ARTBOMB 22: DONCASTER’S EXPERIMENTAL ARTS FESTIVAL TO HIGHLIGHT CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Published 9 August 2022 at 3:59pm

ArtBomb 22: Alternative Ecologies
11 - 14 August 2022

ArtBomb 22, Doncaster’s experimental arts festival, will take place 11th to 14th August and is designed to provoke fierce debate across current environmental and ecological thinking. 

ArtBomb 22 playfully and provocatively explores the life of PLANTS, FOOD, WATER and TRANSPORT and their role in the health and well-being of local communities and in a global context.

Now in its second year, ArtBomb’s approach is to foster local creative talent and emerging practitioners, alongside established international artists to highlight the most pressing issue of our time: GLOBAL CLIMATE EMERGENCY. ArtBomb 22 is an open-platform arts festival commissioning world-class art to spill onto the street and spread across public space, sparking discussion, forming new ideas and fostering a sense of curiosity with a programme of workshops, talks, performances, gigs, films and exhibitions across multiple sites.

ArtBomb is part funded by the South Yorkshire Mayor’s Arts and Culture fund, which is designed to help the region’s freelance artists and culture organisations to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

ArtBomb’s local team of curators and producers is led by Doncaster Creates creative director and artist, Mike Stubbs, and builds on the success of last year’s first festival to present a creative provocation that centres on the local ecology and explores the impact of the climate emergency. The festival will ask important questions about how these global issues can be addressed locally:

• How resilient are our communities to the impacts of climate change?

• How do we recognise ourselves as being part of a global ecological system?

• How can people take action to promote biodiversity such as: reducing emissions; reducing car usage, reducing household waste, saving natural habitats and ensuring further restoration of our peatlands?   

ArtBomb has invited more than 30 artists to work alongside a wide range of environmentalists to explore cutting edge ecological research and provocation including signposting Doncaster’s most valuable ecological asset - its vast peatland - and the biodiversity it supports. Internationally significant artists include: feminist/anarchist, mezzo-soprano, Loré Lixenberg, reciter of Beckett and Shakespeare, performance artist, Filipos Tsitsopoulos, live coder and choreographer Joana Chicau.

Artists also include: Chris Dobrowolski; Antony Hall; Jola Kudela; Rob La Fresnais; Dave Lynch; Matthew Rosier; Sydney Sparks; Yu-chen Wang and Miranda Whall, alongside artists from the ArtBomb 22 residencies: Re-Wilding the System and Symbiosis - The Art of Living with Water.

Re-Wilding the System artists include: Caroline Sinders; David Bramwell; Rebecca Smith; Angela Robson, Brigitte Sossou Perenyl

Symbiosis artists include: Annie Carpenter; Zoyander Street; Adrian Barron; Teresa Saynor; Ted Webley; Sarah Villeneau; Molly Shaw; Jennifer Rozenfelds; Janet Wallace

ArtBomb’s lead curator, Mike Stubbs commented:

“ArtBomb Festival 22 is asking the urgent questions that will challenge complacency and ensure that Doncaster and its communities can explore and debate the climate emergency. Working with emerging and established artists, both local and international, the festival showcases the work of artists in collaboration with environmentalists and celebrate their challenging vision and ambition within one of the UK’s newest cities and its environs and beyond.”

Project Director Arts, Culture & Heritage. South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Kate Brindley commented:

“Experimental arts festival, ArtBomb 22 is demonstrating exactly why Doncaster deserves its city status and why it is making a great contribution to South Yorkshire’s cultural programme. I look forward to seeing what the artists and environmentalists have been working on.”

Cllr Nigel Ball, Portfolio Holder for Public Health, Leisure and Planning commented:

“ArtBomb 22 brings a vital spark to Doncaster’s burgeoning culture calendar and this year’s theme is one that encourages our communities to engage with the ecological future of Doncaster region in a highly creative and fun platform involving local artists and communities as well as those from further afield. I look forward to experiencing it in August.”

Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones commented:

“I welcome ArtBomb’s innovative and creative focus on what could be done to help us all be more proactive in developing Doncaster’s ecological agenda. We know we are in a race against time and the more we can do to drive debate and share best practice the stronger and more resilient our communities can be in the future.”
 
ArtBomb’s programme of residencies and commissions begins from the ArtBomb Hub at 60 Hallgate and will spill into the streets and urban space to provide a rich and compelling mix of experiences designed to surprise and entertain as well as highlight the climate emergency.

ArtBomb 22 includes the following projects:

• Re-Wilding the System, a lab-based residency scheme in which artists research experimental work alongside ecologists and environmental scientists

• Symbiosis - The Art of Living with Water, a collaborative platform for artists, scientists and alternative thinkers supported by bursaries to explore the theme of art, science and water in Doncaster

• The Future of Transportation, a curated programme of international artists’ responses to the future of public and ecologically-sustainable transport

• Wild Weeds - Dandelion Café, a mini-residency coinciding with Mental Health Week led by Monika Dutta, artist and grower in collaboration with local artists. Foraging, food preparation and thinking about nature and our relationship with it

 
These form part of ArtBomb’s ambition to support a regional arts and ecology lab in the North-East. The various strands of the programme combine to ask urgent questions about Doncaster’s relationship to the environment, arts and ecology, culminating in Artbomb 22: Alternative Ecologies, 11 - 14 August.
 
Alongside its core programme ArtBomb is piloting a series of experiments in public space and place-making, including: a significant new mural on Cleveland Street by street artist Jola, and an interactive light installation at Waterdale by award-winning artist Matthew Rosier.

Find out more at www.artbombfestival.com

For further information, photos and interviews please contact Antony Pickthall 
antony.pickthall@btinternet.com +44 (0)7809 672452 or artbombuk@gmail.com