CBAT

CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency has merged with Cywaith Cymru/Artworks Wales

2007-06-29T21:57:00.000+01:00

CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency has merged with Cywaith Cymru/Artworks Wales to form

Public Art Wales/Celf Gyhoeddes Cymru

The formation of Public Art Wales, the largest public art organisation in the UK, means that Wales will be a leading force in the development of public art practice both in the UK and internationally by procuring a primary role for artists in regeneration schemes.

Public Art Wales will be taken forward by Executive Director Wiard Sterk (formerly Director of CBAT), alongside the Aberystwyth based architect Harry James as Chair, as well as the highly skilled and dedicated staff who have transferred into the new organisation from Cywaith Cymru and CBAT.

Public Art Wales is currently operating from two offices, those formerly used by CBAT and Cywaith Cymru. During the month of July we will move to a single site.

In the interim the contact details for staff from either organisation will not be changed and we will endeavour to inform you of any changes that are made in due course. In the meantime, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your consideration and support.

Please note that Public Art Wales is a working title that is subject to a branding process lead by the design agency the Bureau for Visual Affairs.

How we are

2006-11-20T10:47:00.000Z

Private View - Friday 17th November 18:00 to 20:00
Exhibition Continues - 20th November to 1st December
Open from Monday to Friday, 11:00 to 17:00
CBAT Gallery, 123 Bute Street, Cardiff CF10 5AE

Robin Dring, Mark Foster, Helen French, Bee Holmes, Adam Hoskins, David Jones, Vincent Kavanagh, Tanya Moulson, Joanne McNally, Eleanor Parsons, Gemma Pearce, Helen Riley, Kimberley Rodgers, Catherine Taylor, Morgan Woodward.

‘How we are’ is a set of photographs and photographically constructed artworks from a collective of young image-makers who share a curiosity about ‘how things are’ - effectively the state of things now.

The linking concerns of space, place, people and object are explored and analysied through various processes and publication strategies that results in an array of arresting and immediate imagery.

These emerging artists create work that is positioned within a context of contemporary photographic practice whilst also observing and responding intuitively to notions of society and environment.

Each individual work is a contribution towards a more sustained and expansive photographic practice and ‘How we are’ is the first step in defining that process of development.
This exhibition is a clear indication of things to come.

Supported by the Newport School of Art, Media and Design, University of Wales, Newport.

For further information: sarah.pace@cbat.co.uk

Carmarthen Gateways

2006-11-14T17:12:00.000Z

CBAT is delighted to announce the launch of a new six-metre high gateway sculpture for Carmarthenshire County Council. Created by Andrew Rowe ‘Oak Tree’ which is positioned at the Llangunnor roundabout in Carmarthen is part of a series of gateways to the town with an aim of making Carmarthen more attractive for visitors and residents.

Carmarthen Town Forum was behind the scheme which was facilitated by the County Council and supported by The Welsh Assembly who provided the major proportion of the funding for the scheme through its Environment Fund and as part of the Department for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks (DEIN) Landscape Working for Wales Strategy.

Two artists were commissioned by CBAT for the Forum, County Council and Welsh Assembly to create concept design’s and the design by Meidrim based Andrew Rowe was selected for implementation.

The new sculpture forms part of the second phase of the gateway scheme – phase one was completed last year at a cost of £60,000 with the landscaping around and on the Tywi ford roundabout and conservation railings.

The council’s regeneration executive board member Cllr Clive Scourfield said:

“This is new territory for the county council in developing not just an attractive gateway with use of creative landscaping but to embellish it with a piece of distinctive and iconic artwork that will help make a visit to Carmarthen more memorable and unique”

“The Town Forum, Llangunnor Community Council and the Welsh Assembly have worked very constructively with us to take that extra step into creative improvement of the public realm.”

Wiard Sterk Director of CBAT said:

“CBAT is delighted to be working with Carmarthenshire County Council on the commissioning of a series of public art works in the borough of which Andrew’s work is the first to be launched. We are looking forward to developing further works on 3 sites situated along the A484 at Loughor Bridge, North Dock, and Burry Port”

The installation of the artwork took place on Sunday 12th November with an official Press Launch on Monday 13th November when a formal unveiling took place.

For further information please contact: Aldo Rinaldi at CBAT on 029 2048 8772 aldo.rinaldi@cbat.co.uk

CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency speak at Zagreb's annual Urban Festival, Croatia.

2006-11-14T16:57:00.000Z

CBAT was invited by UrbanFestival 2006, Gliptoteka HAZU and The Association of Croatian Architects to speak at their conference entitled "Public space in change" which took place on 7th and 8th of September 2006. The objective was to discuss and analyse the disappearance of public space and to encourage dialogue between art historians, artists, architects, urbanists, sociologists and activists in the creation of new public spaces. Along side the discussions ran an ambitious and exciting multimedia projects comprising performances, art installations and urban interventions by performing and visual artists in abandoned, out-of use locations in the ex-industrial zone of eastern Zagreb. The festival organisers chose pieces which specifically address urban issues, performed by local and international artists who attempted to actively change the urban landscape and human behaviour patterns.

