DIY: 2012 – Richard Layzell: Metropolis

Richard Layzell

Metropolis

Whitstable

DIY 9: 2012 – Call for Participants

An exclusive DIY event in collaboration with the Whitstable Biennale

Project summary:
Whitstable is the fulcrum. It’s a metropolis, a hub, a cultural epicentre where every square metre is dripping with potential. Each building is an architectural gem of world heritage status. The coastline is iconic, magnificent and spellbinding, an interface with nature that is raw, bracing and unbelievably picturesque. Its people are sophisticated, urbane and rooted in a historical landscape that is far more profound and significant than London’s. By comparison, London is a superficial upstart, trivial and vacuous. Whitstable has everything and is everything. Every shop, every café, pub or restaurant, every street corner, each back alley is extraordinarily vibrant, rippling with energy and opportunity.

This is the starting point and premise for METROPOLIS. We will adopt this position and approach the town, as artists, in this way. We will investigate and observe. We will develop strategies to uphold and demonstrate our beliefs. We will relish discovering untapped potential and locations. We will make a series of performative contributions/interventions within the framework of the Biennale and/or alongside it. We will connect with local people as a part of this process. We will need their support and their knowledge. They may become participants in our works. We will invite them to join us in a concluding public discussion, where we reflect on our discoveries and our contributions to the greater METROPOLIS. We will be privileged to have them there, because they are RESIDENTS.

Dates, times and location:
Day 1 – Monday 10 September at Horsebridge Arts Centre Whitstable – initial meeting/workshop, research 11.30 to 18.30.
Day 2 – Thursday 13 September at Horsebridge Arts Centre Whitstable – devising, collaborating, involving residents, making, documenting11.30 – 18.30
Day 3 – Saturday 15 September in and around Whitstable – devising, collaborating, involving residents, making, documenting – times and venues to be arranged
Day 4 – Sunday 16 September in and around Whitstable, also public meeting and feedback – times and venues to be arranged

Application procedure:
Please write a couple of paragraphs about why you are interested in taking part in METROPOLIS and also about yourself. Please state if you have any prior knowledge of Whitstable.
Please email this to at [email protected] (cc’ing [email protected]).
Increased capacity – get in touch soon.

The artist:
Richard Layzell is an experienced facilitator of workshops in performance/Live Art. He has run three previous DIY workshops and loved them. He’s run two National Review of Live Art Winter Schools and is now collaborating on a major work (Private Dancer) with one of the participants.

In the last few months he’s run performance workshops for: The Arches in Glasgow, University of the Arts London, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Performance Platform in Dundee, Aspire at Kings Lynn Arts Centre and The Art Academy Brno, Czech Republic.

Recent /current work with community engagement includes projects in
Xuhui District Shanghai (with Visiting Arts), Knowle West Bristol (with Knowle West Media Centre) and Hillington Square Kings Lynn Norfolk (with Kings Lynn Arts Centre).

For Shanghai project: http://rescen.net/blog_richard/
For Knowle West project: http://www.whosedata.net/richard

Website: www.rescen.net/routeplanner

Contact information:
Please email in the first instance: [email protected]

This DIY project is supported by Whitstable Biennale.

This project was a response to the DIY 9 Call for Proposals