BOURNEMOUTH.- GIANT, the largest artist-led space in the UK, announced Airship Orchestra for GIANT OFFSITE, a series of outdoor installations supported by BCP Council and Bournemouth Town Centre BID, taking place in The Triangle, in the heart of Bournemouth's independent quarter. Early autumn is shaping up to be Art Month in Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole. Opening up with the globally renowned Airship Orchestra, that runs for 4 weeks, and finishing with the Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival, is a further push forward for the region to becoming a Festival Coast of culture. Marking its European premiere, Airship Orchestra will be the colossal centrepiece for Art Month and will be in situ 8 September – 9 October 2022.
Airship Orchestra is an ambitious, joyous intervention that will see several large-scale inflatable, interactive sculptures installed in the town centre. Epitomising the overarching theme for Art Month – ‘PLAY’ – the sculptural environment of Airship Orchestra is one for all to engage with throughout its run. Created by ENESS, a multi-award-winning art and technology studio led by Nimrod Weis, the custom light installation comprises 16 inflatables – some up to six metres – extending over a 500 square metre area. It is manifest as a mystical tribe of otherworldly characters beamed from the night stars, with glowing skin and voices like stardust. Visitors are beckoned inside the formation to bathe in volumetric sound and rhythmic light pulsation.
ENESS has designed ground-breaking experiences for cultural institutions across the world for the last 20 years and has become renowned worldwide for their transformational art experiences – work that speaks to the heart of what it means to be human. For Airship Orchestra, the sound experience is its own spatial environment, immersing visitors in an arresting score, written character-by-character for a multi-person choir. The generative soundscape synced with light creates an adventure that is aesthetically dynamic both day and night. The resulting music is minimal and reflective, enabling visitors to conjure their own interpretation about from where the orchestra materialised. Friendly LED eyes blink and follow visitors from creature to creature – inspiring artful, contemplative moments underscored by a rousing, rising rhythm to transport participants to another world.
Over the past decade, we have seen a migration of the creative class from London to places such as Margate and Hastings, but the last twelve months has seen a huge influx to Bournemouth. With its seven miles of sandy beaches – the best in the UK and the 5th best in Europe according to a Trip Advisor – visitors poll. The new five-star Nici Hotel sets a new tone for the neighbourhood and plans have been unveiled for a new Ivy in the town centre. With more tech start-ups than London, a thriving Arts University and an average age in the mid-30s, it’s proving itself as a thriving vibrant coast.
The installation of this world-class artwork in Bournemouth is yet another confirmation of the town’s burgeoning status as an international hub for culture. In the summer of 2021, British artist Stuart Semple and his studio team transformed one floor of a former Debenhams department store – now Bobby’s Bournemouth – on the high street into GIANT, the largest art centre of its kind outside London. Now, just one year later, it is not uncommon to bump into major blue-chip artists in the town, with the likes of Martin Parr, Gavin Turk, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Sarah Maple, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Mark Titchner and Jeremy Deller all having shown at GIANT.
The gallery has gone from strength to strength, attracting over 25,000 to its last exhibition – visitor figures that rival some of London’s most loved institutions – and putting Bournemouth firmly on the UK’s culture map. National headlines have heralded the changes: “Saatchi-on-Sea” (The Times), “Bournemouth Reborn” (The Daily Mail), “Bourne Supremacy” (The Sunday Times), “Bournemouth 2.0” (The Telegraph), to name a few.
Bringing the best and most exciting international artists to as broad an audience as possible, GIANT OFFSITE takes the art outside the walls of the gallery itself. By integrating art into life in new and unexpected ways, the programme is a bold recognition of art’s vital role in our connection with one another, our communities and our future. It aligns seamlessly with the ethos of Stuart Semple’s artistic projects to date, which have taken place around the world, from Melbourne and Hong Kong to Denver, Dublin and Milan. Passionate about the ability for art and culture to empower and transform community, Semple’s public artworks have included his famous ‘Happy Clouds’ – in which the skyline is flooded with artificial, eco clouds in the shape of smiley faces – and ‘Happy City,’ a summer-long, city-wide public art project that took over the city of Denver, Colorado.
“As terrible as online retail and the pandemic has been for our city centres and high streets, they do present a necessity to shift the purpose of those places. I think that it’s an exciting time for artists, and for arts in the public realm.
“It’s a dream to be able to bring a work like this to my hometown. Nimrod and I did a big public art project together in Hong Kong last year, and I totally fell in love with his work. Ever since I saw it, I wanted to share it with everyone here. It’s the sort of thing that you’d expect to see at the Southbank or in the Turbine Hall at Tate.” --Stuart Semple, Artist and Founder/Director of GIANT
