If you’re a part of the nomadic herd humming and buzzing through London’s underground system everyday, look up from your smartphone and take in the free art!
Art on the Underground have got the knack of literally stopping you in your tracks down to a T. Enriching your travels all over London since the year 2000, whether you’ve noticed or not they’ve been there; a beautiful backdrop to your commute. Their latest scheme is overtaking the silver screen at Canary Wharf Station. Four of the UK’s finest moving image organisations will be beaming their short films onto one of the capital’s biggest public projection screens over the course of the next year. The initial run launched last night (29th February), it comes courtesy of Film and Video Umbrella and is fittingly named ‘A City Within A City,’ exploring public interaction and the way apparently disparate communities overlap within this ever expanding metropolis. The following seasons are brought to you by Animate Projects, LUX and the British Film Institute. Here, Film and Video Umbrella Director, Steven Bode filled i-D online in on drive-in cinemas, a Jubilee on the Jubilee Line and London’s hustlers and bustlers.
How did Film and Video Umbrella become involved with Art on the Underground?
We had been talking with the team at Art on the Underground for a while, and had always seen the potential for an interesting film/video collaboration sited somewhere along the network. As soon as it was mooted that the space at Canary Wharf might be set aside for a showcase screening, we were very keen to look at what we could do there. We were flattered that Film and Video Umbrella was chosen to be the organisation to open this year-long series of programmes.
What is it about Canary Wharf Station that makes it such an apt setting for the project? If it didn’t have trains running through it, you’d describe it as the perfect drive-in cinema! The part of the station where the screen is located is huge, and hugely atmospheric; and the size of the screen seems to echo the drama and grandeur of the architecture. I love all those Jubilee Line stations and their stark, concrete modernism. To me, the Canary Wharf setting cried out for a programme that highlighted the place of the individual against the epic backdrop of the city. Which is how this particular selection was born…
What does the title ‘The City in the City’ mean? I like the phrase because it describes the particular place that Canary Wharf has, within the City of London, and, by extension, within the capital. The area is a kind of miniature citadel, a bastion of international capital (to play on the other meaning of the word). The title ‘The City in the City’ extends that theme of Chinese boxes; of different parallel, interlocking communities all somehow fitting together within the vast mosaic that makes up London. The title also alludes to a fantastic book by the author China Miéville called ‘The City and the City’, which provocatively illuminates how different communities co-exist cheek-by-jowl, yet strangely oblivious, in contemporary urban space. China had collaborated on a new piece by two of the artists we are showcasing, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler; and it seemed appropriate to make that link…
How easy is it to communicate with commuters when they are constantly moving and will only be in the same place for a moment? The various films in the programme evoke, and in many ways create, a space of personal reflection, as well as those moments of affinity, even solidarity, that occur between strangers in amongst the hustle and bustle of urban life. I hope that light of the big screen will draw people in, and that the little breathing space that the films create will make people stay (even if they do end up catching a later train!).
The films will be seen by a lot of people who wouldn’t normally take the time to seek them out themselves, is there a message you are trying to convey to these people through the films you have chosen? To carry on from the previous answer, we are aware that these are, on one level, experimental art works that we are putting before an audience, most of whom will be totally unfamiliar with the artists’ names, and maybe also with their approach (non-narrative, not televisual etc). But I do feel that the ideas and experiences that the pieces illuminate are universal – and also affecting, if people are prepared to give them time…
What’s next for FVU? We have a big project opening very soon at Jerwood Space in London – a collaboration with the Jerwood Charitable Foundation – which features work by rising stars such as Ed Atkins, Emma Hart, Corin Sworn and Naheed Raza. Later on in the year, we’ll be premiering new pieces by Luke Fowler and Dryden Goodwin. It’s busy… and crowded. Just like Canary Wharf station, in fact…
Season 1 of Canary Wharf Screen with Film & Video Umbrella, London E14, until 27th May 2012.
Text: Felicity Kinsella
Photography: Alan Cook (courtesy of the artists and Film and Video Umbrella)
