Eclectic InTRANSIT Festival 2016 to Take Over Kensington and Chelsea This June

Back for its tenth year, InTRANSIT Festival is recognised as one of the most exciting, challenging and surprising highlights of London's arts calendar. An eclectic and experimental programme of theatre, dance, art and music that takes over the streets and iconic buildings of Kensington and Chelsea this June.

InTRANSIT Festival 2016 runs Friday 17th - Sunday 26th June 2016 at locations across Kensington and Chelsea. Opening Night/Press Preview: Thursday 16th June, 6.30pm.

Pinhead, In Memory of Leaves, Street Grammar and Ionesco Unveiled are some of the enticing and evocative names of event highlights this year. Stand-out projects in 2015 included Urban Beach, made out of 40 tonnes of sand under the Westway, and Art|House, a pop-up art school built from 6,000 milk crates and lovingly placed in a north Kensington Garden Square.

Curated and produced by O'Neill/Ross, InTRANSIT champions work that is immediate and relevant. It is unique in London in that it exclusively commissions new art of every genre in unexpected locations. An innovative platform for experimentation and new collaborations in art and performance, InTRANSIT celebrates space and challenges the role of audiences by responding to current issues and putting local residents at the heart of art commissioning. Coinciding with Refugee Week and World Refugee Day on 20th June, many of the projects in the festival this year celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK and encourage a better understanding between communities.

Curators O'Neill/Ross comment: The 2016 InTRANSIT programme explores a series of contrasts in life, which illuminate and enrich one another. A wide variety of events and productions, many with exciting participatory elements, await the curious. A temporary shelter in a Victorian Square; how a bureaucrat might approach Punk; a singing estate agent; and an artist who'll put 'ketchup on your cornflakes' - InTRANSIT offers a plethora of opportunities to get together and explore something different.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's Cabinet Member for Planning Policy, Transport and Arts, Councillor Timothy Coleridge comments: Celebrating its tenth year, InTRANSIT Festival 2016 presents an ever-more exciting programme of activities and opportunities. The artistic community has responded to this year's theme of Strange Bedfellows with surprising and challenging results. These include soloists from London Contemporary Orchestra and 50 local singers in an unmissable live performance installation, and a jubilant and irreverent flash 'dance' performance on the King's Road. A second year of grant funding from Arts Council England allows us to establish the Portobello Pavilion at Powis Square. This home to free arts workshops for all ages runs throughout the festival, and is a worthy successor to last year's triumphant Art|House. Additionally, this year, as InTRANSIT coincides with Refugee Week, many of the projects in the festival mark the contribution of refugees to the UK and encourage a better understanding between communities. I hope that as many of you as possible experience and enjoy the festival, and take full advantage of the fact that, once again, the majority of events are free.

---

InTRANSIT 2016 highlights include:

Portobello Pavilion - Thursday 16 to Sunday 26 June, 10am-8pm, Powis Square W11

Building on the success of last year's Art|House, the Portobello Pavilion is a temporary structure in Powis Square, which houses free arts workshops for all ages throughout the festival. This year the Pavilion explores 'Places Where People Live'. The structure, which has been conceived by artist Arabella Dorman, replicates the communal buildings found in the Calais and Dunkirk migrant camps. Inside, the Pavilion Team has devised creative activities that encourage dialogue around planning, regeneration and social housing, in addition to supper-time conversations with special guests.

Adrift - Monday 20 June, 7.30pm, a secret location, South Kensington
Soloists from the London Contemporary Orchestra return to a secret site-specific location to participate in the creation of another groundbreaking immersive concert, which features over 50 local singers, composer Haris Kittos, and his composition students from the Royal College of Music. This unmissable live performance installation marks Refugee Week and explores the trials and tribulations of the human spirit as it struggles with adversity and isolation.

Carnival Journeys - Saturday 25 June, 2.30pm and 4pm, Colville Gardens W11
An outdoor performance inspired by the traditions of Commedia dell'Arte. Devised by local theatre creators, working with directors from acclaimed theatre company Complicite? and supported by the Victoria and Albert Museum

I'm Waving - 'Residents of Chelsea, look out for mysterious letters arriving in your post boxes!' Chelsea Arts Club Trust bursary recipient Emma Alonze invites you to help her discover her new stomping ground. I'm Waving is an exchange of correspondence and gestures between Alonze and the people of Chelsea. The work will ask people to question their surroundings, their daily routines and actions. She comments, "I'm interested to see how many people become involved with the work, how far people will go, what gets noticed and what doesn't."

Love Clock - Saturday 18 June, 12 noon, Dove House Green, King's Road, SW3
Make sure you are in Chelsea when the clock strikes 12. Chelsea Arts Collective presents dancers and musicians in a jubilant and irreverent flash performance, which showcases different types of artists as pairs of opposites. Presented as a precursor to the nation-wide Big Dance, Love Clock puts a fresh spin on the Collective's ongoing aim to devise thoughtful, diverting and inclusive cultural engagement across Kensington and Chelsea and beyond.

Copies of the festival fold-out programme can be picked up locally from Kensington and Chelsea libraries, the town halls, and local arts venues including The Tabernacle and Chelsea Theatre.

To view the full programme, visit www.intransitfestival.co.uk.

---

InTRANSIT Festival of Arts and Performance is an annual festival of site responsive art and performance from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The festival champions work that is immediate and relevant, encouraging the involvement of local people and places in the creation of new work. Now in its tenth year, the festival celebrates the changing urban landscape, making use of public and private spaces throughout the borough during the last two weeks of June. InTRANSIT is unique in London in that it exclusively commissions new art of every genre in unexpected locations.

O'Neill/Ross are curation, production and design team Helen Scarlett O'Neill and Harry Ross. They led the design and production of Secret Cinema during its rise to prominence between 2010 and 2013. Concurrently they collaborated with many companies to create innovative site specific presentations of experimental art, theatre and new music. This led to an invitation to curate the InTRANSIT Festival from 2014-2018. One of their long term collaborators are the London Contemporary Orchestra, with whom they have produced site specific work since 2013. This has included music in a disused London Underground station; a Victorian Hydraulic Power Station and an Edwardian Wind Tunnel with LCO Soloists and Jonny Greenwood; and a multi- sensory concert with Vivienne Westwood. They have also produced site work with RAMBERT; ENO; The Hospital Club and Bompas & Parr among others. They are passionate about arts education. They have annualy mentored students from Central St Martin's since 2011 and have recently devised and delivered creative education strategies for young people in Haringay. O'Neill/Ross are also responsible for Fruit for the Apocalypse which operates between London and Rotterdam and is well-known for its production Surrealist Taxi.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is home to a vibrant community of creative people; from large cultural institutions to independent producers, performers, artists and creative businesses. The Council's Arts and Culture Service builds on the unique identity of the Royal Borough to drive major creative ventures, fresh ideas, talent, creative exchanges and nurture networks to the benefit of all who visit, live or work in the borough.

To post a comment, you must register and login.