting technologies it uses, to significantly reduce power emissions and the reliance on fossil fuels in sensitive locations. NVA’s works are mostly ‘experienced’ dynamically at night and are often the culmination of extensive engagement with and the participation of the communities in which they take place. With HALF LIFE NVA continue their environmental remit to improve and support the areas they are invited to work in and work with local community activists and organisations to support future local aspirations. As Mid-Argyll has very little cultural provision, NVA are raising additional funds to leave the beautiful form of the stage set as a permanent sculptural artwork, alongside 3 of the major forest interventions, for local people to use to stage their own activities and visit in the future. This creates a strong legacy and direct benefit beyond the more temporary nature of other aspects of the work. www.nva.org.uk Past NVA projects Glow NewcastleGateshead’s Festival of Light, NewcastleGateshead 2006 Radiance Glasgow Festival of Light 05, Glasgow 2005 The Storr: Unfolding Landscape The Old Man of Storr, Trotternish, Skye 2005 The Hidden Gardens Tramway, East Pollokshields, launched 2003 Fall From Light Burns And A’That Festival, Ayr 2002 Glasgow Lighting Initiatives Long term lighting projects, Glasgow 2001 - 2003 The Gimmick The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh 2000 The Path Glen Lyon, Perthshire 2000 Grand Central Grand Central Hotel, Central Station, Glasgow 1999 Expo ’98 National Day for Britain, Lisbon, Portugal 1998 The Secret Sign Finnich Glen, Drymen 1998 Virtual World Orchestra Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow 1997 Pain Touring Theatre Production 1996 - 1999 Stormy Waters Meadowside Granary, Glasgow 1995 The Silent Twins The Old Partick Police Station, Glasgow 1994 Soundworks The Arches, Glasgow 1994 Sabotage Touring Theatre Production 1993 - 1994 The Soul Machine Dowanhill Church, Glasgow 1991 The Second Coming St Rollox Locomotive Works, Glasgow 1990 Beltane Fire Festival Carlton Hill, Edinburgh 1988 – present NVA Awards The Storr: Unfolding Landscape: Scottish Enterprise Dynamic Place Awards 2005 - Team of the Year Award, Connections Category Commendation UK Lighting Design Awards 2006 – Entertainment Lighting Award 2006 Scottish Thistle Awards - Events and Festivals Award, VisitScotland Highland Tourism Awards 2005 - Highly Commended for Innovation Hidden Gardens: The Surf Award (Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum) The Civic Trust Award The Dynamic Place Award Scottish Design Awards (Grand Prix) BALI Award (Biffa Award for Investment in Environment) Angus Farquhar: Creative Scotland Award (The Path/The Storr) The Scotsman Theatre Director of the Year (The Path) About NTS Since its launch in February 2006, the National Theatre of Scotland has been involved in creating more than 30 productions in over 60 different locations. With no building of its own, the Company takes theatre all over Scotland and beyond, working with existing and new venues and companies to create and tour theatre of the highest quality. It takes place in the great buildings of Scotland, but also in site-specific locations, airports and tower blocks, community halls and drill halls, ferries and forests. In Spring / Summer 2007, along with Tutti Frutti, National Theatre of Scotland has presented UK tours of two dramatically different pieces of theatre, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, written and directed by Anthony Neilson and Aalst (a co-production with Victoria and Tramway) conceived, directed and designed by Pol Heyvaert. The site-specific Black Watch has toured all over Scotland and Futurology (a co-production with Glasgow’s Suspect Culture) toured conference centres from Aberdeen to Brighton. The National Theatre of Scotland Learn department creates events all over Scotland. To mark the 2007 Highland Year of Culture, Elgin Macbeth appears in Elgin Cathedral during the Summer. 2007 will also see the world premiere of Venus as a Boy, an NTS Workshop co-production with Burnt Goods, based on Luke Sutherland’s extraordinary novel. Scottish theatre has always been for the people, led by great performances, great stories or great playwrights. The National Theatre of Scotland exists to build a new generation of theatre-goers as well as reinvigorating the existing ones; to create theatre on a national and international scale that is contemporary, confident and forward-thinking; to bring together brilliant artists, designers, composers, choreographers and playwrights; and to exceed expectations of what and where theatre can be. For more information visit www.nationaltheatrescorland.com NTS Awards Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2005-2006: Best Ensemble, Best Technical Presentation and Best Theatre Production for ROAM, Best Children’s Show and Best Design for HOME: East Lothian and Best Music for HOME: Shetland Edinburgh Festivals 2006: A Herald Angel for REALISM, A Herald Angel, a Fringe First, a Best Theatre Writing Award from The List, The Friends of the Fringe Award and a Stage Award for Best Ensemble for BLACK WATCH. BLACK WATCH also won The