Coordinated and funded by Wales Arts International, CBAT and Gliptoteka, Project Manager Emma Price, discussed Wales’s and the UK experiences in commissioning art in the public realm and working with artists, architects and local communities. CBAT has been asked to return next year to take part in further discussions and is continuing an exciting exchanging of information with the local government, artist, architects and curators in Zagreb in their quest to establish the first public art agency in Croatia.

For further information contact Emma Price, 029 2048 8772 / emma.price@cbat.co.uk / http://www.cbat.co.uk/

East meets West on streets of Cardiff

2006-09-28T10:53:00.000+01:00

Image: Marjetica Potrč is an artist and architect based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, (pictured left is Prishtina House, 2006, Installation view at Portikus

Temporary public art installations by artists from Eastern Europe and Wales will transform interior and external spaces in Cardiff in a series of events echoing Constant Nieuwenhuys’ situationist theory as part of the Urban Legacies II: Another New Babylon conference to be held in the city from October 5-6.

To provide a wider European context, experiences from the emerging and new European states will be an important part of the conference and Marjetica Potrč from Slovenia and artist/architect Veronica Valk from Tallinn, Estonia, will exhibit especially commissioned artworks alongside work by Welsh artist, Anthony Shapland.

The artist’s projects will range from an urban farm in Cardiff Bay to an installation in the impressive former banking hall of the Nat West bank in Bute Street. The artworks will be used as a means of exploring the role of temporary artistic works and creative practice in the regeneration of modern post industrial cities.

Born in Tallinn, architect and artist Veronika Valk has made an impact on the Estonian cultural landscape. As one half of the in-demand architecture and events duo ZiZi & YoYo, she has won commissions for public and private buildings, interiors and landscapes. Veronika will also speak at the conference as part of the New Europe: New Cities session which will focus on the current developments in art and architecture in Estonia.

In her work, she investigates spatial issues and the aspirations of buildings, spaces and cities to the people inhabiting and using them. Since 1998, she has won around 30 awards in architectural competitions. Veronika’s completed projects include Suure-Jaani High School Sports Centre (with Kavakava Architects), the urban renewal of Rakvere city centre (with Kosmos office), and a memorial to the composer Eduard Tubin, in collaboration with sculptor Aili Vahtrapuu.

Frankfurt/Main 2006) whose work has been featured in exhibitions throughout Europe and the Americas. Venues for her solo shows have included the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.

Her work is the product of wide-ranging research into communities across the world, taking the form of sculptural, photographic or online projects that explore temporary solutions for permanent problems such as overcrowding, poverty and pollution.

For Urban Legacies II, Marjetica will be constructing an urban farm made up of a vertical garden where people will be able to pass through and purchase fresh vegetables grown right there in Cardiff Bay. Consisting of a simple steel structure, which extends along vertical planes, allowing the ground floor to remain an open public space, the Urban Farm has been designed to bring together the best of two worlds, urban and rural.

The art of Anthony Shapland documents moments of transition in daily city life that are usually overlooked or thought invisible. Through their capture and editing on film, these mundane, everyday events – the lighting of a street lamp, the daytime sleep of night shift workers, drunken encounters after a nightclub has shut – assume an unexpected character and significance. In his explorations of the city at sunset and sunrise, he reveals the private uses to which public spaces are put.

Anthony is also the co-founder of g39, an artist-run network and gallery in Cardiff. Of his series of short films to be projected in the city centre, he says, “If the New Babylon is a place to play, a flexible place where rules no longer apply and we can be even more creative, then it is the city at night that most demonstrates this capacity for play.”

Other keynote speakers at the conference include Reinier de Graaf, partner in Rem Koolhaas’ controversial architectural practice OMA, as well as Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury, Filip de Boeck, anthropologist, University of Leuven and Tom van Gestel, Creative Director, SKOR, The Netherlands.

Urban Legacies II: Another Babylon aims to bring some of the world’s leading artists and architects to Cardiff to explore opportunities for greater collaborative opportunities between artistic practice and the real world of architecture in delivering successful urban regeneration projects the world over.

ENDS

For further information please contact Rhodri Ellis Owen, Cambrensis Communications on 029 20 257075.

More information on the conference can be found on the dedicated website www.urbanlegacies.co.uk

Editor’s Notes

Marjetica Potrč

The Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč originally trained as an architect. She is known for her 'case studies' of improvised buildings all over the world. Using analytical drawings and self-constructed buildings, Potrč shows how local inhabitants come up with and realise solutions that sometimes function better than the plans originating from the urban developer's drawing board. Potrč's projects are intended to suggest concrete possibilities for improving the relation between the individual and society. Her projects have strong social, political and economic dimensions.

For Urban Legacies, Potrč has built an Urban Farm, an elevated living structure where the walls and roof are used to grow a variety of seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers, tended to by the in-house gardener. This produce is then available to buy downstairs from a market stand built into the structure.

Veronika Valk

Born in Tallinn, architect and artist Veronika Valk has made an impact on the Estonian cultural landscape that belies her youth. A one half of the in-demand architecture and events duo ZiZi & YoYo, she has won commissions for public and private buildings, interiors and landscapes. In her work, she investigates spatial issues and the aspirations of buildings, spaces and cities to the people inhabiting and using them.

