In the middle of our COVID-summer this year, a group of us (artists, poets, academics, musicians and the like) based in Gwynedd/Anglesey decided to experiment with creating a show despite/within covid-constraints. The result was an outpouring of pent-up creativity, captured at the Surrealist Saffaru, an event over 3 days in August, in multiple locations in Bangor/Porthaethwy, involving something like 25 different creatives.
if you missed out on that, the good news is that we are going to do another, this time themed Metamorffosis, in June 2021, and we are inviting proposals for contributions to the event (see below). It is an opportunity to be part of an exciting community of creatives, breaking the constraints of galleries/formal events, and it also links to my Utopias Bach project. And if you fancy just coming along, please put the dates in your diary (21-27 June 2021).
So, here are the details (scroll down for English)
Hope to see you there.
Metamorffosis
Mae Metamorffosis yn newid un corff i un arall, larfa-pwpa-pili-pala. Mae celf greadigol yn morffio syniadau i bethau ffisegol mewn math o alcemi isbarduno newidiadau pellach yn y gwyliwr, darllenwr neu wrandawr. Mae’r trawsnewid yn digwydd yma a rŵan mewn microcosm yn ein cymuned yng Ngwynedd a Môn, sydd ei hun yn unigryw’n ddiwylliannol ac yn amrywiol ei natur. Bydd y digwyddiad yn cyfuno’r filltir sgwâr a’r byd crwn.
Yn dilyn Saffaru yr haf diwethaf ym Mangor a’r Borth, bydd ein digwyddiad nesaf yn cynnwys Swrrealaeth hanesyddol (sy dal yn ddylanwadol trwy awtomatiaeth, collage a torri-fyny) i’r ‘mwtadiad gwyllt’ o ffurfiau celf gyfoes.
Bydd artistiaid Metamorffosis yn datblygu fformatau newydd ac arbrofol a threfn ar gyfer gŵyl adeg o Covid. Bydd ein digwyddiad Haf 2021 yn cyfuno miwsig, dawns, ffilm, perfformio, barddoniaeth, celf a rhyfeddodau eriall. Croeso i bawb i brofiad hudol Metamorffosis.
Bydd Metamorffosis yn digwydd mewn cyd-destun bygythiadau i ddynoliaeth a’r byd mwy-na-dynol: Gan ein bod ni mewn, beth mae Bruno Latour yn galw amseroedd ‘troi mawr’ ar raddfa a sylwedd, fel rydan ni’n ond y teimlo ‘bod pethau’n drech na ni, yn heb wybod sut i ymateb?’
Mae thema yn rhedeg trwy Metamorffosis – ‘Utopias Bach’ yn ein gwahodd i gofio bod y mawr ond yn estyniad o’r bach. Beth ydy’r gweithgaredd bach, sy’n cael eu creu gyda dychymig radicalaidd, sydd yn ein helpu ni i ddarganfod ac ail-feddwl ein perthynas gyda’r dyfodol ar raddfa rydan ni’n teimlo ein bod ni’n colli ein ddylanwad arno? Sut gallen ni danseilio’r mawrion a ffiniau amser a lle, creu dolennau efo pobol eraill o agos a bell sydd yn arbrofi gyda – ac yn pwyntio i – ffyrdd newydd o fod yn y dyfodol.
Galwad am Gynigion
Croeso i bob ffurf (perfformiad, celf, dawns, miwsig, ffilm, barddoniaeth, gosodiad, cymryd rhan / cymdeithasol etc) a phawb o bob hunaniaeth ddiwylliannol. Gwahoddir sgyrsiau ar/gan ymarferwyr hefyd. Dylai fod yn bosib i addasu’r cynnigion wrth i sefyllfa Covid-19 newid yn barhaus. Gwahoddir prosiectau uniaith, dwyieithog neu amlieithog, gan gynnwys y rhai sy'n gwneud cysylltiadau rhyngwladol.
Dyddiad cyflwyno: Mis Ebrill 2021. Anfonwch amlinelliad byr o'ch cynnig prosiect (100 gair ar y mwyaf) i Anna Powell withoutorgans@googlemail.com. Ymholiadau ffôn Sarah Pogoda +44 751 924 048
Manylion y digwyddiad Saffaru Swrreal, Awst 2020 i’w gweld yma
Metamorffosis
Metamorffosis transforms one body into another, larva-pupa-butterfly. Art’s creative morphing of ideas into physical form is a kind of alchemy to trigger further change in the viewer, reader or listener. This transmutation is happening here and now in the microcosm of our Gwynedd and Anglesey community, itself both culturally distinct and richly diverse. The event will combine the local with the international.
Seeded by last summer’s Bangor and Menai Bridge Saffaru, our latest public event will range from historical Surrealism (still influential via automatism, collage, dream-work and cut-ups) to the ‘wild mutations’ of contemporary art forms.
Metamorffosis artists will develop new and experimental formats and practices for a festival in Covid times. Our summer 2021 happening will change to music, performance, dance, film, poetry, art and other marvels. All are welcome to the magical experience of Metamorffosis.
Metamorffosis is taking place in the context of existential threats to the human and more-than- human world: given that we are in the times of what Bruno Latour calls ‘a great turning’ of such depth and scale, ‘how can we not feel inwardly undone by the anxiety of not knowing how to respond?’
A theme running through Metamorffosis is Utopias Bach, inviting us to remember the macro is nothing but a slight extension of the micro. What are the smallest gestures, created with radical imagination, that will help us explore and reconfigure our relationship with the future at a scale we feel we can influence? How can we subvert scales and temporal and spatial frontiers, creating entanglements with others near and far that experiment with – and point to – new ways of being for the future?
Call for Proposals
We welcome all forms (performance, art, dance, music, film, poetry, installation, participatory/ socially engaged etc) and participants from all cultural identities. Talks on/by practitioners are also invited. Proposals should be adaptable to the ever changing Covid-19 situation. Mono, bi or multi-lingual projects, including those making international connections, are invited.
Submission date: April 2021. Please send a brief outline of your project proposal (100 words max) to Anna Powell withoutorgans@googlemail.com Telephone enquiries Sarah Pogoda +44 751 924 048
Details of the Surrealist Saffaru Event in August 2020 can be seen here:
