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| Interdependence: can you teach creativity? Plus other big questions | Interdependence: can you teach creativity? Plus other big questions |
| (11 days later) | |
| Membership Event: Guardian Live: Interdependence (Saturday) | |
| What are the biggest challenges facing the arts? How do you define innovation? Can you teach creativity? What do great artists and scientists need to not just survive but flourish? | What are the biggest challenges facing the arts? How do you define innovation? Can you teach creativity? What do great artists and scientists need to not just survive but flourish? |
| Over one weekend, Mif and Guardian Live are hosting a series of debates and conversations at which the audience can join some of the world’s leading artists, scientists, writers and technologists to thrash out such questions. Interdependence aims to be part art school, part science experiment and part laboratory for new ideas. Those invited include the following. | Over one weekend, Mif and Guardian Live are hosting a series of debates and conversations at which the audience can join some of the world’s leading artists, scientists, writers and technologists to thrash out such questions. Interdependence aims to be part art school, part science experiment and part laboratory for new ideas. Those invited include the following. |
| Veronica Gonzalez Peña, writer | Veronica Gonzalez Peña, writer |
| A novelist and playwright, the New York-based Peña founded Rockypoint Press, which specialises in artist-writer collaborations in book, print and film form. “I really believe that artists should be involved with each other, and I wanted to be able to produce things with people, to help them make things happen,” she has said. “Yes, I am interdisciplinary, and yes, I like to bend things, genres included.” She has collaborated with artist Douglas Gordon, pianist Hélène Grimaud and actor Charlotte Rampling on Neck of the Woods for this year’s Mif. | A novelist and playwright, the New York-based Peña founded Rockypoint Press, which specialises in artist-writer collaborations in book, print and film form. “I really believe that artists should be involved with each other, and I wanted to be able to produce things with people, to help them make things happen,” she has said. “Yes, I am interdisciplinary, and yes, I like to bend things, genres included.” She has collaborated with artist Douglas Gordon, pianist Hélène Grimaud and actor Charlotte Rampling on Neck of the Woods for this year’s Mif. |
| Jeremy Deller, artist | Jeremy Deller, artist |
| Pop-cultural-happening master Deller, he of the bouncy-castle Stonehenge and the acid-house brass bands, believes that “Art isn’t about what you make but what you make happen.” For Mif in 2009, he led procession through Manchester city centre featuring local ramblers, Big Issue-sellers and scouts and guides trumpeting out the Fall’s Hit The North, and in 2013 he curated All That is Solid Melts Into Air, an exhibition on the impact of the Industrial Revolution on art. | Pop-cultural-happening master Deller, he of the bouncy-castle Stonehenge and the acid-house brass bands, believes that “Art isn’t about what you make but what you make happen.” For Mif in 2009, he led procession through Manchester city centre featuring local ramblers, Big Issue-sellers and scouts and guides trumpeting out the Fall’s Hit The North, and in 2013 he curated All That is Solid Melts Into Air, an exhibition on the impact of the Industrial Revolution on art. |
| Dave Moutrey, director, HOME | Dave Moutrey, director, HOME |
| Since 2010, HOME has united the previous work of Manchester’s Library Theatre Company and the Cornerhouse cinema and arts centre under the roof of one multi-artform venue. At last year’s State of the Arts debate at the Soutbank centre, Moutrey spoke out about his working-class childhood and how inspiring arts teachers helped him succeed. “All of our young people deserve to get the chance to have a choice. Should every school aim to offer cultural opportunities to their students?” he asked. “Frankly, I find it astonishing that in one of the wealthiest nations in the world we even have to have this debate.” | Since 2010, HOME has united the previous work of Manchester’s Library Theatre Company and the Cornerhouse cinema and arts centre under the roof of one multi-artform venue. At last year’s State of the Arts debate at the Soutbank centre, Moutrey spoke out about his working-class childhood and how inspiring arts teachers helped him succeed. “All of our young people deserve to get the chance to have a choice. Should every school aim to offer cultural opportunities to their students?” he asked. “Frankly, I find it astonishing that in one of the wealthiest nations in the world we even have to have this debate.” |
| Olafur Eliasson, artist | Olafur Eliasson, artist |
| The Danish-Icelandic artist is known for attention- and eye-catching large installations that create a sense of atmosphere through the use of water, air, space and light - for example, his Weather Project installation of a huge “sun” in Tate Modern in 2003, or the artificial waterfalls he placed around New York in 2008. He is working on the visuals for the ballet Tree of Codes for Mif 2015. “My work is not about me,” he once said, “it’s about you.” | The Danish-Icelandic artist is known for attention- and eye-catching large installations that create a sense of atmosphere through the use of water, air, space and light - for example, his Weather Project installation of a huge “sun” in Tate Modern in 2003, or the artificial waterfalls he placed around New York in 2008. He is working on the visuals for the ballet Tree of Codes for Mif 2015. “My work is not about me,” he once said, “it’s about you.” |
| Azu Nwagbogu, director, African Artists Foundation | Azu Nwagbogu, director, African Artists Foundation |
| Nwagbogu’s AAF is a non-profit group that supports African artists through workshops, competitions and exhibitions in Nigeria. He is also a founder of the Lagos Photo Festival, which fosters interaction between local photographers and those from around the world, the aim being “to develop the talent pool and also to tell our own stories in our own way.” | Nwagbogu’s AAF is a non-profit group that supports African artists through workshops, competitions and exhibitions in Nigeria. He is also a founder of the Lagos Photo Festival, which fosters interaction between local photographers and those from around the world, the aim being “to develop the talent pool and also to tell our own stories in our own way.” |
