The Re-Enchantment

artevents’ latest project The Re-Enchantment is the first national project exploring culture and the rural through original artistic commissions. This ambitious project seeks to interrogate the various meanings of 'place' in the twenty first century.

At a time when globalisation, the implications of extreme environmental change and the multiple alienations of modern society all threaten our sense of belonging, the importance of 'place' to the enhancement of identity and creative possibility in life and art cannot be underestimated. The Re-Enchantment aims to deliver an imaginative response through art, live performance, film and writing to one of the most pressing issues facing the contemporary world.

For The Re-Enchantment, four acclaimed and innovative artists, all of whom have demonstrated a significant, empathetic and enduring engagement with place as a primary element of their work, will create striking new works in diverse media across the UK.

The fifth project, the book Towards Re-Enchantment (published November 2010) will create an opportunity for some of Britain’s finest writers and poets to reflect on the meaning of ‘re-enchantment’ in reference to an actual, particular place or region as they see it, however personal or public, social or cultural. All the writers have shown very significant commitment in their work to various readings of place – in essay and poetry. Contributors include Jay Griffiths, Kathleen Jamie, Richard Mabey, Robert MacFarlane, Jane Rendell, Iain Sinclair, Sukhdev Sandhu and Ken Worpole, with poems from Elizabeth Bletsoe, Lavinia Greenlaw, Alice Oswald and Robin Robertson.

• England Revisited by Simon English
    (July to September 2010)

  In 1971 land artist Simon English created his first monumental artwork, All England Sculpture. Over a period of months Simon mapped and graphically marked out the word ENGLAND physically, precisely and equally down the length of a Bartholomew’s ordnance survey map of the country, dividing the word into 75 component points, thus converting the place into the word. England Revisited is an entirely new work that will look at the change, or lack of change, that has taken place in the landscape, communities, ecologies and industries of all the places visited in the original journey. A dedicated website will provide a diary record of Simon English’s encounters with people, place and landscape, and GPS mapping procedures online will make it possible to engage with the work remotely.

  Simon English is a conceptual land artist with over 20 ambitious land art works to his credit. Apart from All England Sculpture, his Camomile Swan (1989) and Reversing the Zebra (1992) have received critical and popular commendation.

• Patience (After Sebald) by Grant Gee
    (January 2011)

  Patience (After Sebald) is a multi-layered film essay on landscape, art, history, life and loss by the acclaimed documentary film-maker Grant Gee. It will be an exploration of the work and influence of German writer WG Sebald (1944 – 2001), told via a 110 mile walk through coastal East Anglia tracking his most famous book The Rings of Saturn.

  Grant Gee is a film-maker praised for his works about music and musicians. He has twice been Grammy-nominated for Meeting People Is Easy – about Radiohead - in 2000 and Demon Days – about Gorillaz - in 2006. His documentary Joy Division premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival in 2007 and won the prestigious Grierson Award 2008 for Best Cinema Documentary.

• Fissure conceived and created by Louise Ann Wilson
    (May 2011)

  Theatre maker Louise Ann Wilson is working with an award winning team of artists and scientists, local individuals and organizations to create a unique theatrical experience in a remote Yorkshire Dale using the lives, legends and music of the locality. Fissure’s artistic team includes poet Elisabeth Burns, choreographer Nigel Stewart and composer Jocelyn Pook (winner of a British Composer Award and Olivier Award; Golden Globe and Bafta nominee).

  Louise Ann Wilson is an artist, scenographer, theatre and opera designer and is internationally recognized as a maker of site-specific work. As Artistic Director of the Louise Ann Wilson Company, she specializes in site-specific work made in collaboration with both artists and experts from fields not usually associated with performance work. From 1997 to 2008 she was co-artistic director of wilson + Wilson, whose productions included House, Mulgrave and Mapping the Edge.

• Cillein, by Steve Dilworth
    (June 2011)

  Cillein is a unique artwork on the Isle of Harris in Scotland by leading sculptor Steve Dilworth that draws on the most enduring sense of place imaginable to create a “hidden artwork”. A totemic human figure interred in a glacial boulder will found a legend spread through rumour, gossip, story telling and social networking on a global scale.

  Since 1983 Steve Dilworth has lived and worked on the remote Isle of Harris, Scotland. He is known for using a vast range of natural materials, mostly found on the island. Many of Dilworth’s works belong to permanent collections, such as the Scottish Arts Council Collection and his work has been featured in a wide range of publications, television programmes and films, including a joint exhibition and film entitled The Great Book of Gaelic.

The Re-Enchantment is produced by artevents (Gareth Evans and Di Robson) and core funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s pioneering Breakthrough Fund (www.phf.org.uk) and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England (www.artscouncil.org.uk); PRS for Music (www.prsformusic.com) and the UK Film Council (www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk).