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Visonary Culture Creators Discussion Panel

The Boom Festival had already been in progress for three days when I finally arrived. I had planned to arrive a day earlier, but I had not reckoned with the lack of syncronization of various modes of transport. On this particular Thursday evening I was due to participate in the Visionary Art Culture Creators Panel at the Liminal Village. It was not possible to communicate with Delvin who was presenting the panel while I was in transit. So I rightly guessed that he was beginning to wonder if I would make an appearance. Thankfully, I was not to disappoint him.

I found Delvin hard at work in the Liminal Village MCing various presentations. It was a rather welcome rest for me to put my bags down while he tended to his tasks. It was then that various other faces started to make an appearance. Faces I had until then only know on the internet. First was Laurence Caruana, just fresh from his painting course in Northern Italy, where my friend Micha Krebs (colory.de) attended as a student. Laurence then introduced me to Robert Venosa and Martina Hoffmann. The unmistakable Luke Brown then suantered in and joined the throng. I later came to meet the rest of the panel, Carey Thompson, Andrew Jones and Zariat.

Again Delvin took on the roll of MC for our discussion panel. He started off by introducing us all and noting our rolls in creating visionary culture in the community. He gave us the starting points or questions from which one of us would start and in turn inspiring another to expand on the topic further. It was very insightful to hear our ideas developed between each other. One of us would answer and then the others would follow expanding upon the last speaker or furthering the line of discussion in another direction.

Accompanying this post is the video from our discussion panel.

After us then came Erick Davis (techgnosis.com) who unfortunately I missed. I was not aquaited with his work until I came across is Boom Festival blog post. Through visiting his site, I came to order his book “Techgnosis” which is proving to be an interesting read. I’ve also since learned that he was involved in the book “True Visions“, which is next on my reading list.

Liminal Village – Visions Gallery

Most galleries open late in the day and close early, but the Liminal Village Visions Gallery does things differently and was open the whole night. Now strange you might think seeing the gallery was situated in a large festival where people are usually doing their stomp through out the whole night until the break of dawn. When I was first told of the gallery hours I had my doubts and thought it was going to be a non event. How wrong could I have been?

It was a resounding success from opening until closing, with us usually having to herd people out before we could have our well earned slumber. The gallery was a psychedelic illumination in the night, attracting the psychenaught moths to it’s light.

While these nocturnal visitors were supping on our creative nectars, I had the opportunity to get know the other artists. There were also a number of other people who were working on site or friends of the artists that added to the congenial mix.

Being free from the gallery in the daytime I roamed over the huge site that was Boom. I have been wistful for a real Summer, by Australian standards, since my first in Europe in 2003 which had been an exception. I duely had my dose of Portugese sun which was merciless and sought the comfort of the lake on a number of occassions.

Little oasis of green permaculture were dotted over the site, and one of those was just on the doorstep of the Liminal Village and constructed by Delvin’s craft. Anja (anja-brinkmann.net) had assisted some weeks before with the German translations for the accompanying info booklet.

Robert Venosa and Martina Hoffman giving their workshop.

Robert and Martina gave their workshop, “Sketching the Fantastic“, and were rather surprised by the number of people that came to participate. Word had obviously spread. Undeterred, they proceeded as best they could with the limited materials and their limited persons, that being only two for an estimated 100+ people. As they commented they usually take a personal hands on approach to running their courses, and so with so many people this was rather hard to actualize. Even so they both managed to pull off a successful workshop.

Over the course of a week the Liminal Village conference and gallery was visited by many of the 25,000 festival goers from 80 countries. The Liminal Village was also diverse, presenting 30 speakers and artists from 23 countries. The intention of this gathering was to create a mosaic message which can open up dialogues on many levels to help give momentum and generate inspiration for visionary art and culture.

Luke Brown, Martina Hoffmann, Carey Thompson, Laurence Caruana, Robert Venosa, Delvin Solkinson

I was certainly inspired spending time with great artists. It was a wonderful meeting of minds and just simply a great social time.

