GDIF 2022 | London’s free, annual outdoor performing arts festival 26 August-11 September 2022
Global Streets 2022-23
Featuring an ambitious programme of installations, performing arts and light-based work running from summer 2022 into Spring 2023, this Global Streets season reimagines the places where people live and work, bringing communities together to share in moments of joy, celebration and reflection.
RedBall Liverpool
Kurt Perschke (USA)
This travelling public art piece by American artist Kurt Perschke appears in different areas around the city, everywhere from tourist hotspots to more local, undiscovered neighbourhoods. In each location RedBall Liverpool offers audiences moments of joy, encouraging them to think differently about their surroundings, viewing with fresh eyes the places they may walk past or through every day. A number of engagement projects linked to RedBall Liverpool are also taking place in and around Everton Park and Toxteth.
Discover Ukraine: Bits Destroyed
Tais Poda, Rock ‘n’ Light Studio, Ptakh Jung & Ukrainian Institute (Ukraine)
Responding to the devastating attack on Ukraine’s rich cultural heritage, Kyiv-based photographer Yevgen Nikiforov and a Ukrainian creative team have designed this dazzling digital artwork. Originally created as a celebration of the deeply-rooted Ukrainian tradition of publicly-sited mosaics, with support from the Ukrainian Institute artists have now reimagined this earlier work to create a spectacular audio-visual event. Many mosaics in Ukraine have been destroyed since the Russian invasion and this poignant event is an important way of ensuring that Ukraine’s cultural legacy is remembered, supported and celebrated.
Deblozay
Rara Wailib (France)
Deblozay (meaning ‘chaos’ in Haitian Creole) is a night-time trip through the memory of the town and its inhabitants where theatre, image and soundscapes come together in stunning fashion. Working with community groups, residents and local artists from across the borough, Rara Woulib are creating a spectacular, mass participation event in Hounslow town centre that unearths and celebrates ‘lost memories’ of the place and its communities, exploring the nooks and crannies of the area, and changing the perceived shape of Hounslow town centre for even those who know it well. Deblozay will also support skills development for local artists, and new opportunities for community groups and residents.
De Relaxerette
Arjan Kruidhof (The Netherlands)
De Relaxerette invites audiences to escape the rush of everyday life with the most relaxing fairground ride in the world. Laying back in a hammock, participants put on headphones and listen to soothing words and stories as they gently revolve on a journey into the sky. This reflective and relaxing ride with a difference invites audiences to enjoy new and surprising perspectives inspired by local stories, poetry and sounds from the city around them. And once back on solid ground, everybody is encouraged to share their experiences with others.
> In Birmingham on 27-28 August 2022
Follow Me
Be Flat (Flanders)
This Flemish circus duo lead local residents on surprising and interactive journeys through the places in which they live, using the natural architecture of housing estates to create bespoke performances that draw on circus skills and parkour, and feature gentle participation opportunities en route.
> In Thamesmead on 28-29 August 2022
> In Slough on 24-25 March 2023
Mirage (A Day of Celebration)
Compagnie Dyptik (France)
Enriched by the experience of performing in refugee camps all over the world, Compagnie Dyptik have created Mirage with the aim of questioning the limits of a crisis situation, the breaking point that opens the field to a powerful and offbeat creative impulse. Building bridges and tunnels that link the colours, rhythms and emotions in the popular, traditional, oral, and contemporary musical cultures they have encountered around the world, Compagnie Dyptik has created a stunning and urgent dance performance.
C’est pas là, c’est par là
Compagnie Galmae (South Korea/France)
This participatory installation from South Korean artist Juhyung Lee explores how people move differently when alone to when they are in a crowd. Inspired by the artist’s experiences of a street protest in Seoul in 2015, Lee works with local people to build a tangled web of string over the course of a day. As night falls, an audience is invited to work together to unravel it, culminating in a moment of shared ritual at its close.
Sharing The Light
DUNDU (Germany)
German puppetry specialists DUNDU are Sharing The Light with residents in 5 English towns and cities over Diwali 2022. Along with community visits, workshops and collaborations with local music and dance groups, DUNDU invite residents and passers-by to join in their parade performance, to celebrate the communities and the places they visit.
> In Birmingham on 21-22 October 2022
> In Leicester on 24 October 2022
Light Games
Groupe LAPS (France)
Developed during Covid-19 by the French company Groupe LAPS, these playful, interactive sound and light installations bring to life popular and universal games for children of all ages, with a particular appeal to family groups. Each game can be operated by foot pedals, ensuring they are Covid-safe, and the large-scale formats draw in audiences from far and wide.
> In Dagenham in February 2023
> In Gloucester in February 2023
Global Streets is a 12-partner national network that co-creates & presents international outdoor arts events with communities living and working in places which are underserved by the arts. We are focused on working with local people to deliver free, spectacular international productions which lift people’s spirits and bring communities together.
Our partners use their growing knowledge of international outdoor arts to identify “permeable” productions which enable local people to engage and feel invested in their neighbourhoods, high streets and town centres. Fully integrated audience development, supported by live and online participation, forges connections across diverse communities, and as a result Global Streets productions resonate powerfully with local aspirations and stories. Global Streets partners are working with communities (including eight Arts Council England Priority Places) in Birmingham, Doncaster, Gloucester, Hull, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Slough, Barking & Dagenham, Woolwich, Hounslow and Newham.
Since 2015, the 12 partners of Global Streets have brought 220+ performances of 33 different international productions to high streets and public spaces across England, reimagining them as accessible outdoor theatres for which nobody needs a ticket. The programme has reached 600,000+ audience members and participants to date, connecting and strengthening local communities through unforgettable international experiences in the great outdoors. A further 216,500 people actively engaged with artistic content through an enhanced digital programme in 2020.
