Hasta La Ideas

On Kawara, One Million Years, installation view at David Zwirner, 2009. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York

Twenty exhibitions and 70 events, including concerts, films and walks will take place in the north east of England this March as part of the multimedia AV Festival 12. And this year’s theme is ‘as slow as possible’…

From the expansive compositions of Phil Niblock, who’ll be performing The Movement of People Working, to the slow motion car crashes of artist Jonathan Schipper, the latest AV Festival promises to celebrate the beauty of slowness.

Participants are being sought to take part in live readings at the Baltic of On Kawara’s 20 volume work which contains typewritten dates spanning one million years; while the aforementioned Schipper will run two cars into one another, almost imperceptibly, at the Saville Row gallery over the course of several days (it’s a great piece, there are some time lapse films of various installations, here).

Slow, reclaiming forces of nature are also explored in the work of artist Cyprien Gaillard whose films of architectural ruins depict various structures being taken over by plant life. A Slow Cinema season will also screen 20 films devoted to stillness and contemplation from a range of filmmakers including Ben Rivers and Fred Kelemen.

So if you like to take things at a measured pace and appreciate art that indulges a sense of slowness, get along to AV Festival from March 1. For a full, detailed list of exhibitions and events go to avfestival.co.uk.

On Kawara, One Million Years, installation view at David Zwirner, 2009. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York

Cyprien Gaillard, Real Remnants of Fictive Wars (Part V), 2005 © the artist. Courtesy Laura Bartlett Gallery, London

Mark Formanek, Standard Time, 2010 © the artist

Torsten Lauschmann, House of the Rising Sun (Panoramic Version), 20/08/11 © the artist. Photo © Ruth Clark