For Urban Legacies, Valk will be installing a temporary inflatable hotel into the former Nat West Bank in Cardiff Bay. Built from basic materials and inflated by simple desk fans, this ‘Black Box Hotel’ will also host discussion, a 3D cinema, video art, performances and experimental work by artists from Wales and Estonia. 12 guests will be accommodated every night over the conference in a unique hotel experience.

Anthony Shapland

The art of Anthony Shapland documents moments of transition in daily city life that are usually overlooked or thought invisible. Through their capture and editing on film, these mundane, everyday events – the lighting of a street lamp, the daytime sleep of night shift workers, drunken encounters after a nightclub has shut – assume an unexpected character and significance. In his explorations of the city at sunset and sunrise, he reveals the private uses to which public spaces are put.

Shapland has been documenting Cardiff’s nightlife during the small hours over the summer. For Urban Legacies, Shapland has edited this footage into mini-dramas, complete with subtitles of the drunken conversations, laughs and abuse. These will be shown at various locations 12 hours later than the time they were originally filmed, giving a brutal, humourous and often crude insight into how city spaces are inhabited throughout a 24hr period.

New book explores STAR power

2006-09-01T11:32:00.000+01:00

STAR: a psycho-topography of place by artist Jennie Savage will be published in October to coincide with the Urban Legacies II conference in Cardiff and marks the conclusion of Jennie Savage’s 3-year exploration into the STAR (Splott, Tremorfa, Adamsdown and Roath) area of Cardiff.

This project began with the notion of a radio broadcast created through the process of collaboration with those living within the neighbourhood and other artists. The STAR Radio broadcast event took place for one week in October 2005 and transmitted documentaries, sound projects, live programmes and music across the suburban districts of STAR in Cardiff

This new publication contextualises the project and the radio programmes made by a combination of 17 commissioned artists and the general public, creating a collection of information that transcends its locality, projecting a new ‘virtual map’ of a non-specific location. All the radio programmes have been archived by the artist within a number of categories and form the heart of the book in CD-Rom and DVD formats.

STAR: a psycho-topography of place contains images and texts on 17 artists commissioned to respond to STAR within the medium of their own practice, creating programmes both through and without collaboration, broadcast within the locality. In addition, the book includes essays by: Claire Doherty, Dr Tom Hall and Dr Brett Lashua, Matthew Yeomans, Andre Stitt and Wiard Sterk.

One of the most interesting artists currently creating time-based and participatory interventions into modern life, Savage’s process based work responds to people, places and time, uncovering layers of activity and history often with surprising results. Location is key to her work, re-defining layers and creating reflections that allow those who’ve participated to view their own contributions within a particular context. The artist is always central to her work, seeking to represent the commonality of post-industrial landscapes.

Jennie Savage said, “STAR Radio was a project that explored the specifity of a one-mile geographic area. By exploring this area in all of its multiplicity, the project sought to create a relationship between the micro and the macro; in looking very closely at the specifics of a place, one discovers all places, all peoples and in fact, all the world, here. This was the premise of STAR Radio.”

For further details, please contact Zoe King at CBAT on 029 2048 8772 / zoe.king@cbat.co.uk

The publication will launch at CBAT’s forthcoming Urban Legacies II Conference 5, 6 October 2006 where the book will be available to purchase at a discounted rate.

Published by CBAT:The Arts & Regeneration Agency, STAR: a psycho-topography of place is available to purchase directly from the company at £12.99 plus of £3 P&P. Pre-orders are now available with a cheque made out to CBAT, addressed to 123 Bute Street, Cardiff CF10 5AE.

Editor’s Notes:

1.STAR Radio and STAR a psycho-topography of place were commissioned and produced by CBAT The Arts & Regeneration AgencyFunding for the project and publication gratefully received by the following: European Union
Objective 2, Arts Council of Wales, Cardiff County Council, PROJECT – engaging artists in the built environment, Cardiff Community Housing Association and Tesco Stores.

2.The following have contributed essays to the publication:
Claire Doherty, Senior Research Fellow at the University of West England, Bristol and Situations a research and commissioning programme which investigates the significance of place and context in contemporary art.
Dr Tom Hall, Lecturer and Dr Brett Lashua, Research Associate, Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences.
Matthew Yeomans, author of Oil: Anatomy of an Industry, founder of online consultancy Custom Communication and freelance writer for Time and Wired.
Andre Stitt, widely considered one of Europe’s foremost Performance artists.
Wiard Sterk, Director, CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency

STAR Radio commissioned artists were: Stefhan Caddick, Anya Lewin and Michael Lawson-Smith, Anthony Shapland, Marcia Farquhar with J.Maizlish, James Tyson, Dominic Thomas, Mike Cousin, Simon Whitehead, Sara Fletcher, Teresa Dillon, Simon Aeppli, Helen Clifford, Lloyd Robson, The Duo Collective, The International Owl Project, Gordon Dalton, Mark Gubb and Bedwyr Williams, Ella Gibbs

STAR a psycho-topography of place will launch on 4 October as part of CBAT’s Urban Legacies II: Another New Babylon conference that takes Constant Nieuwenhuys’ Situationist theory as the starting point for exploring how temporary, informal and unplanned interventions by artists and creative practitioners are contributing to urban regeneration.
The conference will be held at St David’s Hotel, Cardiff, 5,>6 October 2006.

