City News

The 2007 Fierce! International Festival of Live Art Presents Controversial Performance, Thought Provoking Installations & Newly Commissioned Works from Major UK and International Arts Organisations from18 May – 22 June 2007.

Fierce!, the UK’s most eclectic live art festival celebrates its tenth year by presenting high-risk, powerful and provocative art themed around the perpetually vexing issues of  love, sexuality, and our search for identity. Created by Mark Ball, this festival is not for the unadventurous. Taking place in unusual places in and around Birmingham from 18 May – 2nd June, its premise is to intrigue and bedazzle with a kaleidoscopic programme of work from some of the country’s major arts organisations,  established names in the alternative arts scene and fresh up-and-coming talent.

The festival will be opened by a spectacular installation by Joshua Sofaer called NAME IN LIGHTS. It questions the current obsession with celebrity by emblazoning a member of the public’s name in twelve foot high illuminated letters above the Birmingham city centre. Having your ‘name in lights’ is an iconic symbol of celebrity; but does having your name in lights confer fame in itself – will the winning member of public suddenly become famous or does true celebrity require more than exposure? 

Any member of the pubic can nominate themselves or someone else for ‘Name in Lights’ by registering at www.notcelebrity.co.uk. The winner will be chosen by a ‘celebrity’ panel of broadcaster Mark Lawson, celebrity agent Jonathan Shalit, cultural commentator Stephen Bayley, film-maker Trevor Beattie, This Morning showbiz reporter Alison Hammond and PR guru Mark Borkowski.

The Sky Orchestra – a 7 piece hot air balloon installation - will float over the roofs of Birmingham and the surrounding Midlands countryside. This year the balloons will carry members of The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performing as they fly. A Fierce! 10 commission it will include specially composed music to stimulate the dreams of those sleeping below. The balloons take off at dawn, just when people are most receptive to external sound and music.

The artists responsible for Sky Orchestra, Luke Jerram and Dan Jones, have also devised Tunnel Vision: a light and sound installation which, in complete contrast to the Sky Orchestra, will take place underneath the city centre. Birmingham has a whole network of disused underground tunnels. This piece will be installed in one of the city’s longest tunnels, part of the old postal network. Surround system speakers playing specially composed music will evoke the atmosphere and histories of the underground network as visitors walk in the crepuscular light.

In an entertaining and innovative Fierce!10 commission, The Birmingham Royal Ballet, lead by Artistic Director David Bintley, will create ‘Ballet on Buses’,  a new piece on a de-commissioned Routemaster bus. Both the ultimate portable stage, and a sculpture on and around which the dancers can experiment, the bus will tour around the city. The piece will excite the imaginations of young and old alike, extending the reach of ballet into everyday lives and places.

Ron Athey and Franko B will both present new commissions. These two established physical performance artists push both their bodies and the pain thresholds of their audiences to extremes. Ron’s will close the festival with a piece called ‘Visions of Excess’ - a 10 hours club event featuring live stage shows, burlesque, bordello and films inspired by French philosopher Georges Bataille.

Duckie, the Oliver winning art and club promoters, have devised a special ‘We Are Ten’ show to celebrate the anniversary of Fierce. Featuring DJs Readers Wives, comics and performers including David Hoyle, and LBC presenter and Celebrity Fat Club participant Amy Lame, the night will take guests back to their childhood with jelly and ice cream and musical chairs.

Another Fierce!10 commission is a piece from Stan’s Café, ‘The Cleansing of Constance Brown’. Set in a specially constructed, long narrow corridor down which the audience look, its fictional location jumps back and forth through time and around the globe, with many of stories taking place off-stage, in rooms opening from the corridor. Attendants to power are seen moving in and out of these rooms and meeting in corridors - the audience are left to piece things together.

Fierce’ founding curator, Mark Ball, one of the UK’s leading arts producers says, “I'm passionate about contemporary art that creates moments of magic and wonderment that is entertaining and challenging. After ten years of working in Birmingham I’m also delighted that the festival’s legacy will be a commitment to risk and innovation and that our partners included well known organisations such as The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet and The REP."

Fierce attracts audiences of free thinkers from all ages and backgrounds in a city that’s a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities.  The full programme will be announced on 5 April 2007.