Offsite9: If-we-had-this-space
If-we-had-this-space:
BONES, Emma Purshouse, Steve Pottinger, Neonthewonderer, Ni Lim, The Calamity, Rebecca Mayhay, Sian Mcfarlane, Nathaniel Grant
Asylum Artist Quarter is producing a sound trail that explores the social history of forgotten spaces in Wolverhampton. Nine artists have been chosen to create sound works in the form of music, soundscapes, spoken word and speeches that respond to nine sites in Wolverhampton that were once used as spaces that emphasised care, commonality, collaboration, healing, togetherness and non-hierarchical ways of organising activity.
These spaces now sit as derelict unused sites, empty but restricted for the public to revitalise through grassroots initiatives. Working with the organisation OVERHEAR, these sound pieces will be geotagged to the location and an engagement board will collect responses to reclamation and activity. This forms a digital art trail for the duration of the BAS9 tour. Each sound piece offers the public the opportunity to imagine what was and what could be IF WE HAD THIS SPACE. Curator Hannah Taylor explains.
How have the nine practitioners been bought together?
Asylum Artist Quarter was commissioned as a project partner for Offsite9 with an artistic commission. In response to Creative Black Country and our own priorities as an organisation, in bridging the gaps between artists and institutions, we felt it was necessary to put this commission back out as an open call and to develop a project that allowed for multiple entry points, engagement and advocacy for artists and those who interact with those spaces. The open call allows us to work with an array of creatives and we chose the nine practitioners based on their proposals. All of them showcased a commitment to exploring forgotten histories and people who have had access to these sites, ask questions of its future and use multiple mediums such as poetry, spoken word, music production, noumenal, found sound and archival sound to allow us to delve into what they were and could be through immersive soundscapes. All of the chosen practitioners have a link to the area either through living or working here. We felt this was integral to the question we were posing and provides authenticity.
Why is it important to connect with these forgotten sites?
The sites are all spaces that used to provide community services or were spaces where communities came together and made memories such as youth internet cafes, independent music shops linked to the civic, community art cafes, hospitals and churches. None of these are now in use. With such a large tour, BAS9 promises investment both financially and culturally, providing opportunity for increased visitor footfall and hopefully high street regeneration.
Having been a part of multiple working groups, the cultural compact and providing years of free consultancy of how to capitalise on this opportunity, the impression we are left with is that there is no strategy in place to make the most of this national tour. This year it has been stated more than a fifth of commercial units are empty in city centres, with Wolverhampton city centre one of the highest on the list according to the British Retail Consortium.
BAS9 asks us to consider ways in which we can come together, create communities and provide healing for our reparative histories. How is this possible if we still function with a top-down model in relation to access to our central spaces? This project not only remembers what was but asks, if you had access to this space, what would you, WE do with it? Why aren’t we being asked how our city centres should be used? BAS9 brings us many contemporary artists who are trying to provoke us to reconsider our position in regard to how our society responds to crises.
Considering our local council has recently passed plans to pedestrianise the high street without consulting its local business, resulting in much more than a few independents closing due to decreased footfall, changing car and walking routes and access to the city centre now confusing, is it any wonder we want to provoke new modes of resistance, ways in which to imagine new futures for ourselves in the public realm?
How can the trail be accessed?
The trail will be accessible to anyone walking by, where they can respond to the empty space by writing what they would do with it on to the blackened windows and front hoardings. There will also be multiple sound pieces to collect by downloading the OVERHEAR mobile app (you can also download this using QR codes on sites around the city centre). Follow the Google map to the locations and as you approach you get a notification that there is a sound piece to collect, then listen at your leisure. The sites and the community responses will be documented and shared with the local council and on social media with the tag #ifwehadthisspace