Confluence

PART ONE

Confluence Artist Residencies

In late 2023, four exceptional artists – Asmaa Jama, Verity Standen, Travis Alabanza and Ryan Convery-Moroney – were invited to create imaginative, personal responses to the idea of a changing city. Each of the artists selected has a close personal relationship to Bristol and represent a diverse mix of artform and background.

Combining film, performance, photography and installation, the residency culminated in a weekend event, where an invited audience could delve into the personal experiences of people who call Bristol home, and leave their mark on a collective vision for our city’s future.

Composer and performer Verity Standen has a long history of making work in collaboration with MAYK, most recently with polyphony which was part of Mayfest 2022. Film-maker, photographer and visual artist Ryan Convery-Moroney was an Artist in Residence with MAYK in 2021. Asmaa Jama is a writer and visual artist who recently exhibited an acclaimed new film work at Spike Island, and writer and performer Travis Alabanza has been blazing a trail in the theatre world with shows such as Burgerz (touring) and Sounds of the Underground (Royal Court).

Each artist contributed a ‘track’ to the album.  Between 1 – 3 December 2023, MAYK and the four artists shared the outcomes of the residency in an exciting public sharing event at The Glassworks in Redcliffe. Encompassing film, performance, audio work and installation, the event was free and open to all.

PART TWO

Through 2024–25, MAYK continues the exploration into the unheard and unseen in our changing city through a programme of work with artists and audiences. Confluence invites you to engage in person and online as we open up the project at key moments throughout the year.

Starting at Mayfest 2024, “where children run wild in urban forests, an arch made of ice helps us think about the systems we imagine, build, and come to rely on, and where we open up a conversation about how art can help us navigate a changing city”. Confluence: Part Two is supported by Grainger Plc.

Mayfest 2024 projects:

ARCH by Kaleider

Kaleider’s ARCH is an attempt to build a freestanding arch, made two-thirds of concrete and one-third of ice, witnessed by a vigil of human voices. Touching audiences with themes of death, renewal, and hope, ARCH points towards the extraordinary, yet flawed, systems humans create – and, inevitably, to the impact of these systems on our ecological system, and on ourselves.

Anything Moving & What Remains

An intimate guided trail in Bristol’s Nightingale Woods. Created by Kitchen Table Photo Club (KTPC), artist Esther May Campbell and friends, this trail took people on close encounters with the ‘Anything Moving’ trilogy of short films made by children and animals, as well as a wander through ‘what remains’ of a month-long Mayfest residency in these trees.

Mayfest Talk: “It doesn’t have to last forever – public art programming in a changing city”

A fascinating discussion on public art was held on Saturday 25 May 2024. As Bristol enters a period of significant regeneration, this discussion explored the questions: “how can we collectively reimagine what the provision of public art looks like in the future? How can artists playfully disrupt and create thrilling new place-based work that is non-permanent and has deeper, richer community engagement?”