holy hiatus
Holy Hiatus is a public art project that will be happening in and around Cardigan, West Wales during May 2008
Project title: Holy Hiatus –The moment of crossing the threshold between outer and inner consciousness.
Themes: Liminality, ritual, identity, public engagement, rural places
Organised in conjunction with LAND2, Research group based at University of West England : www.land2.uwe.ac.uk, the University of Aberystwyth, Theatr Mwldan, Creative Mwldan and The Film Society Cardigan.
Dates: May 2008
Site: West Wales, Cardigan area. Each project to be sited in an appropriate public locations chosen by the artists.
Mediums: Site-specific performance and pubic art installation, film screenings, talks / seminars
Context:
This project aims to explore ‘liminal’ experience, that is the space in-between stable states of being or consciousness. The term liminal derives from the Latin limen meaning threshold, and was first used in an anthropological context by Arnold van Gennep in his book The Rites of Passage (1909) His observations of cultural ceremonies of renewal led him to believe that every community develops rituals in order to deal with the uncertainty of threshold experiences. He defined 3 stages to any ritual separation rites (pre-liminal), transition rites (liminal) and rites of incorporation (post-liminal). Victor Turner has described the liminal realm as ‘a place that is not a place and a time that is not a time’. Although liminal experience is often associated with uncertainty and disorder, it is also understood to be potentially creative and transformative. Since the 1960’s the term liminal has been used in a wider cultural context, particularly in the arts. This project aims to explore what conditions are required to generate liminal experience through artworks, focusing on performance, installation and public art projects. It also aims to address what consequences the generation of liminal experience has for participants and audiences , in terms of rethinking the relationships between identity and place, particularly in rural places. The project will be accompanied by a publication including documentation of the projects as well as commissioned essays relating to the themes of the project from specialists in the fields of performance, cultural geography, anthropology and literature.
Confirmed artists:
Alastair MacLennan Belfast, Northern Ireland
Simon Whitehead Abercych, West Wales
Maura Hazelden Crymych, West Wales
Tina Carr /Annemarie Schone Llandysil, West Wales
Anna Lucas London
Strands to the project:
1. Public performances and installations.
2. Dedicated programme of film screenings by artists / filmmakers exploring this territory, plus at least 1 feature film to be screened in an outdoor venue
3. A public symposium at Theatr Mwldan organised in conjunction with Heike Roms, University of Aberystwyth
4. Bilingual publication to be published by Parthian Books to contextualise project.
Publication:
The project will be contextualised in a specialist publication in English and Welsh published by Parthian Books. The publication will function as a document of the project, but also extend to a critical reflection of liminality and identity in relation to the siting of the project in Cardigan. Specialist writers from different disciplines would be invited to contribute essays.