SUPERNORMAL’s atmosphere is reminiscent of an early Glastonbury combined with the artistic ambition of a non-elitist Glyndebourne and a Utopian vision of experiment and inclusion.
SUPERNORMAL’s manifesto harks back to the days of the artist-led do-it-yourself festivals of the 60’s & 70’s – a far cry from the corporate machines of many of today’s affairs.
SUPERNORMAL is a 3-day determinedly non-commercial arts and music festival investigating amongst other things, the power of arts practice, cult music and experimentation to reshape the festival format through collective action. It takes place in the grounds of Braziers Park with its 17th Century mansion eccentrically restored in the Strawberry Gothic style (which is itself home to Britain’s oldest secular community and was the childhood home of both Marianne Faithful and Ian Fleming) all in 50 acres of verdant Chiltern landscape. SUPERNORMAL joins the dots between art, music, performance and film – staging both impromptu spectacle and more timetabled events.
Guest music curators Rocket Recordings present a rare live appearance from psychedelic noise band Skullflower, with Gnod & Teeth of the Sea sharing the stage with artists that inspired them. The legendary Cindytalk bring their hard-edge Romanticism and ethereal vocals to an audience who knew there was beauty way before Antony Hegarty arrived on the scene. The audience is also invited to bring along their best and worst cassette tapes to the Mix Tape Amnesty Lounge and to contribute to the Supernormal Zine. A film the same length as an album is screened. A 1957 caravan – Mobile Cottage Industry, is re-appropriated as a black and white thatched cottage. Music and film experiment An Island features. Let Me Feel Your Finger First stage a performative lecture frighteningly titled Post-Colonial Cannibal.
Further guest co-curator Heidi Heelz brings an esoteric mix of scratchy punk from The Cravats, disturbing electro from mAn-fLu and super-8 comedy-classic The Weakerman not to mention Sing-along-a-Wickerman. Hákarl (communion) encourages improvisation and collaboration whilst staging an epic 36 hour continuous musical escapade to bridge the gap between artist and audience. An artwork becomes a venue for performance and live music is a visual intervention. Beer is served by artist-builders from a cement mixer whilst long drinks are mixed in a sandblaster. Outside of the festival parameters, Kosmiche collaborators GNOD run a pirate stage completely at odds with the programme. More acts will be confirmed and more surprises revealed.
Emerging from the annual Braziers International Artists Workshop started in 1995, SUPERNORMAL is a radical interpretation of that blueprint, intended to give the arts a far wider audience and artists a far greater challenge than the usual artists’ Residency. It offers an opportunity for dialogue, exchange and experiment in a way that benefits all in an environment where risks can be taken and leaps of imagination can occur. Independent artist-run spaces like Black Dogs, Liverpool Space-Station Sixty-Five, Pitt Studio, Various Artist, Broadwalk Arts and Studio1.1 London amongst others will be presenting a range of artists to challenge and change received ideas of what the proper environment for the visual arts actually is.
SUPERNORMAL is a non-funded not-for-profit event organised and curated by a small network of artists and musicians who share the aims and ethos of this truly alternative festival which can only happen due to their tireless work and the help of like-minded people pitching in and just getting involved. The organisers work for SUPERNORMAL entirely without pay.
SUPERNORMAL continues the tradition of anti-establishment counter-cultural activity dating back to the Second World War, via the site of Braziers Park home to Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research; a community driven by collective action, striving for social co-existence. A film will be shown of archive footage from the sixties of the likes of R.D.Laing, Alexander Trocchi and John Latham all contributing to the revolutionary Braziers spirit.
SUPERNORMAL is an intimate event for an exclusive audience of five hundred, allowing the exploration of the site and out-buildings where a whole range of events will take place. Braziers Park is an eco-site with fresh running water, eco toilets and hot outdoor showers with a wooded camping area.
http://supernormalfestival.org.uk/
Supernormal Lineup
Bands/Live Music
Primordial Undermind
Skullflower
Teeth of the Sea
Thoughtforms
Gnod
Cindytalk
The Cravats
Fuzzy Lights
Emily Breeze
The Nuns
DogFeet
mAn-fLu
Night of the Long Swords
Contempt of Effort
Arthur Brick
Monkey Island
Lin Sangster
Warewolves
Proxy Music
The Envelopes
Georgie Huntley
The A Band
Neurotic Mass Movement
Bang Stroke Blow
Ratface
Medicine and Duty
Cold in Berlin
Black Moth
Black Tempest
Z+
Flats
D.J’s
Born Bad
Jimmy the Fingers
GlamRacket DJs
Dirtytalk
The Wildbunch DJs
DJ Surrenda
The House D.J’s
Echoes and Dust D.J’s
Spectacles
The Mixtape Amnesty Lounge
Fuckwit Productions Bar
Hackney Secular Singers – Punk Choir
Supernormal Superstore
Caravan Disco
Hákarl (communion)
Sing-a-long-a-Wickerman
Let me feel your finger first: POST-COLONIAL CANNIBAL
Artists
Sandy Vella
Working Mens Klub
Yoke & Zooms Mobile Cottage Industry
Richard Ashrowan
Various Artists
Others TBC
Art Spaces
Black Dogs, Liverpool Space-Station Sixty-Five, Pitt Studio, Various Artist, Broadwalk Arts and Studio1.1 London
