The Giufà Project

In the last 10 days of August, I was invited to be visual artist on Giufà Project, a multidisciplinary residency - a collaborative project by Glyndebourne, Opera Circus, Battle Festival, Crisis Classroom and The Complete Freedom of Truth.

Young people from across the UK, Italy, Eritrea, Iraq and Syria were joined by a team of artists from across disciplines of theatre, dance, parkour and visual arts of to explore and recreate the journeys of Giufà, a folklore character who roamed the Mediterranean sharing stories and learning about the outside world.

The process was open ended and undetermined, just the way I like it and it was great to work with other artists who could work so intuitively and responsively. The team of amazing artists I had the pleasure of working alongside were: Omar Shahryar – Composer, Howard Moody – Composer, Judith Coleman – Singer, Lucy Bradley – Director, Laura Fatini – Writer/Director Alister O’Loughlin – Parkour/Movement and Tim Corrigan – Visual Art/Film

My background is in performance and dance theatre but this was when I studied at Dartington over 20 years ago so to be back in this environment where dance, music, visual art and performance happened simultaneously was strangely familiar delight.

The project culminated in a promenade performance across different site in the ground of Battle Abbey and an exhibition of work and elements of the performance will take place in October as part of Battle Festival.

The Complete Freedom of Truth is an international youth-led community of artists, activists, students and professional facilitators with a collective ambition to develop global youth citizenship through culture and the arts. Their work is really inspiring and I very much hope to work with them again in the future.