Futuresonic

Part II - A conceptual art event and expanded cinema performance at Manchester Art Gallery. A screening of Reds Against Greys (Part I) will be followed by participatory performance art pieces and talks given by experts and on the issues of biodiversity and environmental ethics.

Part I - The commissioned film will be installed in the Environment 2.0 exhibition at CUBE. Click here

For this new commission Scandinavian artist Elin Wikstrom is arranging a wheelchair tag rugby match, scripted and designed to illustrate biodiversity issues and representing the invasion of non-native species of plants and animals in the northwest of England, and in particular the red and grey squirrel. The drama and brutality of the game will be documented by multiple cameramen and edited into a short film and presented in the Environment 2.0 exhibition at CUBE. 

Places will be limited. To reserve a seat please sign up online Click here. Or for further information email dennis@futureeverything.org.

Including:

Red Squirrel Conservation: An Overview
Charlotte Widgery
People and Wildlife Officer, Cumbria and North Yorkshire, Save our Squirrels Project

Alien Plants in Britain
Leander Wolstenholme
Curator Of Botany, Manchester Museum

Double Nature
Simon Hailwood
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University Of Liverpool

Accompanied by Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan discussing their collaborative book Alien Invaders - A Guide To Non-Native Species Of The British Isles

In the year of Darwin's bicentenary, Wikström provides an explosive illustration of the "battle of the species." The project also celebrates the sporting prowess of the wheelchair tag rugby players at a time when the UK is preparing itself for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games: London 2012. This project further develops ideas from an earlier project by Wikström in Norway that visualised the struggle for existence between non-native/alien marine species and native species represented by a game of underwater rugby.

Elin Wikström - "Rugby is quite a brutal game, that's why I chose visualise the struggle for existence between native and non-native species as a rugby match. However, the rules of the game are set by some sort of restrictive measure for the brutality - I use sport here as a symbol for fair play - as an alternative to more unregulated fights. Focusing on aquatic/marine invasive and non-native species in Norway made it logic to embody the struggle as an underwater rugby match. Focusing on terrestrial plants/animals makes it logical to visualise the struggle with an "overwater rugby match". But most importantly I think there is something extremely powerful with wheelchair rugby. I totally admire the players. To me they are heroes and their skills more admirable than the skills of sportsmen in general. I see the sport as a positive example of lust for life."

Biography

Elin Wikström is a leading figure in Scandinavian art. In her practice - with roots in performance, conceptual and contextual based art - she creates "constructed" situations. These involve projects sited within the public domain, that questions the habits, behaviour and opinions of individuals and society in general.

Elin Wikström has created projects for international exhibitions such as the second Tirana Biennale and Transform & Exchange, Kunstverein München. Wikström has recently made projects for The Showroom (London), DCA (Dundee), and her work is represented in the collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Elin lives in Gothenburg and is currently guest professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Umeå University, Sweden.