FIERCE FESTIVAL: Interrobang 1, Regeneration

Interrobang, as a glyph and word is an insightful place to start when reflecting on the intentions of this long weekender. The interrobang symbol is a punctuation mark combining the question mark and exclamation point. The word also suggests interrogate, while the bang is ever present. An event with these qualities was our guiding aim. The diversity of these ‘interrogations’ through performance, talks, workshops, film screenings and interventions created an ephemeral network among the attendees that encouraged debate, chatter and reflection. Each contribution sought to instigate the reimagining of one’s environment and surrounding structures. The performance by Eitan Buchalter did this most obliquely but perhaps most effectively, in his typical Keatonesque testing of unwritten rules of public behavior. Simply standing at a zebra-crossing without crossing elicited abuse from drivers, consternation from campus security and attempted intervention from the community police. If a single static individual can generate this commotion on a university campus, how might a crowd alter, change or redefine their city’

Press Release

West Midlands based festival curators and producers, Fierce, initiated their artistic programme this year with Fierce Interrobang 1: Regeneration, at the Mead Gallery in Warwick Arts Centre.

Exploring notions of hyperlocality this Interrobang took the development of a cultural quarter in Far Gosford St, Coventry as a starting point. Not only in Coventry but across the West Midlands there is talk at local governmental level of ‘regeneration’. What does this mean in actuality’ How will it be manifested’ What is being presumed in these ambitions’

Interrobang 1: Regeneration examined this word from multiple angles - not only as it is used in political rhetoric - but in the broadest sense of the term. In doing associations of ‘regeneration’ limited to physical or architectural renewal were broadened and repositioned to embrace acts of social change, imagination and play.

The complete programme over the three days is listed below:

Thu 25 Jun

All day: The Idea of a University (an exhibition exploring the origins and development of Warwick University with archival photographs and oral testimonies) curated by The Reinvention Centre.
Regeneration plans and models for Far Gosford St, Coventry - an insight into a forthcoming urban regeneration initiative.
Archival Imagery of Coventry during and immediately after WWII.
Free tea and coffee.

11am: Tea, biscuits and cake - all welcome.

3pm: The Far Gosford St Creative Business Theme Group: council discussion group meeting; observe politics in action.

4pm: Film Screenings: So Oder Anders (13mins, AT 1996) by Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel - the regeneration of a market square in Vienna. Guerilla Gardening, (8mins), directed by David Bond and produced by Ashley Jones.

5.30pm: Private View for The Idea of a University exhibition (all welcome)

6.30pm - 7.30pm: On Call: Open surgery for art ideas exchange (all welcome)

7pm - 8.30pm: Panel discussion: What is Regeneration’ Speakers include Dr Catherine Lambert (University of Warwick) and Ian Harrabin (Complex Development Projects).

8.30pm - 9.30pm: Salon: a freeform discussion on cultural regeneration.

9.30pm: bitJAM live audio-visual set

Fri 25 Jun

All day: The Idea of a University (an exhibition exploring the origins and development of Warwick University with archival photographs and oral testimonies) curated by The Reinvention Centre.
Regeneration plans and models for Far Gosford St, Coventry - an insight into a forthcoming urban regeneration initiative.
Archival Imagery of Coventry during and immediately after WWII.
Interventions from Platinum Artists throughout the day. Platinum is an Arts Council England funded artist development scheme. The artists are: Cody Lee Barbour, Companis, Louie O’Grady, Leon Trimble, Arzhang Pezhman, Jaskirt Dhaliwa.
Free tea and coffee.

11am: Tea, biscuits and cake - all welcome.

11.30am - 1.30pm: Workshop: Silent Walk with Kira O’Reilly. An exercise in exploring the landscape collectively through drifting and wandering.

1.30pm - 2.30pm: Reinvention Centre discussion of The Idea of a University exhibition.

3pm - 4.30pm: Stan’s Cafe, The Commentators, Brazil v Portugal, watch the World Cup game in the Mead Gallery with a commentary substituted by theatre collective Stan’s Cafe.

3.30pm: Film Screenings: So Oder Anders (13mins, AT 1996) by Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel - the regeneration of a market square in Vienna. Guerilla Gardening, (8mins), directed by David Bond and produced by Ashley Jones.

4.30pm - 5.30pm: On Call: Open surgery for art ideas exchange (all welcome)

7.30pm: Lily Kember, Plane Stupid campaigner and ‘Activist of the Year, Independent Green Awards, talks about Transition Town Heathrow and direct action.

9pm: audiovisual set from Chomatouch

Sat 26 Jun

All day: The Idea of a University (an exhibition exploring the origins and development of Warwick University with archival photographs and oral testimonies) curated by The Reinvention Centre.
Regeneration plans and models for Far Gosford St, Coventry - an insight into a forthcoming urban regeneration initiative.
Archival Imagery of Coventry during and immediately after WWII.
Live Art Development Agency Micro-Library.
Workshop: DIY and Activism with Lily Kember (Transition Heathrow, Plane Stupid)
Free tea and coffee.

11am: Tea, biscuits and cake - all welcome.

11.30am: Performance by Eitan Buchalter

12 - 1pm: Film Screenings: Faceless (50mins) and Mapping CCTV around Whitehall (3mins): films by Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel. A radical look at CCTV culture and the commercialisation of public space.

3pm - 4pm: Workshop: Function Creep with Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel. Collectively imagine an alternative community in the year 2030 with Fierce Festival artists.

4.15pm: Talk: EXYZT, Nicholas Henninger. Key members of subversive architecture collective EXYZT gives insights into former and future projects. EXYZT are famed for unexpected interventions in public space like creating a wheatfield in East London, or an outdoor sauna near Waterloo Station.

5pm - 6.30 pm: Workshop: Eitan Buchalter. How to become an expert and intervene in public space. A site specific workshop around Warwick Arts Centre. (sign up on the day, only 10 places)

6pm - till late: Hide&Seek International Sandpit. An explosion of social games around the Arts Centre

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