Eaux d'artifice (after K.A.)
New Commission
Eaux d’artifice (after K.A.)
Each Sunday in July hear Cerith Wyn Evans’s exciting new commission, Eaux d’artifice
(after K.A.), played in and inspired by the Barbican’s beautiful giant greenhouse.
Evans will transform the Conservatory into a space reminiscent of an 18th century
pleasure garden, a setting for music and theatre and a stage for exotica. What you
encounter will in part be dictated by chance, as performance times will not be
announced, and each week will have a different character, from 'an explosive furious
feel’ to 'the flowering of a garden’.
The overall event is conceived as a single work, which will build over the course of
the month. It takes its title from a short film by Kenneth Anger, Eaux d’artifice
(1953) shot in a pleasure garden in Italy and references the work of composer John
Cage, who once created a musical transliteration of a Zen rock garden. July 3, 17
and 24 feature a continuous recorded soundtrack that Evans has created especially
for the event, interspersed with live performances from harpists, choirs a gamelan
orchestra and others. On July 10 the programme consists of the manipulation of
birdsong and other ambient sound within the Conservatory. July 31 also features
performances, but will essentially be silent.
Cerith Wyn Evans (born 1958 Wales, based in London) has exhibited in venues such as
the Art Now space at Tate Britain (2001), White Cube, London (2003), MIT List Visual
Art Centre and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004). In the course of his career Evans
has worked with film, photography, performance and sculpture, as well as with sound.
In 2003 the artist made a sound work for the Luis Barragan house in Mexico City, and
he is currently creating a sound-and-light piece for the exterior of Kunsthaus Graz.
The Conservatory is accessed from directly opposite the entrance to the Barbican Art
Gallery. This event is part of an extensive programme of summer activities organised
by Barbican Art Gallery, including events which relate to the exhibitions Colour
After Klein (Barbican Art Gallery until 11 Sep/05) and Folk Archive: Contemporary
Popular Art from the UK (Curve until 24 Jul/05).
Funded by Arts Council England
Image: I TAKE MY DESIRES FOR REALITY BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN THE REALITY OF MY DESIRES has been ominously rigged in live fireworks high on the gallery walls. (Plus: an on-duty NYFD fireman preventing potential ignition.)
The Conservatory, Level 3, Barbican Centre
Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Every Sunday in July/05, 12 noon - 5pm, Admission Free