Preview
P.I.P.E.
(Performance in Peculiar Environments)
Birds and Stone
Runs August 26 to 28
Birds and Stone (1703 First St. N.W.)
For the curious theatregoer, or the reclusive underground artist, Birds and Stone’s site-specific festival P.I.P.E. (Performance in Peculiar Environments) promises to provide a kind of multidisciplinary outdoor entertainment seldom seen in Calgary.
According to festival curator Sharon Adams, P.I.P.E. will showcase experimental works from local artists, while encouraging a philosophy of creation that transcends traditional performance venues.
The Birds and Stone performance venue was opened last year by Eric Moschopedis and Ethan Cole of the Bubonic Tourist troupe, offspring of the High Performance Rodeo. Adams is currently running the venue and, through Moschopedis, got the idea of spearheading a summer arts festival.
"It was Eric Moschopedis who started this space up and kind of threw me into it," says Adams of her position as festival curator. "I like to direct site-specific theatre, and art, so that’s how we got started. He said I should be doing this and I jumped in. And then Curious Logical jumped in and the rest of the Birds and Stone team, and artists in the community. So it just kept growing."
P.I.P.E. will include artists from various disciplines. "We have installation artists, we have performance artists – I mean, performance is such a broad term, and it extends to theatre and dance and visual art," Adams says.
She says every evening at the festival will be different, from the spontaneity of the performers to the tours of the various performance sites.
Adams explains that, once audience members arrive at the Birds and Stone space, they are offered a choice of two tours. On each tour, they’ll visit three or four different events that are put on by the participating artists. The various performance sites are located within a three-block radius of the space.
The media involved in P.I.P.E. range from film to live performance to an outdoor installation of visual art. Artists contributing to the festival include Curious Logical, Don Simmons, Edwin Morales, Eric Bumstead, Gale Allen, Groupe Visuel, Zoë Cobb and others from multidisciplinary, or "trans-disciplinary," forms (to coin a word from artist Cobb).
"Mine is happening within a baseball diamond," says artist Don Simmons of his site-specific work. His set will include amplified sound, a baseball player and a man in a chicken suit.
"It’ll be a bit of a father-son relationship," Simmons says of the premise, and promises his piece will change every night.
Artist Gale Allen’s piece is a commentary on how spaces may change their meaning from day to night. "Certain spaces feel really safe or recreational during the day, (whereas) that might not be the case at night," she explains.
Among the other performances and artworks are a friendly nocturnal installation involving a tree filled with paper owls, a multi-language performance that includes sign language, English, French and Spanish, and a regurgitation of film that comments on diversity and hybrids.
After the performances there will be a panel discussion at the Birds and Stone space on the topic of site-specific work in the arts.
For P.I.P.E. information, call 880-6407 or visit the website at www.birdsandstone.ca. |
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