An elaborate visual arts program consisting of spectacular digital illuminations has been announced for the 2015 Adelaide Festival of the Arts.
A highlight of the 30th Adelaide Festival of the Arts in 2015 will be Blinc, a free event that will transform the entire Torrens Riverbank and Festival Theatre precinct into an open exhibit of some of the world’s best digital art works. Blinc can be experienced every night of the festival from Friday 27 February to Sunday 15 March 2015.
The free visual arts program features the broadest selection of works ever curated in Australia from American video and sound installation artist Bill Viola in addition to an extraordinary solo exhibition from local Magnum photographer Trent Parke.
Blinc
Blinc will feature more than 30 digital artworks from 18 international artists and collectives, turning more than a dozen locations including buildings, bridges, trees, a waterfall, the sky and even the surface of the river into canvases for digital art. Live performance and audio pieces will be delivered in conjunction with video, 3D motion graphics, animation, mapped projections, LED installations and 30 watt laser lighting.
Joel Cockrill (UK) and Craig Morrison (UK), the original creators of light based artwork festival Blinc, which originated in North Wales in 2011, worked with David Sefton and the festival team to curate a version for Adelaide.
International digital artists showing work at Blinc include: Laszlo Zsolt Bordos (HUN), Casa Magica (GER), Joel Cockrill (UK), Wendy Dawson (UK), Dawn of Man (USA), H C Gilje (NOR), Perry Hall & Elliott Sharp (USA), Hartung & Trenz (GER), Ryoichi Kurokawa (JPN), Jessica Lloyd Jones (UK), Craig Morrison (UK), Murmur (FRA), Tony Oursler (USA), Squidsoup (UK/NZ), Théoriz & BK (FRA),Topla Design (FRA), Sean Vicary (UK) and Cecilia Westerberg (DEN).
Bill Viola
World renowned video and sound installation artist Bill Viola’s contribution to the Blinc will be in the form of seven original works to be presented at three venues. The Art Gallery of South Australia will host The Crossing (1996) and The Messenger (1996), and also premiere Walking on the Edge (2012) and The Encounter (2012). The historic Queen’s Theatre will be home to Fire Woman (2005) and Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall) (2005) while Three Women (2008) can be seen in the Lady Chapel at St Peter’s Cathedral.
Bill Viola and his wife, partner and executive director of Bill Viola Studio, Kira Perov will be in Adelaide especially for these exhibitions. The two will also be in conversation with David Sefton for a special ticketed event at Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia on Saturday 28 February at 2.30pm.
Trent Parke
Adelaide-based Magnum photographer Trent Parke will feature in an immersive exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, showcasing his extraordinary body of work including the Black Rose, the culmination of seven years’ work and a meditation on life’s journeys.
