Supernormal

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.

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

 

Born Bad

Jimmy the Fingers

GlamRacket DJs

Dirtytalk

The Wildbunch DJs

DJ Surrenda

The House D.J’s

Echoes and Dust D.J’s

 

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

 

Sandy Vella

Working Mens Klub

Yoke & Zooms Mobile Cottage Industry

Richard Ashrowan

Various Artists

Others TBC