STAR a psycho-topography of placeis designed by Sweet creative. All photography by Adam Williams and Jennie SavageFor further information visit the following websites:

www.starradio.org.uk
www.jenniesavage.co.uk
www.cbat.co.uk
www.urbanlegacies.co.uk

What makes a city anyway?

2006-09-01T11:11:00.000+01:00

What have the Congo and Cardiff got in common? Although thousands of miles apart, one man, eminent Belgian anthropologist Filip De Boeck, links these two parts of the world as he shares his experiences of how people interact with their urban environment, however rudimentary and informal, as is the case in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, to a UK audience as part of the Urban Legacies II: Another New Babylon? conference on October 4^th at the St David’s Hotel and Spa in Cardiff Bay.

Renowned the world over for his studies of private and public spaces in an urban context in Africa, and in particular in Kinshasa, Filip De Boeck brings with him his experiences of how people with a cultural perception which is very different from our traditional western attitudes to architecture and the built environment, classify urbanity.

The city of Kinshasa has a population of 6 million yet urban planning as we know it ceased after independence in the 1960s, when the population was less than 500,000, and subsequent civil war and economic collapse. Nevertheless, the city works on a number of different levels despite the huge population growth and an inefficient and often absent infrastructure.

As the programme director of the Africa Research Centre and Chair of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Professor Filip De Boeck is actively involved in teaching, promoting, coordinating and supervising research in and on Africa.

In his most recent book Tales of the Invisible City, a joint book project with photographer Marie-Françoise Plissar, De Boeck outlines how an almost invisible infrastructure exists focussed on personalisation (marking private space and image building), which is yet very real for those who live in it. This book is the basis for a travelling exhibition which is currently on show in Johannesburg in South Africa.

Filip De Boeck, says, “When you look at what we westerners view as a traditional city, take Cardiff for example, we tend to focus on physical buildings as a focus for the workings of a city and it people. Imagine removing the main shopping centres, the Castle or City Hall, as is the case in Kinshasa and what you get is a fascinating place where human movement and even speech become forms of building a city.

“The breakdown of infrastructure in itself creates opportunities for networking. I call this the ‘Possibilities of the Impossible’, in the sense that what is happening in Kinshasa is far from an ideal environment for anybody to live in, yet the majority continue to live full and varied lives.

“In short, for us living in the West we accept physical buildings as having an important form and function but it may be worth thinking of how we would adapt if our traditional perceptions were removed. Would we still be able to call ourselves citizens and would be able to positively interact with each other and adapt to exist? “

Since 1987 Filip has conducted extensive field research in both rural and urban communities in D.R. Congo (ex-Zaire). His current theoretical interests include local subjectivities of crisis, postcolonial memory, youth and the politics of culture, and the transformation of private and public space in the urban context in Africa.

Following its successful introduction two years ago, the second Urban Legacies Conference will carry on exploring artistic and creative ways to regenerate ignored and hidden urban spaces. In this year's Conference a number of professionals with a variety of approaches to this challenge meet again to debate the role of art, architecture and cultural expression in shaping the public realm and effecting positive change, focusing on the revival of contemporary post-industrial cities from an international perspective.

Urban Legacies II will further investigate themes, which emerged from the first Conference in May 2004 that, together with commissioned artist's projects under the title "Ain’t no Love in the Heart of the City", explored the developing role of artists in the regeneration of neglected city areas and the increased application of cross disciplinary architectural, artistic and urban planning practices.

More information on the Urban Legacies II is available online on www.urbanlegacies.co.uk.

ENDS

For further information please contact Wiard Sterk at CBAT, on 029 2048 8772 or Rhodri Ellis Owen at Cambrensis PR on 029 20 257075

URBAN REGENERATION UNDER FIRE

2006-09-01T11:06:00.000+01:00

July 2006 saw the newly completed Bank of Beirut in Chtaura, Lebanon, coming under fire as a result of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. This building was one designed by the internationally acclaimed Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury, a keynote speaker at the Urban Legacies II: Another New Babylon conference to be held in Cardiff’s St David’s Hotel and Spa from 5-6^th October.

The Bank of Beirut was a symbol of the new spirit of economic and social regeneration witnessed in the Lebanese capital over the last decade and the damage inflicted on the building and other swathes of southern Beirut will have an obvious impact on future regeneration plans in what was often called the ‘Paris of the East’.

The impact of unexpected external forces on urban regeneration and the important role played by artists and architects in helping Beirut rise again from the ashes will feature heavily in Bernard’s presentation to the conference.

Bernard Khoury studied architecture at the Rhode Island school of Design and received a Masters in Architectural studies from Harvard University and in 2004 he was awarded the Architecture + Award. Bernard has since lectured and exhibited his work in prestigious academic institutions in Europe and the U.S including a solo show of his work given by the International Forum for Contemporary Architecture at the Aedes gallery in Berlin (2003).

