Peace Camp

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For further information, interviews and images, please contact: Anna Vinegrad: [email protected] 0207 609 8905 | 0781 3808 487

Emily Airton: [email protected] 0781 690 5788

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Peace Camp: A Coastal Installation Celebrating Love Poetry and Landscape Deborah Warner’s magical artwork sets up camp along Northern Ireland’s coast, 19-22 July 2012 Peace Camp is director Deborah Warner’s co-commission for the London 2012 Festival and City of Culture 2013. It has been created in collaboration with Irish actor Fiona Shaw and Irish musician and composer Mel Mercier. The installation artwork will appear from dusk until dawn, 9.30pm until 5.30am over four nights, 19-22 July, at eight of our most beautiful coastal locations, including two of Northern Ireland’s most stunning sites: Downhill Beach in the Borough of Coleraine, and White Park Bay on the North Antrim coast. Advance booking is strongly recommended through the website at www.peacecamp2012.com. From Thursday 12 July, for a limited period only, Mel Mercier’s extraordinary soundscape will be available to listen to or download from the Peace Camp website at www.peacecamp2012.com.

Warner’s artwork is a series of glowing encampments of tents set against some of the most breathtaking scenery of our coastline. From dusk until dawn, visitors will be able to wander freely through the installations of softly-illuminated tents at Downhill Beach and White Park Bay, and hear Mel Mercier’s extraordinary soundscape. A further very special installation will be seen inside Mussenden Temple, the remarkable landmark that is managed by the National Trust along with White Park Bay.

Fiona Shaw has worked with Mercier on the soundscape, and has collected hundreds of recordings by actors, poets and writers, and the general public. Their murmuring voices have been woven together into a symphony of sound: love poetry, words,

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signals and noises, all play in counterpoint to the ambient sounds of the natural environment. The soundscape will encompass poems from across the centuries and in all our languages including Gaelic. Those whose voices were recorded for the project include Edna O’Brien, Paddy O’Kane and Cillian Murphy.

Peace Camp is intended to be a quiet and contemplative experience, and numbers of visitors attending at any one time will be monitored to enable all to enjoy the work comfortably. Booking in advance is strongly recommended for both Downhill Beach and White Park Bay, and free visiting slots for these sites can be booked online at www.peacecamp2012.com. There is no booking for Mussenden Temple, and visitors will be admitted in small groups to hear the soundscape inside this architectural folly. Warner’s commission is inspired by the United Nations Olympic Truce, which calls on countries worldwide to lay down their arms for the duration of the Olympic Games. As dusk begins to fall, the artworks will flicker to life, with light and sound, in a symbolic call to peace. For those who can’t wait until the launch of Peace Camp, visit the website at www.peacecamp2012.com for a sneak preview of the magical experience in store at White Park Bay and Mussenden Temple/Downhill Beach this month. Here you can listen to some of the recordings, download the soundscape, see preview images, view the trailer film, and even contribute or record your own favourite love poem. The website will be archived by The British Library at the end of the project as a snapshot of our loves in this Olympic and Paralympic year.

For further information / images / interviews / to attend: Emily Airton / [email protected] / 07816 905788 Anna Vinegrad / [email protected] / 0781 3808 487 Available Spokespeople for phone interviews: Producers, Artichoke (Nicky Webb and Helen Marriage, Co-Directors) Deborah Warner Fiona Shaw Mel Mercier

Peace Camp | Listings Details: Dates: 19 – 22 July 2012 Times: 9.30pm – 5.30am Locations: - Downhill Beach/Mussenden Temple, Borough of Coleraine - White Park Bay, North Antrim Coast

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Price: Free Booking: Strongly recommended at www.peacecamp2012.com (NB: because of limited space inside Mussenden Temple bookings cannot be made for this installation)

Arrival and Parking Downhill Beach Follow the A2 Seacoast Road down towards Downhill Beach. There is a car park and parking on the beach. Entrance to the site is on foot, once you have parked, take the wooden footbridge under the bridge arches to access the installation. The artwork is a 3-4 minute walk from here. Mussenden Temple Parking is available in the Lion's Gate car park, off the A2, Seacoast Road. The walk through the Downhill estate ruins from here to the temple is about 15 minutes. White Park Bay By car, turn off the A2 Whitepark Road at signs for White Park Youth Hostel. Please park in the car park before you get to the Youth Hostel, the Youth Hostel's car park is for residents only. The installation is a 15 minute walk from here down a steep and uneven track. Entrance to the site on foot will be from the track that leads down from White Park Bay Youth Hostel. Accessibility Downhill Beach There is a viewing point at the beach car park for wheelchair users and those who aren't able to access the installation but please note that Downhill is a sandy beach. You will be able to download the soundscape from the Peace Camp website before you set off. For more information, please contact us at [email protected] or call 0207 650 7611. Mussenden Temple Access to Mussenden Temple is by a set of stairs and is not wheelchair accessible. White Park Bay White Park Bay is a sandy beach and there is a 15 minute walk to the installation down an uneven, sloped track which will be difficult for wheelchair users, people with buggies and people with limited mobility, particularly on the way back up. There are a limited number of car parking spaces for blue badge holders at a viewing point. You'll be able to download the Peace Camp soundscape from the website before you set off. For directions to this car park, please contact us at [email protected] or call 020 7650 7611.

