October 14, 2020
The best of Scotland’s emerging creatives will take over the second series of Hidden Door’s online shows.
The festival is handing over the reins to artists, musicians and dancers to enable their ideas in creating unique and immersive online events.
Each fortnightly cycle will see the guest-curator take control of Hidden Door’s social media for a look behind the scenes as the project takes shape. This will culminate in a live-streamed show every second Tuesday, which should see the coming together of all their creative ideas.
Creatives already lined up to take part in this year’s Hidden Door Festival – which had to be cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic – were asked to pitch ideas for the takeovers. Many are exploring issues raised by the pandemic and the effect that has had on the creative industries, mental health and society.
Musician and sound artist Dave House, aka The Reverse Engineer, kicks off the series on 14th October with Iterations, a project that will see him invite six different kinds of artists to explore how Covid-19 restrictions have affected their creative process, output and mental health. They will each have two days to respond to the previous artist’s work, documenting the process on the Hidden Door Instagram feed. The project will culminate in a live-streamed show on 27th October and will feature the six pieces and interviews with the artists.
Then artist Florence Richardson presents The Spectral – exploring ideas of absence, cultural nostalgia and hauntology through excerpts of artworks, written work and music snippets shared on social media from 28 October. Her live event on 10 November will see four visual art installations come together to create an immersive live show of eerie and spectral sights and sounds.
Later cycles will see dancer Tess Letham present a live dance performance in situ from the DanceBase studio, and musician MALKA invite other artists, including Pictish Trail and Carla J Easton to explore the theme of Restriction.
David Martin, Creative Director of Hidden Door, said:
“Hidden Door has always been about trying to generate opportunities for emerging artists, using whatever resources that are around us as creatively as possible. While in the past this may have been about using buildings that have been lying empty, this time it is about using online space in a new and imaginative way.
“Artists and creatives have been hugely hit by the restrictions brought about by the pandemic and they need support more than ever before, so we are delighted to be able to invite a range of visionary artists to use Hidden Door’s online resources as creatively as they dare; to share their ideas, give our audience a glimpse into the magical alchemy of how they make their work, and orchestrate a series of online projects and live stream shows that will stand out from all the rest, and bring us all a little bit closer to genuine creativity in this difficult and challenging time.”
The project has received funding from Creative Scotland and The National Lottery’s Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development Programme, allowing every participant to be paid fairly for their contribution to the shows.
Laura Mackenzie-Stuart, Head of Theatre at Creative Scotland said:
“As restrictions on live events continue, it’s wonderful to see Hidden Door bringing together Scotland’s community of emerging artists to create immersive digital events and explore different ways of connecting with audiences online.
“We’d like to thank National Lottery players, whose support makes it possible for us to fund projects like this one, ensuring audiences can continue to engage with creative events during these challenging times.”
The series is running until May; details of upcoming guest curators and the live shows themselves can be found on the Hidden Door Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hiddendoor
The curators of the first five cycles of Hidden Door Series 2 are:
Series 1 of the live shows can be viewed at https://hiddendoorblog.org/live/
Hidden Door is an arts organisation which aims to open up urban spaces as a platform for new and emerging artists, musicians, theatre makers, performers, film makers and poets. Through organising temporary events Hidden Door works to showcase new work and create engaging environments for the public to experience, explore and discover.
For more information on the festival and images of past events see https://hiddendoorblog.org/about/press/
About Creative Scotland
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery.