Khoury started an independent practice in 1993 and his office has since developed an international reputation and a significant diverse portfolio of projects both locally and abroad.

More information on the Urban Legacies II is available online on www.urbanlegacies.co.uk.

ENDS

For further information please contact Wiard Sterk at CBAT, on 029 2048 8772 or Rhodri Ellis Owen at Cambrensis PR on 029 20 257075

Summer/Autumn 2006

2006-08-07T14:33:00.000+01:00

Image: Marjectica Potrč, Urgent Architecture, PBICA, Lakje Worth, 2004

On 5th & 6th October CBAT will be holding its second Urban Legacies conference in Cardiff in collaboration with Landor Conferences. Urban Legacies: Another New Babylon, will take as a starting point Constant Nieuwenhuys’ Situationist theory, which will be used as a pretext for exploring transitional, temporary, informal and unplanned urban development as well as artistic and creative practice in the regeneration of contemporary, post industrial cities. As part of the conference CBAT has commissioned 4 new temporary public works by artist Marjetica Potrč (Slovenia); Veronika Valk, Architect and Artist, (Estonia); Anthony Shapland, Artist, (Wales) and Morgan Hayes, Composer, England (in partnership with Music Theatre Wales). For further info see http://www.urbanlegacies.co.uk/ and http://www.anothernewbabylon.co.uk/

Swiss born artist Felice Varini is currently working on designs for a new work at Cardiff Bay Barrage, which is part of an ongoing series of works produced with Cardiff Harbor Authority. Varini works with space to create ‘optical paintings’. Made as a response to specific locations, the artist designates a vantage point for viewing from which his interventions takes shape. Varini who is currently based in Paris has created interventions across the world including new commissions in Seoul, France, Switzerland and Tampa Florida. The project will be the artists’ first UK commission, for further information see http://www.varini.org/

Artist Howard Bowcott’s artwork for the Water Quarter in Cardiff Bay was installed in late July. The work which comprises a 3 metre tall slate sculpture was formed from thousands of individual slates, stacked within a giant mold. July also saw the completion of a new integrated public artwork at Gerddi Courtmead Gardens in Grangetown, Cardiff, created by artist’s Parnell, Mackie and Rowe. The work comprises of 500 bronzes set into the grounds of the gardens, based upon local stories, anecdotes and references to the life cycles of sea life in the near by river and sea.

CBAT is currently working with Land Securities on the development of a series of new temporary and permanent commissions in the £535M St David’s II retail, shopping, and residential development, for further info visit: http://www.stdavids2.com/. Further West in Cardigan, CBAT is working with Channel 4 on the ‘Big Art Project’, a new televised series covering the commissioning of 6 new public works across the UK. CBAT is producing the Welsh commission in the form of an artist/architect collaboration situated in Cardigan. For further info see: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/B/bigart/index.html.

Westmark Developments and CBAT have commissioned writer Peter Finch and artist Bruce Williams to produce a series of texts and integrated sculptural works for Watermark, a new residential development on the site of the old Red House, Cardiff. Further afield in Northern Ireland, master planners and landscape architects EDAW have commissioned CBAT to develop a framework for the integration of public art in the redevelopment of public spaces within the First Phase of the Belfast City Centre Public Realm Masterplan. This scheme will involve the creation of a series of new public artworks for the City Centre. Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and CBAT have commissioned artist Marianne Forrest to produce designs for a new work in Ebbw Vale town centre as part of the Northern Gateway development.
CBAT has recently been engaged by Solihull MBC to work alongside urban design Consultants Lovejoy to develop a strategy for the integration of public art along the A34, Stratford Road. This report is due for completion November 2006.

Finally, in September CBAT Gallery will hold a new exhibition of work by Danish photographer Betina Skovbro. The exhibition ‘Here Comes the Son!’ is a photographic documentary of the life of a father of 20 children. Taken over a one year period (2004-2005) the work captures the day to day life of a unique South Wales family, as the father seeks to trace children he has lost contact with over the years. Skovbro’s images have featured in National Geographic and she is the founder of Photomarathon (Cardiff).

For further information on all CBAT projects or commissions call Aldo Rinaldi 029 2048 8772 / info@cbat.co.uk. / http://www.cbat.co.uk/

Can artists and architects ever live under the same roof?

2006-08-02T15:09:00.000+01:00

URBAN LEGACIES: ANOTHER NEW BABYLON

5 – 6 OCTOBER 2006
ST. DAVIDS HOTEL & SPA, CARDIFF

Cardiff plays host to the second Urban Legacies conference from 5-6 October 2006. This high profile two-day event brings the cream of the world’s artists and architectural talent together to Wales’ capital city to debate the way forward in urban design and carry forward topics raised at the inaugural conference in 2004. A dedicated web portal for Urban Legacies II: Another New Bablyon is launched today (www.urbanlegacies.co.uk).

Following its successful introduction two years ago, the second Urban Legacies Conference will carry on exploring artistic and creative ways to regenerate ignored and hidden urban spaces. Providing a wider European context, Urban Legacies II will highlight experiences from the emerging and new European states, including presentations from professionals from Estonia, one of the states that joined the EU in May 2004. Environments blighted by more extreme destructive impacts, namely Kinshasa in the Congo and Beirut in Lebanon, will also feature in the conference programme.