Arrival by public transport Downhill Beach/Mussenden Temple The nearest railway stations are Castlerock (approx 0.8 miles away) and Coleraine (approx 7.3 miles away) For information, visit www.translink.co.uk/NI-Railways or call National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484 950. White Park Bay

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The nearest train station to White Park Bay is at Coleraine. For more information, please visit www.translink.co.uk or call 028 90 66 66 30. Ends!!

! ! Editors’ Notes PEACE CAMP Created by Deborah Warner in collaboration with Fiona Shaw Soundscape by Mel Mercier Sound design by John Del’ Nero Deborah Warner Deborah Warner is one of the UK’s leading theatre and opera directors. Her work has been seen all over the world. Her previous site-specific installations include The St Pancras Project and The Tower Project (London) and The Angel Project (Perth and New York). Her and Fiona Shaw’s hugely successful production of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land played in unusual and found spaces across the world. In London it was the first live theatre event to take place at Wilton’s Music Hall since the nineteenth century. Her boundary pushing theatre work includes Mother Courage and Her Children, Richard II, Hedda Gabler, Electra and Happy Days. Deborah has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious Opera companies including the Royal Opera House, ENO, Glyndebourne and La Scala. She has won Olivier, Evening Standard and South Bank Show awards for Direction and Production. Future opera engagements include Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera. Deborah was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1992, L’Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 2000 and was made a CBE in the 2006 Queen’s 80th Birthday Honours. Fiona Shaw Fiona Shaw is one of our best known actors. Her stage credits include: London Assurance, Mother Courage, Happy Days and Richard II at the National Theatre; Medea in the West End and on Broadway; Electra at the Barbican; Hedda Gabler; and Readings, a poetry show in Paris. Fiona Shaw has received many Olivier and Evening Standard awards for Best Actress including for Machinal at the National Theatre and As You Like It at the Old Vic. She has appeared on BBC television and radio discussing and performing the poetry of Donne, Beckett and Yeats. Her performance of T.S. Eliot's 434-line poem The Waste Land, directed by her regular collaborator Deborah Warner, toured the world. Her extensive film work includes the Harry Potter films, The Tree of Life, My Left Foot, The Butcher Boy, The Black Dahlia and Three Men and a Little Lady. Her television work includes the popular series True Blood. Fiona has directed opera and theatre including The Marriage of Figaro, Elegy for Young Lovers, and Riders to the Sea, all for ENO. She holds honorary doctorates from Trinity College Dublin and the National University of Ireland and was awarded a CBE in 2001. Mel Mercier Academic, performer and composer, Mel Mercier is a Senior Lecturer in Music, programme coordinator of the MA in Ethnomusicology and, from October 2009, Head of School. He teaches courses in Irish traditional music, ethnomusicology, Indian classical music, West African traditional and popular musics, Javanese gamelan, and performance theory. As a bodhrán and bones player, Mel has performed, recorded and collaborated extensively with pianist and composer Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and with John Cage and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (Roaratorio, Inlets, Duets). Mel’s extensive composition output includes commissions for Javanese gamelan and

