Live performance
photography by Manuel Vason
Anne Bean & Ansuman Biswas
Candle/Stick
Live Art
Two performers in a blackout with a candle between them. They make vocal sounds which disturb the candle flame and occasionally extinguish it. It spontaneously re-ignites repeatedly. The piece ends when there is no more candle left.
30 June
Ruthin Gaol
Andrej Bako
Iteration
Experimental Electronics
Iteration investigates the sonic realm that exists between spoken words. Through live performance, the project seeks to explore the nuances, emotions, and meanings conveyed within these ‘silent’ spaces. Delving into these sonic spaces of non-language communication, hidden patterns are revealed. By utilizing modular synthesis, grain scanning and generative algorithms the project creates an immersive experience to challenge traditional understandings of language and communication.
30 June
Ruthin Castle
Blanc Sceol
(Stephen Shiell & Hannah White)
Kinetic Resonance
PERFORMANCE
Kinetic Resonance: a performance with ‘Orbit’
Orbit is a 10-stringed instrument, created by Blanc Sceol. The decagon body is spun by one set of hands, as the other hands hold a bow to the ten strings. As the two players work together the Orbit leads them into a cosmos of dynamic, pitch-shifting drones and harmonic rhythms.
30 June
Ruthin Castle
Gao Shuyi
A Conversation with Water
Live Art
A Conversation with Water is a durational performance that acts as a cleansing of my trained body, which over time, had become conditioned to respond to viewer expectations and stylized motions. I found that with every moment of performance, I was losing touch with the primal instinct of my body, which became just a vehicle for a performative routine. In the act of futilely transferring separated water and soil into a jar nurturing a green plant, the exhaustion and inherent desires of the performing body collide with the impulse to revert to routine. It is within this struggle that I seek to reawaken my body, to rediscover its own voice amidst the staged act.
29 June
Ruthin Castle
JOAN LOW
Credible Breaths
Performance
"Credible Breaths" explores the threshold between thrill and discomfort using capsaicin, found in chili peppers, as a catalyst. The performer engages in a visceral interaction with spices, creating an olfactory connection with the audience. The performance is a dynamic interplay of discomfort and intrigue, inviting viewers to confront their relationship with risk and reward, transcending passive observation.
30 June
Ruthin Gaol
Tomasz Szrama
(Untitled)
Performance
The risk is fundamental in retaining the authenticity of performance art.
Characteristic features of my performances are the use of spectators and improvisation. Such a strategy embeds my actions into the tradition of understanding performance art as process art, where the very moment of creation is essential. Crucial elements such as timing, the presence of the artist and the spectator's reaction are impossible to capture in a project proposal. Therefore there is no script, but rather loose ideas or just state of mind at a particular moment, which will get the final shape during the action in a given space and context. Naturally I can not predict a coincidence, accident nor the course of an improvised action, but I am convinced that wherever we are, that is the epicenter of the universe.
I understand that it is a big risk for organisers to invite an artist who can promise nothing but potential failure.
29 June
Ruthin Castle
Stella Pearce
Shhh!
performance
Shhh! is a dance and movement performance work where costumes come to haunt me. My body is full of untold secrets, they move me like a puppet. Let me tell you.
Using costumes as portals, Shhh! contends with the power of silence and secrecy, the bits they left out, the things they couldn’t say. It might come out! Now!
Shhh! is heavily inspired by my time as a student of Butoh and clown.
Credits:
Mentor/Butoh expert Marie-Gabrielle Rotie and Nick Parkin
Mentorship and residency from the London Performance Studios
28 June
Ruthin Castle
Li Song + Zhuo Mengting
Duet for Portable Speakers
Experimental Music / Live Art
The choice of a small speaker dictates the spectatorship between us and the audience. It is the physicalisation of sound and vibration.
Departing from conventional methods, the duo utilises portable speakers instead of traditional PA systems, a choice that allows them to delve into the complex dynamics between performers, spectators, and the surrounding space.
They will presenet a new piece responding to Ruthin's provided environment.
30 June
Ruthin Castle
Li Li Ren & W.H.Y.
Dream 4 Seasons
audiovisual art
"Dreams 4 Seasons" by Li Li Ren & W.H.Y. is an immersive journey merging reality and imagination through experimental audiovisual art. Explore the intriguing state of sleep, with transformative moments guiding audiences on a mesmerising voyage through the landscapes of the mind.
28 June
Ruthin Castle
ArtCouple (Sula and Simon)
Time Hiraeth Elsewhere - a tree-ringing ceremony
lIVE aRT
Time Hiraeth Elsewhere: a tree-ringing ceremony' is a live-art and participatory installation. Sula and Simon will layer 'time rings' of yarn and sound around a tree in a durational performance intersected with calling out the world's time zones. During the performance people will be able to add their own messages and memories.
28 & 30 June
Ruthin Castle
W.H.Y.
“under my flesh the Terma forms”
AUDIO/VISUAL,
SYNTHESISER PERFORMANCE
W.H.Y. exists and evolves as a dynamic project, entity, and process, intertwined with personal experiences, community action and the practice of collectivity, ancestral philosophies, and industrial/analog technologies. This work explores the body in a quantum state of possession, dissociation, existence, and attachment. W.H.Y. will weave research from Ruthin and North Wales into their growing body of work, examining witch histories, indigenous folklore, and self and community-taught philosophies around power (including electronics, circuits, politics, and history), while concurrently scrutinising systems that capitalise on what they refuse to acknowledge. Utilising analogue synthesizers, WHY translates this practice and research into a somatic and intra-spatial experience.
28 June
Ruthin Castle
Vida Vojić
TIMING IS DIVINE
rhapsodic ritual performance
A DRUMMING RITUAL; a performance of LOUDNESS, RHYTHM and DRIVE. Inspired by sexy stars = rock stars / celestial deities - this 35min drum / vocal solo springs from the desire to tell another story, which ultimately may not be understood on top of the chaos - but rather felt. Shit is complicated. Let this be an exorcism.
28 June
Ruthin Castle
Olivia Hicks
Blood, Water, Honey and Wine (Ritual Spoons)
Drawing performance
I will perform a drawing of the rare Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd Ritual Spoons, combining a pre-prepared collage and live elements from the Welsh landscape. The graphite drawing will be done meditatively over two days at an old wooden table, surrounded by oak leaves. After completion, the drawing will be set down the river, echoing Druid rituals.
Alongside the performance, a mini-exhibition of archival research material will be shown at Nantclwyd y Dre.
durational performance: 29-30 June
Ruthin Castle
research display: 26-30 June
Nantclwyd y Dre
Yue Cao, Yuchen Wu, Xuanni He
Transformative Landscape
Dance
The Transformative Landscape invites the audience on an immersive journey through a ritualistic exploration of the relationship between the body, emotions, materials, and landscapes. Within the show, a non-dualistic dialogue unfolds through physical performances, and live soundscapes.
30 June
Ruthin Castle