At the centre of this year’s conference will be the analysis of the contemporary relevance of Constant Nieuwenhuys’ Situationist theory, as a pretext for exploring transitional, temporary, informal and unplanned urban development, as well as artistic and creative practice in the regeneration of contemporary, post industrial cities.

The convergence of artistic and architectural practice in the urban arena is at the forefront of the conference agenda and whilst some excellent examples of collaboration are available, the arts world and the world of architecture are missing opportunities to work in partnership to deliver truly inspirational temporary and permanent structures and urban building projects and a vibrant public realm, according to Wiard Sterk, director of CBAT The Arts and Regeneration Agency and conference organiser.

The conference will attract some of the world’s leading urban regeneration professionals, planners, artists and architects. The keynote address will be given by Reinier de Graaf, Director of AMO, the research arm of Rem Koolhaas’ practice OMA and responsible for the White City project in London. Confirmed speakers include, Bernard Khoury, Architect, DW5, Beirut, Professor John Punter, Head of Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning and Filip de Boeck, Professor in Anthropology at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

One important facet of the conference will be the commissioning of temporary interventions by leading artists, supporting the principles of the conference programme and providing tangible examples of contemporary, international practice. Artists’ projects, curated by Gordon Dalton, will range from larger architectural constructions in Cardiff’s city centre and Cardiff Bay to a number of low key interventions in everyday work and leisure settings and spaces. Combined, these approaches will echo Constant’s New Babylon through nomadic play and polemical provocation and their subtle critique of conventional social structure. Confirmed artists are Veronika Valk from Estonia, Marjetica Potrc from Slovenia and Anthony Shapland from Wales. In addition CBAT is collaborating with Music Theatre Wales and composer Morgan Hayes in the creation and performance of a new piece of music, composed in response to the public realm around the Senedd in Cardiff Bay.

Wiard Sterk, CBAT’s Director said, “You only need look at the amazing Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London by Rem Koolhaas to see what can be achieved when artists and architects think laterally and look at spaces creatively to create masterpieces concerned more about form and context than a preoccupation with end use.

“We hope to make this kind of collaboration more widespread and the Urban Legacies II conference aims to provoke and challenge both artistic and architectural professionals to look again at how they perceive each other and their projects and how to deliver better work for their clients and the public.

“It is apt that this conference is being held in Wales as there is undoubtedly a new appreciation of the arts dawning amongst Wales’ decision makers, affecting a significant impact across our landscapes. Art and the skills artists can bring to the built environment are also no longer valued just for their aesthetics and this conference will hopefully help seal Wales’ place at the forefront of global public art and urban design expertise.”

For further information please contact Wiard Sterk at CBAT, on 029 2048 8772
or Rhodri Ellis Owen at Cambrensis PR on 029 2025 7075

Gerddi Courtmead Gardens

2006-06-20T14:32:00.000+01:00

CBAT is pleased to announce the launch of a series of integrated public art works in the newly created Gerddi Courtmead Gardens by artists Parnell, Mackie & Rowe.

Gerddi Courtmead Gardens is a new community garden situated on Court Road in Cardiff’s Grangetown which was developed in a partnership between Cardiff County Council, Butetown & Grangetown Healthy Living Programme and the Grangetown Community. The project began by asking local residents in North Grangetown what they thought should happen on to a section of land on Court Road in order to improve the area. The most popular idea was to transform the space into a community garden and so, with lottery funding, the Neighbourhood Planning Team at Cardiff Council engaged Llanelli based Landscape architects Corscadden Associates to come up with a design concept. Three designs were created for the garden, and the residents then selected their favourite design to be implemented.

CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency was commissioned to work with the landscape architects to create an integrated public artwork and invited artists David Mackie, Heather Parnell and Andrew Rowe to create a work produced in close consultation with local residents. This included workshops with local schoolchildren and residents to create images through recounted stories and features relating to the area. Many of these images have found their way into the public artworks which comprise of 500 bronzes embedded into the garden’s floor.

A voluntary group made up of local residents, called the Friends of Gerddi Courtmead Gardens, have been meeting monthly since last September with the aim of ensuring the garden is maintained for the benefit of the whole community and to organise events in the garden to encourage it’s use as a community resource. A documentary film is also being made about the garden called ‘Sewing Seeds for the Future’. With the help of lottery grant money, the Friends of Gerddi Courtmead Gardens have enlisted the help of film production company media4creative to train the group in how to use cameras and sound equipment, how to produce and direct as well as edit the film right down to a finished product. The film will be available on DVD, and will be screened on July the 10th at 7 pm in the Cornwall Street Baptist Hall. Local residents are still welcome to get involved with the group and it is hoped that continued local involvement will ensure that improvements made to the garden are long-lasting and well maintained.

Gerddi Courtmead Gardens will be opened by Frank Hennessy from Radio Wales at 1.45 pm followed by free entertainment throughout the day, including Samba Galez (performing at 1 pm and 3pm), Expressions of the Young Kind (performing at 2 pm). There will also be a range of entertainments for children including a bouncy castle and face painting, badge making, bag-painting, plant exchange stall as well as craft stalls and much more.

