Noise of the Past - a poetic journey of war, memory & dialogue
Invitation to a Premier Launch Event & Conference: Sat 8 Nov 2008
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/methods-lab/noise-past.php
Premier Launch Event
Coventry Cathedral, 7.00pm - 9.30pm (FREE Event & Reception)
Screening of Unravelling - A film by Kuldip Powar, with original score by
Nitin Sawhney
Performance of Post-Colonial War Requiem - composed by Francis Silkstone
A Special Opening by Martin Bell - OBE, UNICEF Ambassador, former war
reporter & independent politician.
Noise of the Past presents two new related commissions produced from a
creative call-and-response method to cast a different light on war and the
art of dialogue.
Unravelling (2008, 17 mins) is the result of a unique film-making process,
creatively working with poetry, archive materials, visual art and music.
Internationally acclaimed Nitin Sawhney (http://bit.ly/sawhney) composed a
new score in response to an original inter-generational poetic dialogue in
Urdu between Sawarn Singh, a WWII Indian soldier who fought for the
British in Burma, the Middle East and Africa, before moving to the UK, and
his grandson, Kuldip Powar. Working with this haunting score Powar
directed an evocative and searching film.
Francis Silkstone has also taken the inter-generational poetic dialogue as
the source of inspiration for Post-Colonial War Requiem, a new score to be
performed in interaction with the phenomenal space of Coventry Cathedral.
Benjamin Britten's original War Requiem inaugurated the newly-built
Cathedral in 1962, offering Remembrance without militarism. Though
consciously inclusive, it did not reference the contributions of the (now
former) colonies.
Coventry Cathedral, Priory St, CV1 5AB
www.coventrycathedral.org.uk <http://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/> -
nearest car park: Cox St, CV1 5LW
Event Leaflet - see attachment: Noise-of-the-Past-Leaflet.pdf
Pre-launch Conference: War, Sound & Post-Coloniality
Saturday 8th November 2008, 1.30 - 5pm
St Mary's Guildhall, Bayley Lane, Coventry, CV1 5RR -
http://bit.ly/guildhall-map
Speakers include: Alessandro Portelli (Rome); Les Back (Goldsmiths);
Prabhjot Parmar (Royal Holloway); Kuldip Powar (Film-Director); Francis
Silkstone (Composer, Goldsmiths); Chair/Discussants: Shirin Rai (Warwick),
Gen Doy (De Montfort) and Said Adrus (UEL).
Conference Programme - see attachment: Noise-of-the-Past-Conference.–pdf
or visit:
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/methods-lab/noise-past.php
FREE - Register in advance, email: j.daykin@gold.ac.uk
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Unravelling will continue to be screened 11th - 23rd November 2008, The
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Jordan Well, Coventry, CV1 5QP.
http://www.theherbert.org/
Noise of the Past is a creative engagement with post-colonial histories of
war funded by the AHRC.
Project Directors:
Dr Nirmal Puwar - Goldsmiths, University of London; n.puwar@gold.ac.uk
Dr Sanjay Sharma - Brunel University; sanjay.sharma@brunel.ac.uk
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/methods-lab/