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Owing to work commitments and the randomness of available seats on stand-by airline tickets (hitch hiking with aeroplanes as Anja calls it), I departed Berlin for the Boom Festival early Wednesday morning. Perhaps this was a good thing that I left at this time as I later found out that on Monday, opening day, many people spent the entire day in the blazing Portuguese sun waiting to enter the festival.

My own journey was not without hickups. Arriving in Lisbon I discovered that my baggage had not. With no other option I continued on. Transport to the Boom is not easy. I was stuck in Castelo Branco overnight. Picking up the trail again in the morning the bus took me to Idanha-a-Nova. Here the locals gave me wrong directions. I ended up walking several kilometers down the mountain into the valley, where I arrived at the Anti-Boom. After looking around at the poor sanitry and general anti-social nature of the feral punks, I realized that this was definitely not the real Boom. So with Rene and Patrice who were kind enough to pick me up, we found the entrance to the real Boom.

At the gate to the Boom Rene and Patrice discovered, to their horror and great disappointment after driving all the way from France that there were no longer any tickets for sale on the door. It seems that the Boom website led to some confusion in regards to this issue. I later heard that there were many similar sad stories. As for myself, I already had a ticket as I was a speaker on the Visionary Art Culture Creators Panel.

The entrace to the Boom is a long way from the festival site, and thankfully there are many friendly people willing to take pity on foot sore travellers and share a ride with them to main festival site. This same distance was also problematic for many people wishing to return to the village of Idanha-a-Nova for the shops or the money machines.

Standing on the hot dry and dusty festival site, I looked out across the lake and tents. Now the real adventure begins, time to find Delvin and the Liminal Village.

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Boom Festival 2008 is shaping up to be a very potent mix for Visionary arts. The epicentre for this can be found at the Liminal Village where a number of events and activities will take place. I’m looking forward to attending the festival for a number or reasons.

As I wrote in my previous post the Vision Gallery will exhibit Visionary artists from all over the world, and I have been fortunate enough to be included.

Two artists that I have long admired, Robert Venosa and Martina Hoffmann are giving a presentation entitled, “Some History, Thoughts and Images on Visionary Art“.

They will also be running a workshop, “Sketching the Fantastic” in which participants will be guided in exploring a simplified, exciting technique which provides a rapid entry into the magic of sketching, as well as allowing access to one’s innermost, intuitive visions.  Anybody can participate.

The Visionary Art Culture Creators Panel will explore the new world of visionary culture with a fascinating panel discussion about the place where art present meets art future. As a catalytic force in the co-creation of planetary culture, visionary art may be a key to unlocking the secrets of what is to come.

I have also been invited to participate as one of the panelists. The panel will be moderated by Delvin Solkinson and feature the other following speakers, Laurence Caruana, Carey Thompson, Luke Brown and Jen Zariat.

The Boom Festival runs from the 11th to the 18th of August, in Portugal.

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Studio in Atelierhaus Mengerzeile

A change of city means a change of studio. We painters are rather rooted where we work, having need of a stable space where we can collect our clutter, tools and of course our artwork. There have been times I wish I could pack up my studio as I can with my laptop and work on the move.

Now that I am planning to stay put in Berlin for a while its feasible to set up shop here. The transition was rather smooth actually, one of those blessed syncronicities that the Universe gives you the big thumbs up with. I was still in the process of packing my Pixley St studio in London, when I called my Berlin artist friend Paul Barnett.

I asked him if he could keep his ears open for any studio opportunities. His response was that there was one available immediately in Atelierhaus Mengerzeile where he also has his. Now the thing is I had visited Paul many times in his studio and imagined myself working there. I had come very close to renting a space there years earlier. So all boded well.

The building itself has an interesting history, always being in use for something creative. In the beginning it was a piano factory, and then following the war during the DDR it was used as a vinyl record factory. In front of the building was a stretch of the Berlin wall, placing it behind it in the East. After the fall of the wall it began its present day life as an artist’s studio warehouse.

The complex is often just called M3 in reference to its address, Mengerzeile 3. It also includes a gallery for resident artists to use and club space in the cellar. But most homely of all is the house cat who often waits at the door to be let in or out.

I’m looking forward to producing many paintings here.

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