| “To tell African stories there are certain patterns: the corruption, the poverty, the “noble savage,” and all of these stereotypes to those of us who live here,” he told Guernica magazine. “I think it’s important to represent the ‘other Africa,’ as I call it, to tell a more rounded story.” | “To tell African stories there are certain patterns: the corruption, the poverty, the “noble savage,” and all of these stereotypes to those of us who live here,” he told Guernica magazine. “I think it’s important to represent the ‘other Africa,’ as I call it, to tell a more rounded story.” |
| Tamara Chalabi, chairman, Ruya foundation | Tamara Chalabi, chairman, Ruya foundation |
| Chalabi is an Iraqi-British historian and art expert and chairman of the Ruya foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that aids and enriches culture in Iraq and organises the Iraq Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, with the aim of countering narratives of violence and unrest. “Tanks, bombs, rockets, blood. It’s not about whitewashing that,” Chalabi has said, “but rather about giving a voice to human beings that have been overlooked.” | Chalabi is an Iraqi-British historian and art expert and chairman of the Ruya foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that aids and enriches culture in Iraq and organises the Iraq Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, with the aim of countering narratives of violence and unrest. “Tanks, bombs, rockets, blood. It’s not about whitewashing that,” Chalabi has said, “but rather about giving a voice to human beings that have been overlooked.” |
| Maria Balshaw, director, Whitworth and Manchester city galleries | Maria Balshaw, director, Whitworth and Manchester city galleries |
| Also a board member of Arts Council England, Balshaw’s programmes build on the strength of the city’s collections with daring, imaginative shows. The Whitworth, which has doubled its admissions under Balshaw, has recently been redeveloped to bring its original mission as a cultural palace for the people into the 21st century. It reopened with a show by Cornelia Parker that involved a collaboration with graphene scientist Konstantin Novoselov (see below). “At the moment, if you look across the UK there’s nowhere more exciting than Manchester,” Balshaw has said. | Also a board member of Arts Council England, Balshaw’s programmes build on the strength of the city’s collections with daring, imaginative shows. The Whitworth, which has doubled its admissions under Balshaw, has recently been redeveloped to bring its original mission as a cultural palace for the people into the 21st century. It reopened with a show by Cornelia Parker that involved a collaboration with graphene scientist Konstantin Novoselov (see below). “At the moment, if you look across the UK there’s nowhere more exciting than Manchester,” Balshaw has said. |
| Konstantin Novoselov, physicist | Konstantin Novoselov, physicist |
| A Russian-British physics professor at the university of Manchester, Novoselov is best known, along with colleague Andre Geim, for his pioneering experiments with graphene, a super-thin, super-tough form of carbon, for which they won the Nobel prize in 2010. He and Geim are known for an imaginatively driven style of working in which, to quote Noveselov, “You are allowed to do whatsoever you want, as long as it is not boring.” | A Russian-British physics professor at the university of Manchester, Novoselov is best known, along with colleague Andre Geim, for his pioneering experiments with graphene, a super-thin, super-tough form of carbon, for which they won the Nobel prize in 2010. He and Geim are known for an imaginatively driven style of working in which, to quote Noveselov, “You are allowed to do whatsoever you want, as long as it is not boring.” |
| Peter Strickland, director | Peter Strickland, director |
| The director of recent acclaimed film The Duke of Burgundy, as well as Berberian Sound Studio, and A Metaphysical Education, Strickland also recently worked with Björk on her concert film Biophilia Live. On the leap of faith required to make his feature debut, Katalin Varga, he has said: “I asked myself, ‘Should I buy myself a one-bedroom flat in Bracknell or should I make a revenge film in Transylvania?’ I think the main thing that kept me going was knowing that if I bought a flat, I would always wonder, ‘What if?’” | The director of recent acclaimed film The Duke of Burgundy, as well as Berberian Sound Studio, and A Metaphysical Education, Strickland also recently worked with Björk on her concert film Biophilia Live. On the leap of faith required to make his feature debut, Katalin Varga, he has said: “I asked myself, ‘Should I buy myself a one-bedroom flat in Bracknell or should I make a revenge film in Transylvania?’ I think the main thing that kept me going was knowing that if I bought a flat, I would always wonder, ‘What if?’” |
| Benjamin Millepied | Benjamin Millepied |
| Membership Event: Guardian Live: Interdependence (Sunday) | |
| The director of dance at the Paris Opera ballet, Millepied is a dancer and a choreographer who’s worked with composers such as Nico Muhly and Philip Glass. | |
| He’s perhaps best known for his choreography for Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 ballet thriller Black Swan, in which he also starred as David (and met his wife Natalie Portman). He has also directed his own films with The Amoveo Company, a multimedia production company and art collective, collaborating with artists such as Mark Bradford, IO Echo and Zeds Dead. ““I think directing and choreographing have such a similarity,” he has told the LA Times, “how to work with movement and motion and narration and emotion and creating images .... And I think having the ability to control the viewer’s perspective on the movement ... it’s heaven.” | |
| • Interdependence is at Old Granada Studios, 4-5 July, £ 5 per day. Box office: 0844 871 7654 | • Interdependence is at Old Granada Studios, 4-5 July, £ 5 per day. Box office: 0844 871 7654 |
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