For further information please contact Aldo Rinaldi at CBAT on 029 2048 8772 / aldo.rinaldi@cbat.co.uk

URBAN LEGACIES II

2006-05-19T14:58:00.000+01:00

October 5th – 6th, 2006

Following its successful introduction two years ago, the second Urban Legacies Conference will carry on exploring artistic and creative ways to regenerate ignored and hidden urban spaces. In this year's Conference a number of professionals with a variety of approaches to this challenge meet again to debate the role of art, architecture and cultural expression in shaping the public realm and effecting positive change, focusing on the revival of contemporary post-industrial cities from an international perspective.

Urban Legacies II will further investigate themes, which emerged from the first Conference in May 2004 that, together with commissioned artist's projects under the title "Ain’t no Love in the Heart of the City", explored the developing role of artists in the regeneration of neglected city areas and the increased application of cross disciplinary architectural, artistic and urban planning practices.

At the centre of this year's conference will be the analysis of the contemporary relevance of Constant Nieuwenhuys' Situationist theory, as a pretext for exploring transitional, temporary, informal and unplanned urban development, as well as artistic and creative practice in the regeneration of contemporary, post industrial cities.

Providing a wider European context, Urban Legacies II will highlight international examples of interdisciplinary and inspirational practices. The inclusion of experiences from the emerging and new European states will again be an important aspect of the conference, including presentations from professionals from Estonia, one of the states that joined the EU in May 2004. Environments blighted by more extreme destructive impacts, namely Beirut in Lebanon and Kinshasa in the Congo, will also feature in the conference programme.

The artist's projects, curated by artist and curator, Gordon Dalton will range from larger architectural constructions in City Centre and Cardiff Bay locations, to a number of low key interventions into everyday work and leisure spaces. Combined, these approaches will echo Constant's New Babylon through nomadic play and polemical provocation and their subtle critique of conventional social structure.

Speakers:

Reiner de Graaf, OMA,AMO/ Filip de Boeck, Anthropologist, Belgium / Professor John Punter, Head of School of Planning, Cardiff / Greg Esser, form Director Phoenix Public Art Programme,Arizone, USA / Erik Terk, Director Institute for Future Studies, Tallinn, Estonia / Hanno Soans, Curator National Art Museum and Venice Biennale, Tallinn, Estonia / Andres Kurg Author of "A User's Guide for Tallinn", Tallinn, Estonia / Juan Insua, Curator Centre for Contemporary Culture Barcelona, Catalonia (to be confirmed) / Bernard Khoury, Architect, Beirut / Wiard Sterk, Director CBAT, Cardiff /

Organised by:

CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency in association with Landor Conferences.

Notes to Editor:

CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency is a Cardiff-based, independent, non-profit-making commissions agency and consultancy with over 15 years experience. Its mission is to enliven the built environment, supporting sustainability, education and civic ownership, by procuring a primary role for artists in regeneration schemes throughout Wales, the UK and internationally.

Landor Conferences has been established for ten years and currently runs between 25-35 one and two-day events a year, including seminars, conferences, exhibitions and award ceremonies, which attract anywhere between 80 and 500 attendees.

For further information, please contact:
Wiard Sterk (Director)
CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency
+44 (0)29 2048 8772
wiard.sterk@cbat.co.uk

Shopping for Art

2006-05-05T15:04:00.000+01:00

Cardiff's St David's 2 development will have public art firmly at its heart following the appointment of CBAT:The Arts and Regeneration Agency as consultants and project managers as part of a £1.5 million public art investment.

Developer The St David’s Partnership - a joint venture between Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres - has announced its commitment to commissioning a number of exciting and innovative permanent and temporary art projects as part of its development programme over the next three years. Over the coming months, CBAT will formulate a detailed strategy for the integration of public art works into the development and commence the artwork commissioning process in 2007.

This news follows the recent appointment of CBAT in another major regeneration programme as Art and Culture Led Regeneration Consultants for Kent Thameside, a consortium of Kent County Council and various private companies, including Land Securities. This consortium will oversee the development of a substantial part of the Thames Gateway Region, one of the largest regeneration programmes of its kind in Europe.

Lester Hampson, Development Director for The St David's Partnership said, "We are pleased to have CBAT on board with us for this landmark project. As a forward thinking, experienced and innovative organisation, we are confident that they will help us to deliver a space for the people of Cardiff to be proud of.

"The proof of CBAT's creative endeavours is all around us in Wales' public spaces and we look forward to working with them to breathe new life into this area of the city centre."

Wiard Sterk, Director for CBAT, added, "The St David's 2 development will alter Cardiff's vista for the better and we applaud the developer's approach to public art. Not only is it refreshing but it is also exciting to think that public art will be at the heart of shaping this re-vitalised area of Cardiff.

"Public art is crucial to improving quality of life and it's not all about Cardiff as our pioneering work in the south Wales valleys to date has shown. The completion of the recent canopy project in Bethcar Street, Ebbw Vale is one such case in point. Part of the ongoing Ebbw Vale Town Centre Urban Design Framework, the project aims to transform the quality of the town’s environment and attract more people into the centre.