Best Director Award at The Critics Circle Awards and The South Bank Show Theatre Award. THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS won the TMA Award for Best Children’s Show ROAM won two Arts and Business Awards. The National Theatre of Scotland has been nominated for 9 Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland for 2006 – 2007. The Artistic Team Angus Farquhar is Creative Director of NVA and has produced the most complex live events and installations staged in remote settings in the UK. A core member of cult industrial music outfit Test Department in the 1980’s, he re-initiated Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire Festival in 1988 which is now attended by up to 10,000 people a year. Winner of a Creative Scotland award in 2004. Barry Esson is a director of Arika, who produce internationally renowned experimental music festivals and site specific events, including Instal, Kill Your Timid Notion, Music Lovers’ Field Companion and Resonant Spaces. They work with both established and up and coming artists to develop audiences and experiences for experimental, underground and avant garde music, film and art. He will be working to engage sound artists, musicians and audiences with the hidden sounds of the Argyll landscape. Thomas Legendre was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine, USA. He received his undergraduate degree in English and Economics and a Master's degree in Literature before gaining his MFA degree in Creative Writing. He lived in Arizona for nine years before moving to Edinburgh in the summer of 2001, where he still lives with his wife, Allyson Stack, and their two children. His novel, THE BURNING, was published by Little, Brown in 2006. James Johnson has worked with the best in the industry, from Norman Foster, Jasper Morrison, and Lighting Design Partnership International, to Santiago Calatrava in Paris and Sekisui Design Centre, Japan. Industrial designer, James will be principal designer for the Argyll project 2007 and will create the large-scale set constructed of 10,000 logs which promises to astonish the audience. Simon Costin is an internationally respected set designer renowned for the conceptually ambitious nature of his editorial and catwalk designs. He has collaborated extensively with Alexander McQueen, and Givenchy ready to wear and haute couture shows. His expertise will be revealed through bespoke interpretations and animations. Phil Supple is a multi-disciplinary lighting designer, specialising in outdoor site specific projects. Recent work includes STICKY for Improbable Theatre, BEFORE THE WOLF for UZ events and NORTHUMBERLAND LIGHTS, an on-going series of spectacular urban and rural landscape installations for Northumberland Strategic Partnership. www.lightrefreshment.co.uk Mark Murphy is an award-winning director, writer, filmmaker and movement specialist. Equally at home both indoor and out, he has worked with The Northern Stage Ensemble, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Boilerhouse, Legs On The Wall and has made large-scale shows for the Manchester and Melbourne Commonwealth Games as well as writing and touring his own plays. The Musicians Lee Patterson is a sound artist with a growing reputation within the international arena. In Summer 2006, drawing upon his field recording practice, he produced the radio show, Audio Sketchbook, for Resonance FM, London. Rhodri Davies is an improviser, harpist and composer whose music spans live electronics, noise, abstract sound and field recordings. He tours regularly across Europe, North America and Japan. Toshiya Tsunoda is a sound artist and founding member of the WrK group of installation and conceptual artists. His work, which has been published world-wide, was included in Intransitive’s “VARIIOUS” 2CD compilation in 1999. "Solid Vibration" is his latest and first release on Infringitive, a new collaborative label from Intransitive (USA) and Fringes (Italy). He lives in Tokyo. Angharad Davies is an experimental violinist. She has contributed on the soundtracks to Samantha Rebello's Films Surface of residual Matter, Whitechapel Gallery ( 2006 ) and the Leeds film festival Cymbal as well as performing a live improvisation violin piece for the Buruk collective. Guide to Neolithic Period in Scottish history Situated in Argyll, Kilmartin Glen is the richest Prehistoric landscape in Scotland. Kilmartin Glen is set in a rugged and glacially scoured backdrop with beautiful low lying hills and a strongly corrugated upland landscape full of lochs and hollows. Located north of Lochgilphead and south of Oban, the Glen is famous for its rich historical legacy. To the west the naturally protected harbour at Crinan looks out to the Isles of Jura and Scarba. Running between them is the Corryvreckan, the third largest whirlpool in the world. Another unique natural feature is the Moine Mhor (the great moss) a raised moss complex out of which rises, like a lone sentinel, the hillfort of Dunadd, famous as an early trading and political centre. It was the key hilltop location for the inauguration of the first kings of Dalriada, the proto-Scottish kingdom which ran from Antrim across the water and