Experimentica 2024: CALL TO SPRING
Experimentica is our four-day live art festival, that encourages risk, collaboration and exchange – the only one of its kind in Wales. Running for over twenty years, this biennial festival brings a vital moment for radical and experimental live art practices to thrive.
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THURSDAY
Commencing the festival is a significant commission from Cardiff-based live arts collective SCORE, which features members of the iconic tactileBOSCH. MAES CHWARAE starts in out Stiwdio Seligman at 7pm before before unravelling onto the Chapter forecourt. Beauty Parlour (pictured) infuses a south Walian sense of chaos into the festival's inception with a multi-genre DJ set that continues late into the night.
FRIDAY
Welcoming spring's arrival, Kathryn Ashill and Paul Hurley host their inaugural reading group, while Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin invites visitors to join in a tea sharing, to foster and nurture affirmations. Anushiye Yarnell (pictured) presents two performances at 4pm and 7pm, an immersive participatory performance with a live score and visuals. Future Ritual delves into concepts of death, remembrance, transformation, rebirth, and the exchange of energy. To conclude the evening, a DJ set from Birthmark shares UK dance, obscure drum machine rhythms and words of truth to guide the night's festivities.
SATURDAY
The weekends activities start at midday with Onismo Muhlanga offering movement and moving image in homage to the divine maternal force that births and sustains us, followed by a second reading group session with Kathryn and Paul. Rebecca Jagoe presents a nonlinear durational performance across the ground and first floor, which imagines queerness and autism as an intimate relationship with a shard of stone lodged in the subjects’ brain. Later, Rebecca joins Lou Lou Sainsbury (pictured) for a discussion following the screening of Lou Lou's new moving image works, accompanied by screenings of two of her works. SERAFINE1369 presents a new performance with an original score exploring concepts of choreographic decay, fragmentation, cyclicality and fleeting catharsis. In a perfect blend for the evening, DOOMSCROLL then brings chaos, energy and Monty Dom to a Saturday night rave.
SUNDAY
On our final day, delve into Naomi Pearce and Stuart Middleton's intimate work-in-progress listening experience, where participants are encouraged to immerse themselves in the bog and explore horizontality. Gwenllian Spink collaborates with Yellow Back Books for a workshop utilising texts to contemplate the cyclical relationship between shifting seasons, with seeds available for a swap. Holly Slingsby presents a screening of newly created works with a Q&A with Claire Vaughan afterwards. Farah Allibhai's ritual burial performance offers hope for the new through earth, seeds, and food. Ffion Campbell-Davies' Your Skin is My Land (Home) foregrounds collective synergy through participatory Qigong, live sound and visuals. To conclude the festival, good cop bad cop (pictured) dive into the 'thin place' of the performance arena where mythology and reality intersect.
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Access & Facilities
Information on parking, access in our building and the access support that we offer for our programme and hires spaces.
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Getting here
We’re based in the former Canton High School, behind Cowbridge Road East, with great transport links to the rest of the city.
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What is Chapter?
We’re a hub for the production and presentation of world-class, inventive and compelling work.