IF:MIlton Keynes is now so close you can almost touch it!
Total MK will be bringing you details of the weird and wonderful events featuring under the IF banner in the coming days, both in the lead up to, and during the event, which begins on July 15. We start with events being housed at thecentre:mk which is the headline sponsor of the event.
Described by The Guardian as 'effortlessly elegant', the Grade II listed centre:mk was built to be Milton Keynes’ high street. Its partnership with the biennial arts festival IF: Milton Keynes builds on a shared ambition to raise the national and international profile of Milton Keynes as an important cultural destination.
Edward Sellick, on behalf of centre:mk’s joint owners, Hermes Investment Management and AustralianSuper, said: “We believe in excellence, responsibility and innovation, and for us, this partnership with IF: Milton Keynes International Festival allows us to achieve in all these areas. In particular, we are proud to support the commissioning and presentation of the wonderful events taking place within centre:mk. Like the Festival, we are invested in creating a vibrant, cultured and modern centre for the city”.
Kevin Duffy, Centre Director at centre:mk, said: “There’s a very compelling business argument for bringing thought-provoking and engaging art events to centre:mk and Milton Keynes. We see this support as integral to being a world-class shopping centre - for customers, retailers and visitors alike”
centre:mk will be hosting three major art and performance installations to run throughout the Festival, as follows:
Magic Carpets 2016 by Miguel Chevalier and Sound Spheres by Ray Lee, commissioned by IF: 2016 and centre:mk
centre:mk’s Middleton Hall will be transformed by Magic Carpets 2016, created by international digital artist Miguel Chevalier who is working in a retail environment for the very first time. Chevalier will create a magical world of light and colour, covering Middleton Hall in a huge kaleidoscopic ‘carpet’.
Inspired by Milton Keynes’ unique city-scape, the carpet’s designs and colours will swirl and shape-shift, making this a mesmerising and joyous experience for visitors. Sound artist Ray Lee has created ‘sonic spheres’ for people to hold. These silver spheres generate sound and react to the changes in the projections and the heat of people’s hands.
Liquid Gold is The Air by choreographer Rosemary Lee and film-maker Roswitha Chesher
Commissioned by IF: 2014 and winner of the 2015 Light Moves Festival Prize, video installation Liquid Gold is The Air will be located in Queen’s Court, the open air space within centre:mk and screened within a specially-made garden room with a wild flower roof created by Milton Keynes-based horticulturalists Bridgman & Bridgman. The three screens simultaneously play fleeting vignettes from the live outdoor production of Under The Vaulted Sky, presented at the Festival in 2014.
Ground Resistance by Wesley Goatley and Georgina Voss
Created in association with the Open University, this immersive sound and visual installation within a shopping unit in centre:mk will explore how ‘smart city’ Milton Keynes appears through the data that it generates and what this data reveals about the concept of the ‘smart city’ itself. Audiences will be invited to walk through a projected representation of Milton Keynes, watching live data pulsed from utilities and communications networks, with sounds that respond live to the data, creating a unique sonic experience which changes with each visit.
