Crunch festival November 2011 promises diverse programme of art, music, and lectures on Welsh border
Crunch is not only one of the newest fairs to challenge the hegemony of the world’s established art fairs, but also the most novel. Combining art, lectures, and music in the Wales/England border town of Hay-on-Wye, Crunch promises a heady weekend (18-20 November), diversely peopled by the likes of artist Jake Chapman, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, author Mark Haddon, director Nicolas Roeg, and rock band British Sea Power.
With 30 talks and debates, 22 live bands and an array of comedy, cabaret and debate, Crunch has doubled in size. The Crunch Art Pavilion will showcase some of the best of contemporary art with exhibitions from leading galleries including Paradise Row, Poppy Sebire, and Eb&Flow: Poppy Sebire will show works by Boo Ritson, Paul Housley and Tom Dale, while Paradise Row is set to exhibit a new sculpture by the Chapman Brothers. The lecture and debate programme promises equal diversity: while Serpentine Gallery co-director of exhibitions Hans Ulrich Obrist will deliver a talk on the Daily Practice of Curating, Brian Dillon – Cabinet UK editor, Frieze journalist and philosopher of aesthetics – will query whether mystery and ineffability can survive in our cold intellectual climate.
Jake Chapman not only be taking part in a debate discussing morality as a form of convention that threatens creativity, but also in conversation with Paradise Row founder Nick Hackworth, speaking about the inspirations behind such seminal works as Insult to Injury and Death, and articulating the rationale for his darkly comic, pessimistic philosophy.
Other highlights include: a talk by Tate curator and artist Cedar Lewisohn on the cutting edge of street art – ‘abstract graffiti’ –, currently being explored in cities such as London, Prague, Philadelphia and São Paulo; and John Rogers’ documentary on the rise of polemical artist Bob & Roberta Smith.
Crunch festival promises to ‘be a weekend to overwhelm the senses’. With line-up like this, it might be just that.
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