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various percussion ensembles, and international theatre collaborations with director Deborah Warner and actress Fiona Shaw. His research interests include the revival period in Irish traditional music, American minstrelsy, and two-handed American bones-playing. John Del’ Nero John Del' Nero began his career in sound in London's West End with work featuring in productions such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Billy Liar and Jeeves. He designed the sound for the original Rocky Horror Show and has worked at the Royal Court Theatre, Royal Exchange, Manchester and Pimlico Opera. Other projects include Dining With Alice (Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2011), Crown of Light with Ross Ashton and Robert Zeigler (LUMIERE 2009 and 2011), the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (winning the Kremlin Zoria Gold Plate award), a Military Tattoo on Red Square, public events for the Royal Family, the Royal families of Jordan and Saudi Arabia and the VE and VJ celebrations. He is currently the sound designer for Imagination whose major clients include Ford, BT and Coca Cola among others. Artichoke Producer of extraordinary live events, Artichoke is one of the country’s leading creative companies and is a registered charity, funded by Arts Council England. Productions have included Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant, which filled the streets of London for four days in 2006; La Machine’s 50-foot high mechanical spider for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008; and Antony Gormley’s 100-day long invasion of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, One & Other. They produced the first edition of LUMIERE in Durham in 2009 and a second in 2011. www.artichoke.uk.com. About the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people. The culmination of the Cultural Olympiad will be the London 2012 Festival, a spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK, from Midsummers Day on 21 June and running until the final day of the Paralympic Games on 9 September 2012.The London 2012 Festival will celebrate the huge range, quality and accessibility of the UK’s world-class culture including dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion, film and digital innovation, giving the opportunity for people across the UK to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Principal funders of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival are Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the Olympic Lottery Distributor. BP and BT are Premier Partners of the Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Festival. For more details on the programme, to download the London 2012 Festival official guide and to sign up for information visit www.london2012.com/festival. Culture Company 2013 Derry~Londonderry has been designated as the inaugural UK City of Culture for 2013 which will see a celebration of its culture to local and international audiences through the delivery of a high profile cultural programme. Culture Company 2013 Ltd is an independent company (limited by guarantee) formed to manage and deliver the UK City of Culture 2013 programme in partnership with Derry City Council, Ilex Urban Regeneration Company and the Strategic Investment Board. Northern Ireland Tourist Board Peace Camp is one of 8 Tier One high profile events supported by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board’s ‘NI2012 our time; our place’ campaign. This is a major programme of celebrations and commemorations happening in 2012 and

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is aimed at increasing tourism, changing global perceptions and providing a platform to showcase Northern Ireland as a place to live, work, invest, study and visit. Peace Camp will create a positive and distinctive offering to the visitor, giving them great reasons to stay longer and good reasons to spend more, all of which will not only fundamentally help to achieve ambitious tourism growth targets but also showcase Northern Ireland as a “must see” destination. NITB has provided significant financial assistances towards this event. Creative Scotland Creative Scotland is the national development agency for the arts, screen and creative industries. Our vision is that Scotland will be recognised as one of the world’s most creative nations – one that attracts, develops and retains talent, where the arts and the creative industries are supported and celebrated and their economic contribution fully captured; a nation where the arts and creativity play a central part in the lives, education and well-being of our population.

• Creative Scotland’s ambition is that Scotland will have the highest level of participation in the arts in the UK with creativity reaching into every home.

• Creative Scotland is delighted to be a Supporter of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Festival. We’ve created a programme that shows Scotland’s creativity at its best: contemporary, international and reflecting the joy that a vibrant cultural life brings to our communities.

• Scotland is in a unique and unprecedented position. The proximity, profile, vision and energy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games - two of the world’s biggest sporting and cultural events - allows us to build a network of cultural connections across the world and within, and between, all of our communities.

Arts Council Wales Arts Council of Wales is the country’s funding and development agency for the arts. Our vision is of a creative Wales where the arts are central to the life of the nation. Our job is to ensure that the contribution of the arts is recognised, valued and celebrated. We invest in the country’s economic, cultural and social renewal. We support the best and most entrepreneurial arts organisations that can grow audiences, attract visitors, create new employment opportunities across the creative industries, making our town, cities and communities better place to live and work.

Arts Council England Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Great art inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves, and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, it will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and a further £0.85 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. Further information: www.artscouncil.org.uk.

National Trust With more than 250,000 hectares of countryside and 710 miles of coastline across England, Wales and Northern Ireland there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors with the National Trust. The charity is one of the most important nature conservation organisations in Europe. It promotes environmentally friendly practises and cares for the diverse and rare wildlife that lives on its land. It also looks after for more than 300 houses and gardens, from workers cottages to stately homes, preserving not only buildings but the stories of the people who lived there. These spaces inspire the Trust’s 4 million members, 61,000 volunteers and 5 million other visitors every year. As a major landowner, the Trust is committed to producing healthy, local, seasonal food on its farms, allotments and kitchen gardens – much of which can be sampled in its 150 restaurants. The commercial arm of the organisation raises money via shops, holiday cottages, and other activities to support its vital conservation work.

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There’s a year-round programme of events at properties across the country as well as more than 800 recommended walking routes to download. For more information or great value ideas for family days out go to: www.nationaltrust.org.uk

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Documents

Peace Camp