Bidding to strike gold in culture
Michael Pinchbeck and Hetain Patel are among five East Midlands artists shortlisted for a £500,000 commission that will go towards the East Midlands' contribution to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
The cultural festival based around the games will feature 12 works, nine from the various regions of England plus work from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Mr Pinchbeck's proposed project, Sit With Us For a Moment and Remember, will feature 2,012 benches at locations, chosen by the public, across the East Midlands. People will be invited to sit and reflect at the same time every day for one year.
Mr Patel's proposed project, The Language of Rhythm, will involve large public performances to the rhythm of live heartbeats.
Mr Pinchbeck's idea came from a visit to a Nottingham landmark.
"It was inspired ultimately by a visit to Colwick Park where I found a bench that read 'Sit with me for a moment and remember,'" he said. "I thought that was a lovely invitation."
He envisions the exercise as a unifying experience.
"It has a sort of audience and participant kind of quality on a large scale, even if you're sitting in a park on your own," he said.
"I think also it's an invitation for people to take moments to be still – to reflect on who they are and where they live."
He likes the British tradition of dedicating park benches to people and reckons this could be an interesting variation on that.
"What I'm interested in is how the project could place benches in sites where perhaps you normally wouldn't place benches as well," he said.
Anything from a Skegness jetty to a busy urban market could be a place for quiet daily reflection.
"There's an invitation for the public here to say where they would like the benches to sit and what they would like to think about."
Mr Patel also sees his proposal as something that would unite people. In addition, it would focus on one of the Olympics' core ideals – that of health and the body.
"I want to bring the public's attention back to something everyone can relate to – the body," he said.
"In 2012 the most highly trained bodies in the world will gather in the UK to compete in the Olympics. I want to use this idea of using the energy from a collective to trigger a whole range of lights, sounds and performances.
"I'm not sure what the public will think if I'm selected – I just know I'd want the performances to blow them away and the communal nature of the installation to make connections between strangers."
According to London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, the shortlisted projects represent an event that will go well beyond the realms of sport.
"I'm thrilled with the calibre of this shortlist," he said. "We want the Cultural Olympiad to bring art and sport together, inspiring and unlocking creativity and talent."
Shortlisted artists will get a £5,000 development grant to turn their proposals into comprehensive plans. These will be presented late next month, with the final 12 announced in October. Details at www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk/eastmidlands
erik.petersen@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk
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