The Great Glen Artists' Airshow

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: The Arts Catalyst

The Great Glen is a huge natural fissure in the earth, encompassing Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal. In September it will be the site for The Great Glen Artists’ Airshow, with activities that redefine the air as medium taking place at either end of it. Previous Arts Catalyst artists airshows, in 2004 and 2007, involved artists flying objects or investigating aeronautical culture. In common with these earlier airshows movement through air and landscape will be explored. Yet this year’s event will be more abstract, redefining the philosophical territory of the air and the ownership, or the mapping of the spatial landscape. This unique participatory weekend will take place on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 September 2010 at HICA, Dalcrombie, Loch Ruthven and Outlandia, Glen Nevis, Lochaber, Scotland. Full details here.

At one end of the Great Glen will be the main site, at the Highland Institute for Contemporary Art (HICA), with activities taking place on nearby Loch Ruthven, in the woodlands and on the open brae, or fell. At the other end of the Glen will be the unique Utopian venture, Outlandia, a treehouse for artists in the sky, overlooking Ben Nevis. The two-day event should prove a unique, unusual and rewarding participatory art experience.

Saturday 18 September’s free programme at HICA will include an airborne investigation of wind currents above Loch Ruthven by Dutch artists Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum. Polak will be extending her inventive use of global positioning (GPS) technology in her live performance beside the water. Her previous projects have seen her persuading long distance lorry drivers, cattle and sheep farmers in Nigeria, Brazil and Scotland to attach GPS units to vehicles and animals to trace patterns of migration and herding. Her recent work at InIVA, London, provoked viewers to rethink the way we map the world. An exhibition of new work by Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum continues at HICA until 10 October 2010.

Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson of London Fieldworks will present new work, installed in the woodland behind the loch, which imagines the flight path of birds as augurs, or omens, part of an ancient tradition of divination by birds. This new project was made in collaboration with a former hunter turned bird guide in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. London Fieldworks are also the creators of Outlandia, the destination of the Sunday bus tour event.

Passing through the woodland, the airshow’s participants will encounter poet and artist Alec Finlay reading poems beneath a braeside wind turbine. Finlay, who has been undertaking a journey The Road North to create a 'world map of Scotland' has also been artist in residence at NAREC (the UK research establishment for sustainable energy).

The Brazilian artist Camila Sposati will create a vast smoke drawing across the horizon of the fell, tracing the landscape, perspectives and contours of the hills, in an ephemeral performance that dissolves into the ether.

Throughout the afternoon, there will be participatory flying of 'supremacist kites' by artist, Susanne Norregard Nielsen, suitable for those with kite-flying experience.

In the evening, following an Open Air meal, there will be a free programme of artists talks called ‘The Territory of the Air’ about the military/industrial and aerospace presence in remote places such as Scotland.

● Artist, Louise K Wilson will discuss her Spadeadam project in which she attempted to trace the remains of Britain's cancelled space programme, Blue Streak
● Gair Dunlop will provide insights into his photographic and video work relating to contemporary archaeology of the airfield and his forthcoming project at the nuclear reactor Dounreay
● Esther Polak will talk about the implications and possibilities of increased civilian uses of GPS technologies
● Claudia Zeiske, Director, Deveron Arts and cultural activist will talk about Walking and Art, in relation to Huntly’s Walking Festival and the recent residency at Deveron arts by Hamish Fulton

On Sunday 19 September participants are invited to join a perambulatory bus tour of the Great Glen, conducted by artist Adam Dant, in conversation with The Arts Catalyst curator Rob La Frenais. This day-long event takes place along the length of the spectacular glen and will reveal unusual and possibly hidden aspects of Loch Ness and the Caledonian canal with the aid of a new ‘aerial map’ devised by Dant.

The climax of the journey will be the arrival at and the first public unveiling of Outlandia, the tree house for artists, which will be inhabited by Adam Dant in the manner of the Scottish enlightenment. Dant will be the first of many artists to transform the Utopian aerial studio, devised and designed by London Fieldworks as a long-term artists project for Fort William.

The Great Glen Artists’ Airshow is a very special participatory weekend event. Capacity is limited so participants are asked to register and indicate when booking which events they will be taking part in - the Saturday daytime events, evening talks, open air meal (£10, £5 for children) and Sunday bus tour (£15 plus £10 lunch or £10 lunch only for those travelling independently).

Further information, travel and accommodation click here, online bookings click here, enquiries admin@artscatalyst.org or 020 7375 3690 or 01808 521 306.

Participants should be aware that some walking on steep, boggy and uneven ground at both Loch Ruthven and Glen Nevis will be needed to fully participate in the event. There will be some climbing over fences and up steep inclines - fitness and suitable clothing will be needed.

Presented by The Arts Catalyst in association with HICA.

The Arts Catalyst in association with HICA presents:

THE GREAT GLEN ARTISTS' AIRSHOW
Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 September 2010
Highland Institute for Contemporary Art (HICA), Dalcrombie, Loch Ruthven
Inverness-shire IV2 6UA, Scotland, UK, and
Outlandia, Glen Nevis, Lochaber, Scotland, UK

Adam Dant, Gair Dunlop, London Fieldworks, Alec Finlay, Susanne Norregard Nielsen, Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum, Camila Sposati, Louise K Wilson, Claudia Zeiske

Supported by: Arts Council England, Scottish Arts Council, The Highland Culture Fund, The Henry Moore Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, H2007, Highland Council and Nevis Partnership, Brazilian Ministry of Culture, Brazilian Federation