Created by Walk the Plank, Feast of Fire also features guest artists:
DENIS TRICOT: French artist Denis Tricot uses mixed media to create dynamic and dramatic sculptures in both rural and urban public spaces that are often animated by dancers, musicians and actors. Working across France and Europe, he is perhaps best known for working with strips of pliable wood, made from poplar, that weave in and around public spaces to create street interventions with a sense of movement and fluidity. Forming a kind of elegant, three dimensional ‘writing’, the sculptures form a response to surrounding architecture.
For Feast of Fire, Denis will create a new sculpture using poplar strips that will weave in and around Milton Keynes’ iconic black portes cochères structures along Midsummer Boulevard near MK Gallery. These will be lit by firelight and accompanied by live music. See more on Denis Tricot's website here
Previous work by Denis Tricot
DAN FOX: Sound artist Dan Fox will create Fruits of the Fire, a new work with sculpture, sound and light which will occupy one of Milton Keynes iconic porte cochère street structures. Dan will be researching ways to use fire as a live audio source and an instrument by amplifying and digitising, and also harnessing the raw energy of fire to control lighting. Processes will include boiling wax, burning wood, quenching metal, and using steam whistles, carbon filaments, multichannel diffusion and real-time processing. Dan will explore these processes to develop the composition.
Fruits of the Fire sees a return to Milton Keynes and The Stables for Dan which he last visited with Welfare State International in the early 1980s. Read more about Dan Fox here
Previous work by Dan Fox
STUART MOORE is a sound artist based in Milton Keynes who uses microtonal harmonies found inside natural sounds, to explore the hidden musical experience that constantly surrounds us. For Feast of Fire Stuart has been working with Dan Fox and has also created a recorded composition to complement a fire sculpture created by Walk the Plank. The piece is based on unique notes and harmonies taken from fire and related sounds to express its varied and ever shifting moods. Read more about Stuart's work here
DJ RITU: Pioneering global grooves guru, turntablist and BBC broadcaster, DJ Ritu has been active on the British and international club scene for 31 years. Specialising in music from around he world - Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Asia, and Latin America - she also includes plus a hefty dose of western underground and pop styles from the 1960s onwards. Having worked with everyone from Nitin Sawhney, to David McAlmont and the Buena Vista Social Club, DJ Ritu has performed in over 30 countries at numerous Festivals, and is the ultimate musical chameleon. Read more about DJ Ritu here
MR WILSON'S SECOND LINERS: In New Orleans, they celebrate in style. Second Lining is a quintessential New Orleans art form and involves following the band to enjoy the music, marching and dancing, twirling parasols and waving handkerchiefs. It is a full on street intervention. If you’re lucky enough to be caught up in the commotion, you’re part of the Second Line.
Mr. Wilson’s Second Liners are an anarchic extravaganza, bursting with colour and sound, with upbeat dance tunes that pay homage to disco, '90s club culture and the diehard days of the Hacienda and its greatest hero, Mr. Tony Wilson. Hot-stepping out in uniformed style with a nod to Sergeant Pepper, Mr Wilson’s are guaranteed to get audiences young and old dancing into a joyful frenzy. Check Mr Wilson's Second Liners here
MÓTUS DANCE: Milton Keynes-based dance organisation MÓTUS is headed up by dance artists Helen Parlor, Chris Bradley and Effie McGuire Ward, and programmes festivals, performances, workshops and platforms throughout the year. These events celebrate all forms of dance through links with local, national and international companies. Participants and audience for MÓTUS activities range from local families to graduates and professional artists.
For Feast of Fire, MÓTUS will create a dynamic performance piece danced by a trio of women in, around and on one of the portes cochères. Embracing different qualities of fire, the performance will take a journey through joy, passion, recklessness, anger and hate as sparks are ignited and embers rekindled. Read more about MÓTUS here
FESTIVE ROAD is an outdoor arts company based in Milton Keynes, producing large-scale puppetry, public art pieces, touring street theatre and night time festivals. Their aim is to create an atmosphere of stepping into another world - bringing communities to life, making ‘art’ relevant, participatory and accessible to all.
For Feast of Fire, Festive Road will be showcasing their 'Futurists' - a tribe with an eclectic aesthetic, who have developed ingenious and amusing ways to survive without touching the ground. Perambulating on amazing cycle-powered contraptions, these mysterious travellers will interact with audiences, entertaining people as they go...
PAGRAV DANCE COMPANY (PDC): Meaning 'sound of feet', Pagrav promote traditional Indian kathak dance though give the form a new context and renewed presentation. The Artistic Director, Urja Desai Thakore, is one of the UK's leading kathak dancers and choreographers. Her sensitive, thought-provoking style is highly regarded by traditionalists and modernists alike. For Feast of Fire, PDC presents Utsav (a celebration), featuring kathak dancers interacting with shadow theatre performers from Walk the Plank and performing to tracks spun by DJ Ritu. Find out more about Pagrav Dance Company here
DHOL ACADEMY: A traditional Indian Dhol drumming group with a difference, Dhol Academy creates explosive, enthralling and exciting sounds, usually for large-scale events, celebrations and carnoivals. Dressed in bright and colourful costumes the drummers' highly charged and powerful rhythm sounds will feature in Feast of Fire. Read more about Dhol Academy here.