Archived press release

ART BYPASS: MAJOR ARTS EVENT COMES TO NEWBURY

7 August 1996

As the Highways Agency this week prepares to start construction of the second and most damaging stage of the Newbury bypass, Friends of the Earth is preparing to spectacularly transform a mile of farmland adjacent to the bypass route.

On 25 August, UK and international artists will take part in ART BYPASS,a mile-long arts event at Newbury which will explore the reality of what motorway madness will mean to the nine miles of ancient Southern English landscape recently cleared to make way for a dual carriageway.

Artists taking part include the internationally renowned Christo and Jeanne Claude, the UK film premiere of a Werner Herzog collaboration,award winning dance troupe The Cholmondeleys, landscape artist Simon English, environmental poet and dramatist Heathcote Williams and cartoonist Steve Bell. The interactive multimedia event will form a vision of Newbury's future, and a powerful incentive to reassess car culture in the year commemorating 100 years of the British motor industry.

The artists (1) are working to create ROADWORKS, works that explore their personal response to the motor car. The works include a spectacular extravaganza of sound, projection, poetry, dance and installations which revolutionise the car in ways the motor industry probably hadn't envisaged. Robin Maynard of Friends of the Earth said:

"ART BYPASS asks fundamental questions about our relationship with the motor car. The Highways Agency haven't yet started the most damaging part of the Newbury bypass construction: making the road itself. By staging this significant arts event adjacent to the bypass route at Newbury we hope to explore with a wider audience the reality of what nine miles of motorway will mean to this landscape."

ART BYPASS is the first in a series of collaborations between Friends of the Earth and the Life Arts Research Centre at the University of Brighton. FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INVITE ALL MEDIA TO ART BYPASS ON 25 AUGUST

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] A SELECTION OF THE WORKS/ARTISTS INVOLVED:

Christo and Jeanne Claude Wrapped Volvo 122-S Sport Sedan, 1981

Christo and Jeanne Claude are best known for their wrapping of famous landmarks and landscapes (the Reichstag; the Sydney Coastline; islands in Florida Keys). In 1981, a close friend of Christo and Jeanne Claude was purchasing a new car. He invited them to wrap his old Volvo. Christo had already wrapped a Renault 4 CV in Cologne in 1961 and a Volkswagen beetle in Dusseldorf in 1963 (neither of which are in existence). Christo and Jeanne Claude have agreed to let Friends of the Earth exhibit the Volvo for the ART BYPASS project.

UK Premiere of Herzog collaboration The UK Premiere of a film by Brazilian movie director Zelito Vianna who filmed Werner Herzog's stage creation of A Midsummer Nights' Dream, set in the Brazilian rainforest.

Steve Bell: cartoonist Steve Bell's cartoons, all on the theme of ROAD RAGE, will signpost the event.

Simon English: land art Simon English, landscape artist, will mow a huge image of a snail on the ART BYPASS site at Newbury. Previous works include "The Grey Man of Ditchling", in chalk and whitewash and designed by Steve Bell, was part of a protest against the Government's proposed South Coast Route. The mowing will take place before 25 August. On the night, English will work on a "firehorse" on site.

Lea Anderson and the Cholmondeleys Three themed 15 minute dance sequences make up this performance in,on and around a car. The Cholmondeleys received an Olivier award last year for their work choreographed by Anderson.

Richard Demarco and Uwe Claus: 7000 Oaks Continuing the work of the late Joseph Beuys, Richard Demarco and Uwe Clause (old friend and colleague of Beuys) will plant seven oak trees on site as part of a 7000 Oaks in the UK project. Oaks to line the bypass site.

Heathcote Williams: Autoburger car installation A burger made by sandwiching crash dummies between two cars bent to look like buns. The title "Autoburger" is in McDonalds' typeface.

John Phillips: "Underneath it's a Volvo"A road rage piece consisting of a Volvo covered in cracked mirror mosiac.Two video monitors replace the passengers, showing a continuous film of a man and a woman having a dislocated argument.

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