To everyone that has made our 3 legged journey possible across Riga, London and Newcastle – thank you thank you thank you! What an incredible journey we’ve had with inspiring artists, festival hosts, audiences and locations.

We’ll be putting up images and links very soon, whilst we digest what has just happened and what might happen next year….

Check out some initial photos on our facebook page DISTANCE, and stay tuned by signing up to our mailing list!

Lynn & Simone

Had to say goodbye to Ruti Sela earlier today, but saying hello to the rest of artists very soon.

Wunderbar HQ is shaping up and everything is beautifully multi-coloured like a schizo pencil box. Can’t wait to see Harriet’s School and the rest of the brilliant programme.

Check out our DISTANCE full programme here – including installations throughout the week, and a DISTANCE All-Dayer on Saturday 5th

DISTANCE Wunderbar programme

x

Joon Lynn, Simone, Neil and Steve meet the British Council Latvia on a windy day in Riga.

Trespassing

 One-day experiment in filming and being filmed, with Ruti Sela &  Maayan Amir

 Invitation to participate:  

Ruti Sela & Maayan Amir are inviting London-based artists to participate in  a collaborative experiment in filming and being filmed to explore the notion  of trespassing in London. This meeting is one of three visits to three towns, Riga, London and Newcastle, which Ruti and Maayan arrive to as strangers and visitors.  While in each of the towns, they aim to navigate their way into and around public and private events to which they haven’t been invited, making a film of their encounters and experiences as they go.

London-based artists are invited to take an active part in the filming of a work in process by Ruti and Maayan. The film will explore the relations between trespassing, performance and representation, and will be shown at DISTANCE, a roaming performance festival, next taking place at the ICA with LIFT on October 15^th-16^th, and Wunderbar from 1-6^th November. www.fromadistance.co.uk

The meeting is an invitation for local artists to re-examine the paradoxical nature underlying structures of exclusion which have the potential to produce images of double impression: marking the very thing that they wish to efface.

If you are interested, please contact distancefestival@gmail.com with why you would like to participate by Friday 7^th October. Artists will be re-contacted by 9^th October.

We have 10 places. Participants must be able to attend the whole day on Thursday 13^th. Please let us know if you are able to attend either discussion on Saturday 15^th or Sunday 16^th.

No prior experience of filming is necessary.

—————————-

Timetable:

Thursday 13^th  (11am – 6pm) – Location (East London, tbc)
Morning – Discussion and experiments with cameras
Afternoon – Travel to chosen location, and filming.

Saturday 15^th (3.30-5.00pm) Sunday 16^th (2.30-3.30pm) - DISTANCE (ICA)
Invitation to view film in progress, and to participate in discussions after screenings.

—————————–

About the Artists

Ruti Sela & Maayan Amir: In their individual practices Maayan Amir and Ruti Sela explore issues of National identity through the intricate scope of authority, morality and sexuality. They capture moments from their immediate surroundings but also create situations from it that press their subjects to take position: revealing their thoughts and intimate feelings entangled with the complex political situation.

Parallel to their practice as video artist, since 2009, Maayan Amir and Ruti Sela have initiated the “Exterritory Project” an art project which strives to create an autonomous physical, cultural, and mental space for the production and exchange of knowledge. Exterritory aims to encourage both the theoretical and practical exploration of ideas concerning ex-territoriality in an interdisciplinary context, while offering both a discursive and a concrete ex-territorial space for encounters, research, discussion, and creation of art. The project wishes to bring together artists and thinkers interested in rethinking a range of accepted geo-political realities. It focuses both on the theoretical formulation and actual creation of independent spaces: new physical and theoretical meeting points positioned outside the boundaries of any one clearly defined place. In April 2011, they received for this project an award for young artists from UNESCO.

http://exterritory-project.org

www.beyond-guilt.com

http://rutisela.net

Download the DISTANCE programme at LIFT 2011 and decide what you’d like to come and get involved with. More details will be announced very soon.  All events are free but will be ticketed. For more information and to book your tickets visit www.liftfestival.com.

ONE: Prepare for a field trip across Riga, London and Newcastle on your computer desktop

Wherever you are, take a field trip with 3 artists who will broadcast live from remote landscapes across Riga, London and Newcastle, direct to your computer screen. Unannounced, these broadcasts create a playful interruption to your daily life, taking you to a different field each time.

To experience these broadcasts over the duration of DISTANCE, download Field Broadcast software by clicking on the arrow below:

TWO: Map your take offs and landings to Homo Novus, LIFT and Wunderbar

Peter J Evan’s participatory project The cartographies of travelling without moving (flight) invites visitors flying into or departing out of the three festivals taking part in DISTANCE to contribute a drawing to an ongoing collection that measures and marks their journeys. The drawings are a recording of the speed and force of movement on take off and landing made in graphite on the airline disposal bag.

Follow the instructions in this video before you travel, or pick up a pencil and instructions at the festival centre before you leave.

the cartographies of travelling without moving (flight) from Wunderbar Festival on Vimeo.

THREE: Contribute to a Dictionary of Distance

Over the next three months, we are collecting your stories and thoughts of distance. What does distance mean to you? Your contribution will add towards a Dictionary of Distance, a growing definition of our complex relationship to distance, now and into the future.

Add to the Dictionary of Distance by sending us a tweet @distancefest, or here on this blog.