Tucked away in the windows of arts centres, shops and cafés, something curious is stirring. All across the city, in a moment of wider social and cultural upheaval, hidden worlds are shifting and revealing their secrets. In a unique project for the COVID-19 era, MANIPULATE Festival has commissioned eight leading Scottish artists to create moving sculptural installation works incorporating automata, miniature figures, or animated screens, alongside a compelling short story or soundscape (available in audio or BSL), which is downloaded direct to your device.
Taking an initial seed of inspiration from Boccaccio’s 1353 novel The Decameron, where ten strangers shelter together in hiding from the Plague, finding their way through the quarantine by telling each other stories, Restless Worlds will offer glimpses into magical miniature worlds which bring joy and escapism in this unsettling time, with each piece telling a unique original story.
Working in partnership with the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and Aberdeen Performing Arts, the project is designed to be a live, engaging, outdoor artistic experience that audiences can enjoy whilst maintaining social distancing.
STILL LIFE WITH WILLOW PATTERN / Shona Reppe & Tamlin Wiltshire
Is silence still golden when it is broken? Shona Reppe is a multi-award-winning Scottish theatre-maker designer and puppeteer who has performed extensively all over the world including US, Canada, Japan, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Australia, Estonia, Slovenia, Poland and Israel with her shows Atlantis, Cinderella, The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean, Potato Needs a Bath, Olga Volt and Magic Sho. Other creatives: Ben Seal (soundtrack) and Eva Reppe-Roverselli (poem/text).
CREATURIUM: THE LOST ONES / Lucas Chih-Peng Kao & Katanari
Lost to evolutionary history, Creaturium offers a peek into a curious collection of imaginary beings that may have existed in the past or the future. Lucas Chih-Peng Kao is a filmmaker, collaborator and multidisciplinary artist working across installation, performance, dance and video, born in Taiwan and based in Scotland. Katanari is a visual artist, puppeteer and theatre maker who often uses elements, materials from nature and objects with memory.
TRIALS OF BLISS / Chell Young
The seemingly timeless and utopic Renaissance architecture of Florence sets the scene as we unravel layers of deceit and disinformation in the present day. Chell Young is a visual artist based in Scotland, graduate of Edinburgh College of Art and former recipient of the John Kinross research scholarship. Through her work she interrogates architectural space in theatrical, cinematic and illusory ways.
A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE / Gavin Glover
A cabinet of curious journeys and impossible science. With many years of experience as a theatre practitioner, Gavin Glover specialises in puppetry and live feed micro cinema. He has developed his own distinctive style of work in both visual and text-based theatre.
THE DIKTAT SYNTHESIZER / Guy Bishop
This curious machine generates regulations governing social behaviour in the era of COVID-19. Guy Bishop is a sculptor, puppet-maker and designer who has created work for and with leading cultural institutions in the UK across visual art, theatre, film and heritage.
APPLE EATERS / Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre & Heather Parry
Is it better to be alone in ignorance, or together in despair? Exploring the classically gothic themes of isolation, love and the loss of innocence, Apple Eaters is a creative fusion of Sharmanka’s world of kinetic sculptures, Heather Parry’s writing, music by Brian Irvine and vocal performance by Kirsty Logan.
MR HOLDCROFT / Jessica Innes
An unexpected gift connects a lonely old man to the world outside his front door. Jessica Innes is an early-career puppeteer, performer and multidisciplinary artist, with an emphasis on work that is socially and visually engaging.
HERE. WE’RE NOT. / Samuel Watterworth
This installation challenges viewers’ perceptions of self, presence, and connection by pulling them into the work with interactive visuals and found audio from radio frequencies around the world. Samuel Watterworth is a Canadian visual artist based in Scotland, who focuses on generative design and real time systems, with an interest in how people interact with space, and with each other.
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