Permission was refused by the City Council to allow the use of the City Garden for Siri Hermansen’s Borderline and Dritero Kasapi and Venelin Shurelov’s Fantomat project this morning. Local authorities insisted on the removal of the Fantomats and Borderline from the public space of the City Garden in the centre of Odessa on the [Read more...]
Dear Friends Thank you to all of those who joined us at 17.00 on Deribasovskaya and took part in the spontaneous protest of moving the Fantomats against the wish of the police into the street, out of the City Garden. For those of you not here the story is: At 10 o ‘clock the Fantomats [Read more...]
SEAS Odessa is underway Our sentinels the Fantomats stand on the Potempkin Steps gazing out to sea, our flags and banners flutter in the trees, the Greek Square echoes to Siri Hermansen’s beautiful Borderline sound piece (one Jewish, one Muslim and one Christian prayer played on three speakers) – people stop their shopping and listen [Read more...]
The Closing Ceremony in Odessa at the colanades was gloriously chaotic celebration of music from Odessa, dance from Turkey, our best friends the Fantomats, and featured Chris Torch and Boris from Odessa’s clown troupe Maski as comperes. The wind (which blew the Chamber Orchestra of Odessa’s manuscript everywhere in the middle of Mozart) and the [Read more...]
This morning some nervous meetings at the Mustang Cinema immediately after a rushed breakfast as Hotel Pro Forma measured and re-measured the stage to see if their screen for Relief would fit. After some scratching of heads and climbing around in the fly tower the decision was made to go ahead. Bravely done. After assembling [Read more...]
This morning we heard that Borderline – the three-prayer sound installation by Siri Hermansen which we set up in the main square in Varna – has to be suspended on the instructions of the Courthouse. An important meeting was being held there and because of the heat, all the windows would be open and the [Read more...]
Yesterday the police (six of them) turned up to Borderline and rattled the door handle to the room in which the computer is housed but went away again disappointed. The installation is now safely in Balchik. In the afternoon Signa began their 2 day performance in their house – the Black Sea Oracle Games. You [Read more...]
The SEAS Club closed on Saturday night – and with it closed the Comics club forever – due to be bulldozed next month. Meanwhile I got a chance to go to Balchik for the first time (having been anchored in Varna for the duration of the SEAS Coastal event so far). The artists are staying [Read more...]
Our van is suffering from four weeks of trans-European travel – a quick visit to the van-doctor in Constanta has hopefully repaired it enough to get it and everything in it back to Sweden. The pace of Mangalia is really slow. The artists and the SEAS team are all in one hotel (the President) and [Read more...]
Not so much press at the press conference but it was important as an event to present the project formally and give our thanks to the Cultural Department of Mangalia city who have been incredibly helpful and very welcoming. After the press conference we go to Revolution Square and find the Fantomats lined up smartly, [Read more...]
