ANNOUNCEMENT: Second Wave Programme for #AND21

The second wave of artists and projects for Abandon Normal Devices Festival 2021 span audiovisual performance, film, music and sound installation, taking place online and in unexpected locations in the North West.

Following the announcement of five major new commissions in April, we are delighted to reveal two more major projects, plus an expansive online programme of new cinema, music and performance. Each programme strand considers the post-industrial landscapes of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey, in discourse with global themes of consumption, energy, pollution and political power structures, and their effects on our planet, human and non-human bodies. 

SITE SPECIFIC \\

A curated weekend of open air screenings coincides with a large scale sonic installation, both located at prominent historic maritime sites in Birkenhead from 1st – 4th July 2021.

Does Spring Hide Its Joy – Kali Malone
An immersive audio experience manifesting as a 4-day multichannel sound installation, Malone offers a deep listening environment in the nineteenth century derelict site of the Grade II Central Hydraulic Tower, Birkenhead.

Observatory Cinema
A big screen weekend considers the art of sculpting time in the grounds of Bidston Observatory, Birkenhead: a location historically renowned for measuring natural undulations of tide and time.

ONLINE HUB + LIVE CHANNEL \\

Featuring a rich programme of film, performances, artworks, workshops and talks, AND Festival’s exciting new Online Hub and Live Channel will provide a space to meet the artists and thinkers behind the programme. Throughout the festival, Thursday and Sunday nights will be dedicated to talks, Fridays will see a new film programme for the week ahead, and performances will take place in digital spaces on Saturdays.

FILM

New commission by Tulapop Saenjaroen
Brand new commission from artist and filmmaker Tulapop Saenjaroen, exploring themes of globalised networks, territoriality, and parallel spaces of trade and labour in port city Laem Chabang, Chonburi Province, Thailand

New Cinema Shorts
A weekly collection of new artist short films reflecting the festival’s virtual, real and post-digital landscapes, selected by guest curators Angela Chan, Tendai John Mutambu, Natasha Thembiso Ruwona and Matt Turner.

Headwaters curated by Scalarama Merseyside
A journey across the Wirral peninsula, Headwaters, curated by Michael Pierce and Monika Rodriguez of Scalarama Merseyside, invites you to explore our connections with water through hidden rivers, oral histories and film archives.

LIVE AV EVENTS (ONLINE) 

lThe festival’s online exhibition programme will be punctuated by a series of Saturday night live audiovisual events with a focus on contemporary music and sonic exchanges with visual artists. Three newly commissioned audiovisual events will be broadcast over AND’s new Live Channel.

YaYa Bones (Ayesha Tan Jones) x aio0o0o0
Reflecting on a childhood of Mersey shores, YaYa Bones streams Ether through the ethernet in a symbiosis of operatic siren calls and technological earth beats, accompanied by liquid digital imagery, courtesy of 3D visual artist aio0o0o0.

The Grief Interval – Aura Satz with Sarah Davachi
In collaboration with electroacoustic composer Sarah Davachi, Aura Satz will sonically haunt a decommissioned coal fired power station in The Grief Interval. Weaving eerie aural warning and mourning, the project summons the possibility of the pause in a landscape of looming ecological emergency. 

Beginningless Mind: (rivers, rhythms, rituals) – Marija Bozinovska Jones
Marija Bozinovska Jones explores embodied knowledge through movement, in collaboration with choreographer Franka Marlene Foth. In search of a sense of belonging through a shared reality, the project probes collective worldmaking in an audiovisual event followed by a live conversation.

Radio Ensemble curated by Ignatia Nilu
UK and Indonesian sound artists and composers perform together as an ensemble across parallel time and space, combining analog and digital technologies in a speculative performance. Broadcasting live via Domes FM, with an accompanying installation to explore at Bidston Observatory on the weekend.

Weedweavers – New Emergences
A collaborative workshop and live event led by artists Angeliki Diakrousi and mariëlle verdijk, taking inspiration from cutting edge research into algae forms conducted by a band of formidable women in Liverpool in the early 20th Century. These events explore feminist and non-traditional science practices, myths, recipes and stories of ports and organisms like algae culminating in a live broadcast.

EXHIBITIONS (ONLINE)

As part of online exhibition Toxicity’s Reach, AND are delighted to reveal details of all three projects; 

Mary Maggic – Estroworld Now: The Quarantine Edition

Luiza Prado de. O Martins – The Sea Collapsed into the Pleasures of Sand

Sissel Marie Tonn – Plastic Hypersea

TALKS (ONLINE)

A programme of talks throughout the festival’s 7 weeks will offer a weekly moment to delve beyond the surface of the AND Festival 2021 programme. Each Thursday evening, Deeper, a series of focused conversations and live Q&As welcomes contributions from exhibiting festival artists. Then, every Sunday, AND will host panels and case studies featuring a national and international network of artists, producers and institutions through Resurface. Confirmed speakers include Hakeem Adam and Maxwell Mutanda; Anita Fontaine; Kate Davies, Suzanne Dhaliwal and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.

Sign up to AND e-news for further programme announcements and tickets for all events with physical locations, which will be released in mid-May.

AND Festival 2021 is supported using public funding by Arts Council England with additional support from British Council, Creative Industries Fund Netherlands, The Space and Film Hub North (National Lottery funding from BFI Film Audience Network). Programme partners British Library, Canal & River Trust, Culture Liverpool, Culture Warrington, Merseytravel, The Daniel Adamson Preservation Society, Super Slow Way, Wigan Council, Wirral Council and York Mediale.