(Photography Max Mclure - videos courtesy Situations Bristol)
Sanctum was an incredible interstice/installation/site specific artwork by Theaster Gates that I helped produce during my placement at Situations, Bristol
The idea was to create an "amplifier for the city", and showcased the work of more than 300 musicians. The sound, or "note", lasted for 24 days, 24 hours a day.
My role was helping to coordinate some of the artists upon arrival, and also to give information about the artwork, about Theaster Gates and the installation. I also helped "run" or "manage" the artwork and volunteers on several of the evenings.
The piece was an enormous collaboration between producers, with the programming being co-organised with MAYK in Bristol. It also gave opportunities for several disciplines to come and be heard, wether it was ceramicists coming and throwing clay to produce "slapping" sounds, gong baths, rock musicians, classic musicians, poets and writers all coming to speak. It was a beautiful structure, made from psycho-geographically important materials from various sites around Bristol.
Theaster Gates' work is incredibly community minded. Initially based in Detroit he focussed on "skilling up" disenfranchised members of the community - teaching woodwork, architecture, creating a black cinema in one of the buildings he re-purposed, starting gardens and giving real estate back to local people in a way that was meaningful and healing. He's created incredible diagrams dissecting art, community and the relationship between the two.
It was absolutely awe-inspiring to be even a tiny part of this project.
https://www.situations.org.uk/projects/theaster-gates-sanctum/