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DUNDEE LIVE - coming to a city near you
Over the last couple of months Jonathan Baxter of D-AiR (Dundee Artists in Residence) has set up office in the Hannah Maclure Centre. Working in collaboration with HMC staff and other Dundee residents, Jonathan is currently gobbling up his time and energy in pursuit of a public art and performance programme called Dundee Live. This programme, due to run from September 2010 to September 2011, is, first and foremost, a collaborative project: with the residents of Dundee, with Dundee's history and culture, and with the wider ecology of the Tay Estuary and the Angus countryside.
Jonathan says, "The city is already performing itself. What we think of as art is often an 'addition' or an 'imposition'. Dundee Live is about rediscovering the city; feeling the pulse of its seasons and participating in its dramas."
On the question of collaboration Jonathan is emphatic. "All cities are collaborative; they grow in response to their ecology, they're also made up of people: shop workers, engineers, street cleaners, teachers - everyones contributing and everyones collaborating. Even the people you might not want me to mention - we're all in it together. Its our city; our lives. One way or another we need to acknowledge this."
"At this point in time I think its important to celebrate Dundee. Having recently moved here I'm still struck by the discrepancy between my experience of Dundee and other people's perception of the city. If I mention Dundee to friends in Glasgow or Edinburgh people ask me when I plan to leave. They seem to think that Dundee has a disappointing punch-line! Clearly they haven't been here for awhile! More significantly I meet people who actually apologise for living here! And yes, that includes Dundonians, who apologise for not getting out!"
"Obviously Dundee has a complex socio-economic history. But it also exists in the here and now. And the here and now isn't entirely defined by its history. Although I grant you, there are more jobs in Glasgow than Dundee!"
Making a job for himself is something that Jonathan has taken seriously. Whether he can pull off the project he's proposing is yet to be seen. But Jonathan doesn't seem to be too worried.
"I've already told you, we're in it together. If no one wants to play I'll go and paddle in the Tay! Curiously, I haven't met many people who have done that yet."
For details about D-AiR see www.d-air.org. If you'd like to join The Spacemakers workshops see D-AiR's 'events' page. And if you'd like to get involved in the Dundee Live - Public Art and Performance Programme send Jonathan an email or call into the Hannah Maclure Centre between 11am - 5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.