gradually stretched eastward to hold jurisdiction over much of the country from the 7th to the 9th Century. Mid-Argyll can rightly claim its position as the "Cradle of the Nation" but not without numerous further invasions, tribal, religious and territorial struggles through the ensuing years. First likely to have been inhabited by small bands of hunter/gatherers and fishermen in 7000BC, the area really came into its own with a new band of settlers from 4000BC onwards who, from the Neolithic Period to the early Bronze-Age Period, brought an unprecedented level of abstract stone carving and building to the area. Contained within an area which is not much over 6 miles long is a huge diversity of rock art, standing stones, stone circles, carved rocks and ancient tombs and duns (hillforts). It also has what is believed to be the only 'Linear Cemetery' in the country – a series of chambered cairns (burial mounds) laid out in a straight line at the bottom of the Glen. One of these is believed to be over 6000 years old, older than the Pyramids. A walk behind Kilmartin brings these monuments together and sets them in context. They are not just important in their own right. They are important as part of the wider landscape which reveals many monuments further afield and the diversity of landscape forms: one of the last raised peat bogs in Scotland, farmland hard-won, remnant park: and of a highland estate, estuary flats and the mountains of the island of Jura in the distance. This landscape, from both a cultural and natural perspective is breath-taking. Yet there is more to understand even than the features picked out form the vantage point above Kilmartin. There are struggles in the landscape which, though not immediately visible to the eye, have inhabited the land from the earliest times and continue to do so; different perceptions of what the landscape means and what it is for, questions of how it should be used and by whom. These are knitted into history. Evidence is present for its use as a sacred space, shared space, route-way and symbol of power and the some of the earliest hierarchies out of which modern society was formed. The concentration of monumental tombs, wooden and stone henges, standing stones and the proliferation of 'cup and ring marked' rocks is unparalleled in the UK and can be termed a complex 'Ritual Landscape'. Why there is such a concentration of these ancient monuments in one small area of the Highlands remains unknown to this day, but the work of Kilmartin House Museum and contemporary archaeological process as well as this NVA/National Theatre of Scotland project is doing much to bring forth new ways of thinking. There is no question that this must have been an area of enormous importance to these earliest of farmers, hunters and gatherers. To this day the atmosphere throughout the area is rich in memories. It is hard to miss the importance of Kilmartin Glen as a prehistoric landscape which sustained over 2000 years of continual special practices and burial activity. Education Project NTS Learn Over a 13 week period, 100 3rd year pupils from Lochgilphead High School will work with a team of lead artists from the National Theatre of Scotland. The artists, who have a variety of creative skills and backgrounds, will explore the idea of “Journey” in the physical, emotional and spiritual sense, linking the work taking place in Lochgilphead High School with the site-specific co-production between NVA and National Theatre of Scotland, HALF LIFE. What journeys do we all make in our lives? Why do we make these journeys? Do we make them alone? And do we ever reach our intended destination? A team of artists, including drama and design specialists, will work in residency in the school two days weekly over a 13 week period. During this time they will empower the pupils to explore ways of answering these questions in a creative way, working towards an ambitious, one-off, site-specific event within Lochgilphead High School gardens in the week beginning Monday 10th September. The work created will be a variety of live performance, video imagery, art installation, music composition, but most importantly will be created and owned by the pupils. Other initiatives Alongside this NTS Learn project local primary schools will create a project, organised through Argyll & Bute Council’s Cultural Co-ordinator with the support of NVA and the Scottish Arts Council. This project will involve the children undertaking their own journey to local sites of cultural and environmental significance accompanied by artists. The material gathered will become part of a special exhibition of the children’s work. HALF LIFE is made possible by support and help from the following: Scottish Executive Scottish Arts Council Argyll & Bute Council HIE: Highlands Islands Enterprise (Argyll) Highland 2007 The Dunard Fund Esmée Fairbairn Heritage Lottery Fund Arts & Business Hugh Fraser Foundation The Gulbenkian Foundation Event Scotland Forestry Commission AGWA – Argyll Green Woodworkers Association MacLeod’s Construction Midge Tech West Coast Motors Reforesting Scotland Coille Haulage Kilmartin House Museum Dalriada Arts & Culture Historic Scotland Dalriada Project