"The Kent Thameside project of works is another major boost for the arts sector in Wales. We have some of the most talented artists in the world working within our relatively small borders and this major appointment is not only testament to the skills of the CBAT team but also to the legions of talented artists we work with."

ENDS

For further information please contact Wiard Sterk, CBAT, on 029 2048 8772 or Rhodri Ellis Owen at Cambrensis PR on 029 20 257075

CBAT Project News Spring - Summer 2006

2006-05-05T14:16:00.000+01:00

Image: Felice Varini

CBAT The Arts & Regeneration Agency is launching a number of projects this spring and summer kicking off with the production of a new public art work at Cardiff Bay Barrage. CBAT has commissioned the Swiss born artists Felice Varini to create a new work at the barrage, which is part of an ongoing series of works produced with Cardiff's Harbor Authority. Varini works with space to create 'optical paintings'. Made as a response to specific locations, the artist designates a vantage point for viewing from which his interventions takes shape. Varini who is currently based in Paris has created interventions across Europe and this is his first UK commission. Varini takes painting beyond the parameters of the 2D surface into the public realm using space to create his complex works. As the artists has stated "I start from an actual situation to construct my painting. Reality is never altered, erased or modified, it interests and seduces me in all its complexity. I work "here and now"." For further information see www.varini.org

Artist Howard Bowcott is currently completing a new work for Wimpey Homes Water Quarter development in Cardiff Bay. This new work using the artist's signature slate will be installed in late June and comprises a 2 metre sculpture integrated within a large water feature. A new integrated artwork by artists Parnell, Mackie and Rowe also features in the newly created Court Mead Gardens / Gerddi Courtmead which shall be launched on Sunday 11th June as part of a community lead lottery funded regeneration project in North Grangetown. A new work commissioned by Carmarthenshire County Council will also be installed in late August. The work Tree was designed by Andrew Rowe to act as a gateway feature, accenting the history of the ancient market town.

Caerphilly County Borough Council and CBAT has commissioned artist Laura Johnston and Hiscott & Pearl to create 2 new glass works for Penalta House with architects Kennedy James Griffiths, and in Cardiff CBAT has been selected to produce the public art strategy and commissioned works within the new £535M St David's II shopping development (www.stdavids2.com), as well as a series of works within Bellway's Prospect Place housing development in the Bay.

Working with Watermark Development, CBAT has commissioned writer Peter Finch and artists Bruce Williams to develop a series of sculptural works and text within Watermark, a new residential apartment building to be built on the site of the old Red House as well as a forthcoming public artwork in Jacks Pill, the Old Town Dock, Newport. Further a field in Ireland, CBAT have recently been appointed to work with master planners and landscape architects EDAW to develop a framework for the integration of public art within the redevelopment of public spaces within Belfast City Centre.

From the Edge is a new exhibition of work at CBAT gallery from 2nd May - 26th May produced by the Print Market Workshop. The show features the work of four artists from Kansas City, Missouri whose work is included in the forthcoming book 'Printmaking at the Edge' (A&C Black, April 2006) including Cecilia Bakker, Laura Berman, Hammerpress and Hugh Merill.

Finally, on 5th & 6th October CBAT will be holding its second Urban Legacies conference in Cardiff in collaboration with Landor Conferences. Urban Legacies II, will take as a starting point Constant Nieuwenhuys' Situationist theory, which will be used as a pretext for exploring transitional, temporary, informal and unplanned urban development as well as artistic and creative practice in the regeneration of contemporary, post industrial cities.

For further information on all CBAT projects call 029 2048 8772 / info@cbat.co.uk. / www.cbat.co.uk

Chair of New Public Art Organisation

2006-02-25T17:41:00.000Z

CBAT & Cywaith Cymru .Artworks Wales are currently in the process of merging to establish a new public art organisation for Wales based in Cardiff, in partnership with the Arts Council of Wales.
Building on the success of the two existing organisations, the new body will be charged with exploring the potential for interdisciplinary practice across art, design, landscape and architecture.

We are seeking to recruit a chair who will lead the board of the new organisation and work closely with the Executive Director in the inception period. It is anticipated that the new chair will be involved in the appointment of the Executive Director. The Chair is not remunerated, but reasonable expenses incurred in the
performance of their duties will be paid.

Please download the Chair of New Public Art Organisation.pdf for more information

SUSTAINABLE FOUNDATIONS FOR THE FUTURE The Landscape Institute Conference

2006-02-25T17:32:00.000Z

Establishing sustainable communities is a worldwide priority.
Today in the UK it is vital that all relevant professionals co-ordinate a sustainable approach to the landscape and the built environment.

This conference will address that need focusing on five key
themes looking at how sustainability influences all professions
and how a co-ordinated strategy will improve the quality of
design and sustainability of projects. The themes taken from
the Wales Spatial Plan to be examined include:

Building Sustainable Communities
Promoting a Sustainable Economy
Valuing Our Environment
Achieving Sustainable Accessibility
Respecting Distinctiveness

Please download the LI 2006 Annual Conference .pdf for more information here