Peace Camp 19-22 July: Actors, Poets, and the Public lend their voices as part of Deborah Warner’s Commission for the London 2012 Festival, Created in Collaboration with Fiona Shaw

Peace Camp is director Deborah Warner’s commission for the London 2012 Festival, created in collaboration with actor Fiona Shaw. The installation artwork will appear from dusk until dawn, 9.30pm until 5.30am over four nights, 19-22 July, at eight of our most beautiful and remote coastal locations around the UK, from the Outer Hebrides to the tip of Cornwall. Visitors to the glowing encampments of some 2000 tents in total, will hear a soundscape of love poetry and sounds of the natural environment, created by composer Mel Mercier featuring the voices of actors, poets and members of the public.

Peace Camp is a co-commission by the London 2012 Festival and City of Culture 2013. Produced and delivered by creative company Artichoke, It is part of the London 2012 Festival, the spectacular nationwide celebration running from 21 June until 9 September 2012 bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK. Partners include the National Trust, Arts Council England, Arts Council Wales, and Creative Scotland.

For the soundscape, Fiona Shaw has directed and recorded actors, writers, poets and members of the public from around the country reading the love poetry of our islands and talking in all our accents and languages about what and whom they love. Their voices will become part of a multi-layered work composed by Mel Mercier. Contributors include Edna O’Brien, Seamus Heaney, Anne-Marie Duff, Andrew Motion, Jane Horrocks, Cillian Murphy, Alun Armstrong, Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce, amongst many others.

The work will be set against some of the most breathtaking scenery of the UK coastline, including five National Trust sites. The locations are: Cemaes Bay in Anglesey, Wales; White Park Bay on the North Antrim Coast, and Mussenden Temple and Downhill Beach, Borough of Coleraine, Northern Ireland; Cliff Beach at Valtos on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, and Fort Fiddes, Cullykhan Bay in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland; Cuckmere Haven near Seven Sisters in Sussex; and Godrevy in Cornwall.

At Godrevy in Cornwall, visitors will be invited to download the soundscape onto personal devices before they arrive at the site, where they will view the installation across the water at Godrevy Island while listening to the sound through their headsets. Additional headsets with a pre-recorded soundscape will also be available to loan on-site.

Deborah Warner’s commission is inspired by the United Nations Olympic Truce, which calls on countries worldwide to lay down their arms for the duration of the Olympic Games. As dusk begins to fall, the artworks will flicker to life, encircling the UK in a symbolic call to peace.

Peace Camp Locations

Peace Camp is a quiet and contemplative artwork. A limited number of visitors will be allowed at any one time, and booking is therefore recommended. www.peacecamp2012.com

Cemaes Bay, Anglesey, Wales

Cradled in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cemaes sits at the heart of the country’s Welsh-speaking region, overlooked by the oldest church in Wales, Llanbadrig, or the Church of St Patrick. Gravestones in the churchyard in both Welsh and English bear witness to this community’s stormy relationship with the sea below.

White Park Bay, North Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland

White Park Bay is a spectacular beach forming a white arc curving between two headlands on the North Antrim Coast. At the eastern end of the sweeping bay lie the many rocky volcanic islands that surround Ballintoy Harbour, while the western end leads to the tiny fishing village of Port Braddon, home to St Gobbans, allegedly the smallest church in Ireland, and used as a cowshed until the 1950s. These days cows graze on the wild flowers that grow on the beach.

Mussenden Temple and Downhill Beach, Borough of Coleraine, Northern Ireland

Mussenden Temple is located in the beautiful surroundings of Downhill Beach near Castlerock in the Borough of Coleraine, County Derry-Londonderry. Built in 1785 by the extraordinary Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Londonderry and Earl of Bristol, the temple is set on a 120ft cliff top. The temple was built as a summer library and its design is inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, near Rome.

Fort Fiddes, Cullykhan Bay, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

The rocky promontory of Castle Point reaches out into the Moray Firth with its crystal clear sea and vast red sandstone cliffs. It is a site of huge archaeological importance: the ruins of this 18th century fort the latest evidence of habitations that stretch back to 700BC. From the end of the Fort, views across the coast reveal the tiny fishing village of Pennan, made famous through the 1980’s film Local Hero, while the Moray Firth is home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds including puffins, fulmars, shags, kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills, and for the North Sea’s only known resident population of bottlenose dolphins.

Cliff Beach, Valtos, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

The white shell sand of the beach at Valtos forms a perfect teardrop shelter from the incoming might of the Atlantic Ocean. Set in bleak terrain that leads from Stornoway past the enigmatic 5000-year old Calanais/Callanish standing stones, the historic presence of ancient peoples is as pervasive here as in the rest of island of Lewis and its native Gaelic language. With its population of 35 inhabitants, the village of Valtos is the largest in the parish of Uig, where the 12th century Lewis Chessmen were found following a storm in 1831

Dunstanburgh Castle, Craster, Northumberland, England

Built in 1313 by the Earl of Lancaster as a symbol of his rebellion against the King, Dunstanburgh Castle was once one of the grandest fortifications in all England. Today it the UK’s largest ruin, defended on two sides by a sheer cliff and the crashing sea. The artist J.W.Turner was so inspired by his only visit to the castle that he returned to it again and again in his paintings.

Cuckmere Haven, near Seven Sisters, Sussex, England

For many, this stunning landscape epitomises the very essence of the English coast. The river Cuckmere winds its way through wide flood plains, twisting and turning before emerging onto the pebble beach at Seaford Head. With its clutch of iconic coastguard cottages perched high above the sea, the site provides far-reaching views along one of England’s most famous white chalk cliffs. Its peaceful picture-postcard perfection conceals a murkier history of smugglers and conflict, while in a nearby field a poignant WWII memorial quietly remembers the troop of Canadian soldiers who were annihilated by German bombers making their way to London using the huge river estuary as a navigational aid.

Godrevy, North Cornwall, England

Godrevy Head sits at the north end of St Ives bay with its vast and Atlantic rollers pounding into the white sand beach. Only three miles further out to sea, Godrevy Island takes the full force of the gales sweeping in from the Atlantic. The beach is one of the most popular in Cornwall attracting surfers and walkers as well as literary pilgrims. Although Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse was set in the Outer Hebrides, Godrevy lighthouse is believed to have provided the inspiration for the book during Woolf’s many family holidays in Cornwall. Just as the Ramsay family never make their picnic on the island, Godrevy provides an unattainable destination for visitors to the Peace Camp installation.

The use of all locations is subject to the permission of landowners, tenants and other interested parties. Artichoke reserves the right to make changes if necessary.

Source: Artichoke