Recent political events have served to highlight the fact that borders and freedoms are critically important issues.

The Freedom of Movement Festival is a series of events and gatherings bringing together artists and thinkers to consider the significance and problematics of ‘freedom’ from artistic and social perspectives.  Newly made performance pieces, improvisations and talks will explore a range of interrelationships across geographical freedom of movement, artistic freedom and freedom of expression.

The festival will focus on the medium of sound and its capacity to disrupt, permeate or circumvent perceived boundaries and norms. Events will include improvisations, performances of open or text scores, conference performance/presentations and text readings.

Unfinished is a curatorial project by Nell Catchpole and Jan Hendrickse which seeks to explore the boundaries between artist/audience and the artistic/everyday through an ongoing series of open events, performances and publications.

Unfinished aims to generate curiosity, action and renewal.

Festival Events

Throughout the week, new pieces and processes will be created and performed by postgraduate artists from Guildhall School of Music & Drama alongside guest artists and presenters.

Permeability – Wednesday 13 March, 7.30pm

Special Guest: Jane Cheadle

Jane Cheadle was born in South Africa and lives in London. She studied History and Philosophy at the University of Cape Town and has an MA Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art, where she was awarded the prestigious Man Group Drawing Prize in 2006.

She has worked as a sound recordist on documentary films for the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa. She has shown her work around the world, and teaches at Oxford Brookes University. ]

Resistance – Thursday 14 March, 7.30pm

Special Guest: Angharad Davies

Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist working with free-improvisation, compositions and performance.
Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation.

Much of her work involves collaboration. She has long standing duos with Tisha Mukarji, Dominic Lash and Lina Lapelyte and plays with Apartment House, Cranc, Common Objects, Richard Dawson’s band and Skogen. She has been involved in projects with Tarek Atui, Tony Conrad, Laura Cannell, Jack McNamara, Eliane Radigue, Roberta Jean and J.G.Thirlwell.

She has released records on Absinth Records, Another Timbre, Potlatch and Confrontrecords.
Her album Ffansion | Fancies was voted in the top 12 albums for Radio 3’s Late Junction. With the support of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation she will present a 3 Day residency at Cafe Oto, Dalston, London, 22 – 24 March 2019.

Symposium – Saturday 16 March, 10.30am–6pm

Presenters: Bashir Saade, Bennett Hogg, Claudia Molitor

In this conference/forum, the speakers will present a provocation on ideas about freedom, borders and boundaries for all to discuss in the afternoon.  The day will end with a performance by renowned musician, Steve Beresford and Guildhall School artists.

Bashir Saade is an Interdisciplinary Lecturer in Politics and Religion at the University of Stirling. He previously held posts at the University of Edinburgh and at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. His teaching and research interests cross between political anthropology and social theory. He studies contemporary Islamic politics while focusing on cultural production and in particular the increasing importance of media technology. He also engages in a genealogical reading of premodern Arabic scholarly texts showing their relevance to the modern condition.  His book, Hizbullah and the Politics of Remembrance (Cambridge University Press, 2016), is an intellectual history of the Lebanese political party.

Bashir is also a multi-instrumentalist music improviser, mostly focusing on the reed-made flute the Ney, and the Clarinet. He’s played in different parts of the world for the past 20 years and recorded with numerous international musicians.

Claudia Molitor is a composer and improviser whose work hovers between music and sound art. Exploring the relationships between listening and other senses as well as embracing collaboration as compositional practice is central to much of her practice. Recent work includes Sonorama with Electra Productions, Turner Contemporary and the British Library, which received a British Composer Award; Vast White Stillness for Spitalfields Festival and Brighton Festival; The Singing Bridge, installed at Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge during the Totally Thames festival; and Walking with Partch for Ensemble MusikFabric at hcmf//; she is currently touring an ever evolving work Decay around Europe and the US. She is the co-founder/director of multi.modal records and is a Senior Lecturer at City, University of London.

Special Guest: Steve Beresford

Steve Beresford has been a central figure in the British improvising scene for over forty years, working with the likes of Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Han Bennink, Christian Marclay and Alterations. He has an extensive discography as performer, arranger, composer and producer, and was was awarded a Paul Hamlyn award for composers in 2012.

Speaking of Freedom – Sunday 17 March, 2pm–6pm

Special Guest: Eugene Skeef

In conversation with Jan Hendrickse, Eugene will explore his early career as musician and activist in apartheid South Africa.  The dialogue will move freely into an open workshop for anyone who wants to participate.