The festival will see both established and emerging International, UK and Welsh artists and poets in attendance, including Anne Bean and Ansuman Biswas; Yue Minjun; W.N. Herbert; Sean O’Brien; Richard DeDomenici; Tomasz Szrama; and Adam E. Holton.
Running from 28 June - 28 July 2024, the inaugural Ruthin International Arts Festival is set to take place in the historic rural town of Ruthin in North Wales - a stunning, expertly curated new addition to the existing international art landscape, including work from acclaimed artists and poets Anne Bean, Yang Lian, Sean O’Brien, and more, centred around the theme of ‘Elsewhere’.
Directed by distinguished Beijing-based poet Yu Er, curated by Cheng Xi, and supported by Ruthin Global Arts and Education Foundation, this brand-new arts festival comprises a Seven Day Live Programme (28 June - 4 July) of breathtaking multidisciplinary art, film, poetry, exhibition, and performance-based work. This will be followed by weekly film screenings and panels, open mic performance nights, and workshops, all running locally until 28 July.
In the Film Programme, the RIAF will feature Welsh Premieres of internationally acclaimed films, Q+As with prestigious Chinese directors, and an array of films involving Welsh, Chinese, English, Spanish, Dzongkha, Tibetan, and French. All taking place at the picturesque venue of Ruthin Castle, each film will delve into the emotional and physical landscapes of youth; exploring the concepts of distance, memory, and cultural dislocation.
Hosted in and around historic Ruthin locations such as Ruthin Castle, the Ruthin International Arts Festival explores and conceptualises seven themes across seven days: Liveness, Intervention, Serendipity, Togetherness, Diaspora, Vision, and Good Night, followed afterwards by a 4 week series of weekly screenings, film panels, and local workshops.
Exploring and honouring Ruthin’s history, community, landscape, and ecology, the Ruthin International Arts Festival will offer site-specific creative responses and experiences that resonate uniquely with the historic town through a rich artistic lens - spanning performance art, installation, movement and dance work, music and sound, and, participatory and community works, and film. Seeking to platform Welsh artists and solidify rural towns as international artistic hubs, the festival will also hold a series of local artist Open Calls centred around the diaspora of the Welsh language and the chance to build an at-home poetry exhibition.
The festival will integrate a beautiful range of artistic expressions into the existing fabric of Ruthin and create a vibrant ecosystem of artistic ideas in the process: a space where international artists can bring and plant their unique artistic ‘seeds’, encouraging conversation between Welsh and international cultures, and collaboration between humanity and nature.
Image: Anne Bean - Covid Metamorphosis
Seven Day Live Programme: 28 June - 4 July 2024 (Full detailed programme available on the Ruthin International Arts Festival website)*
*Further films will be added in advance of the festival. Full detailed programme will be available on the RIAF website.
Film Programme (28 June - 28 July) **
Pickpocket 小五, Jia Zhangke, 1997
Shang Hai Dreams 青红, Wang Xiaoshuai, 2005
East Palace, West Palace 东宫西宫, Zhang Yuan, 1996
Crazy Stone 疯狂的石头, Ning Hao, 2006
Once upon a bridge in Vietnam, François Bibonne, 2024
Tricky Disco, Sebastian Weise, 2022
Holding Shards, Holly Slingsby, 2024
Seine, Dan Horrigan, 2024
Pouring Water on Troubled Oil, Nariman Massoumi, 2023
** After the Opening Week, the Ruthin International Arts Festival will continue with weekly film screenings, film panels, and local workshops, 6 - 28 July.
Image: 'Pickpocket'
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