Floating Cinema, Live Art Commission 2014

Leah Lovett, Contra Band

Saturday 28 June, Saturday 26 July and Saturday 30 August

Details of locations, times and tickets

Contra Band Tours on Saturday 26th July (6-7pm & 8-9pm)

Contra Band Talk – 3.30-4.30pm – Leah Lovett will be joined by Julia Farrington and Melody Patry from Index on Censorship for a discussion examining issues of cultural censorship within Brazil. The talk will take place at Kings Place.

Contra Band is a new live work by Leah Lovett, commissioned in partnership with the Live Art Development Agency, Somewhere and UP Projects for the Floating Cinema 2014.

Contra Band will bring together musicians and audiences from Brazil and the UK for an experimental live performance of songs censored in both countries between 1964-1985. These dates mark the duration of the military dictatorship in Brazil.

Audiences are invited on a floating journey, whilst we connect to a live link up with CASA 24, an artist led venue based in Rio De Janeiro.  Musicians in both venues will attempt to learn, play and understand their counter parts censored songs.

Under the Brazilian military regime, anxious legislation subjected artists to increasing levels of surveillance and censure, resulting in creative forms of self-censorship and, for many artists, exile to the UK and Europe to escape harsh and violent forms of repression. Meanwhile, in the UK, the BBC banned and censored songs referencing sex, drugs, and war.

Bringing the offending music together within the context of The Floating Cinema, Contra Band opens up a shared space for listening, collaborating and defying different attempts to silence cultural creative forms of expression.

The Floating Cinema 2014 is a unique cultural space based on London’s waterways during the summer months. The 2014 programme theme is ‘Extra-International’ and will focus on themes of migration and the interpretation of the UK, transient cultures and the shifting context of the canals, rivers and seas. You can find more information on Contra Band and other Floating Cinema events on the Floating CInema Blog.

View the call for artists’ proposals

2014 Live Art Commission builds on the success of previous commissions; Ian Giles’ A Smaller Sound, A Bigger Crowd in 2011 and Tim Bromages’ Jim Dahl’s Unreal Boat Tour in 2013