DOCSLIB.ORG

1 a Provenance of Performance: Excavating New Art Histories

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

1 A Provenance of Performance: Excavating new art histories through a consideration of re-enactment and the perspectives of the audience. Sarah Elizabeth Wishart Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds, School of English October 2018 2 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2018 The University of Leeds Sarah Elizabeth Wishart “The right of Sarah Elizabeth Wishart to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.” 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Jeremy Deller and Graeme Miller who created this obsession of mine in the first place, who were always helpful, considered and discursive, thank you so very much. To my supervisor: Professor Stephen Bottoms for all his work during this never-ending part- time PhD to get me one way or another to the finish line. Thank you. To all the audiences from the screenings, focus groups & the walkers: Your anonymity was guaranteed, so I can’t thank you by name, but thank you very much for all your time and effort. Without you, this wouldn’t have happened. For all other academic and practical kinds of help I had in undertaking this research, particularly from: ACME, Iain Aitch, Felicity Armstrong, Artangel, Artsadmin, Frances Babbage, BBC Radio Leeds, David Beech, Anna Bitkina, Simon Cane, Chelsea School of Art, Sarah Cockburn, David Cross, Rod Dixon, David Douglass, Mike Figgis, Forced Entertainment, Howard Giles, Stewart Gledhill, Mark Godber, Mark Hunter, Phill Jupitus, Adrian Kear, Lois Kiedan, Matthew Kieran, Richard Leighton, Louise Lawson, Live Arts Development Agency, Alison Lloyd, Alison Marchant, Maureen Measure, Rosie Millard, Michael Morris, Andy Morgan, Eleanor Nairn, Terri O'Connor, Alan Read, Red Ladder Theatre, Jane Rendell, Dan Saul, Rebecca Schneider, Sheffield University Drama Department, Helen Statman, Sam Stockdale, Mark Taylor Batty, Des Thomas, Jane Verity, Boff Whalley, Deborah Youdell and finally to Andrew Raine and the other gorgeous people at Wharf Chambers, a rare place indeed. Very special thanks for Tim Etchells who has been generous in so many different ways over the years. From sharing his memories and thoughts on the work on numerous occasions – to networking me into spaces for screenings of Orgreave, to asking me to speak and write about Forced Entertainment, he has always been encouraging about my research and key in introducing me to the right people at the right times. It has meant a great deal. To all my many families: For the loan of the houses and boats where this was written, for ideas, connections, late-night emails, cattes, rousing challenges and to all who lined this painful, lonely, endless cross-country marathon route cheering me on from often far away, thank you. You are too many to name. Thanks to all the Wishart family particularly to my lovely sister Mary and her husband Jody. To the Power clan who were always so proud of my efforts, and particularly my uncle, Phillip Power and his Rachael Allain. Most of all to my mum, Jeannetta Wishart who propped me up at crucial times and enabled my dogged stubbornness. To Debbie Pearson, Jason Crouch & Bill Roberts, you were my research colleagues, the ones I didn’t have naturally because of the weirdness of a part-time PhD, and the particular weirdness of mine. To my best friend Kevin Sanders who radically proofed it and kindly didn’t argue with any of the politics in it before I submitted. To Una Bauer for all the time you gave me from so far away - mostly via Skype. Jon Owen who helped me over the stumbles time after time. Kirsty Sedgman who was so kind and supportive at crucial moments. Tana West who always finds the evidence to prove my way of doing things isn’t wrong. And James Mackenzie who turned up in my life at the very last moment of this work but did much to tease me over the line. But extra special thanks to Nicholas Middleton who was there all the way from before the beginning, all the way to the end. Who came to all the shows, let me bounce all the ideas off him, and did the walk nearly as many times as I did without complaining once and finally gently and kindly proofed it one last time. You have been a much better art education than I think I could have ever had at an institution. Not only has this work shaped my practice, enabled me to think about ways to shift my own experience of violent trauma into art, but it has protected me against so many external events, given me reason to keep on keeping on, and been a space to hide when things fell apart. So, I must finally tell that student of Dave Gillborn, who I met only once on the day of her successful PhD viva in Gordon Square a lifetime ago. I followed your advice, I enjoyed the journey, even if I didn’t realise it until the very very end. 4 Abstract .................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1 – Introduction to a Provenance of Performance ........................................ 8 Why these artworks? ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Why an archaeological perspective? ........................................................................................................... 11 Why the adoption of provenance? ................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter outline ..................................................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 – Archaeology, Provenance and A Consideration of Re-enactment ......... 20 Re-enactment ........................................................................................................................................................ 22 Re-enactment and contemporary art .......................................................................................................... 23 Documentation of performance and provenance .................................................................................. 26 Chapter 3 – Provenance and The Perspective of the Audience ................................ 31 Documentation and audiences ....................................................................................................................... 31 Audience and the Theatre ................................................................................................................................ 31 Different kinds of audience engagement ................................................................................................... 33 Longitudinal research into theatre audiences ........................................................................................ 36 Listening to audiences ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Art spaces and audiences ................................................................................................................................. 40 How to talk to audiences .................................................................................................................................. 42 Chapter 4 - The methodology of my research .......................................................... 44 Audiences: methodologies and processes ................................................................................................ 44 The best ways to listen – working with quantitative data collection ............................................ 46 Overview of methods ......................................................................................................................................... 47 Screenings and walks ......................................................................................................................................... 50 Practical problems ............................................................................................................................................... 50 The unheard audiences or why didn’t I just turn up at Orgreave? ................................................. 52 Chapter 5 - Jeremy Deller’s The Battle of Orgreave ................................................. 59 A history of The Battle of Orgreave .............................................................................................................. 59 Battle lines and tactics of the government ................................................................................................ 62 Police action at Orgreave .................................................................................................................................. 64 Disparities in reporting – the BBC at Orgreave ...................................................................................... 65 The Provenance of the artwork The Battle of Orgreave ...................................................................... 68 The making of the Battle of Orgreave ........................................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Century American Gilded Picture Frames Hugh Glover

    Century American Gilded Picture Frames Hugh Glover

    Tech Notes, Fall 2006 Care and use of 19th-century American gilded picture frames Hugh Glover icture frames are a component of most art collections and are subject to wear and tear in their functional role surrounding paint- P ings. Damage to frames occurs during exhibition, storage, and travel, and is caused by handling, hanging processes, adverse environments, neglect, and irreversible restorations. Picture frames are maintained by a variety of preservation specialist and their preservation interests have only rarely been addressed. The following is Section 4 of a larger paper, “A Description of 19th- Century American Gilded Picture Frames and an Outline of their Modern Use and Conservation,” presented in June to the Wooden Artifact Group at the 2006 annual meeting of AIC in Providence, Rhode Island. This sec- tion addresses general preservation, handling and preparation of frames for exhibition. Environment Gilded wood objects are ultra sensitive to environmental conditions and are probably more sensitive than most paintings. Gilded wood in adverse climates experiences detachment and loss of gilding/or- nament, while the accumulation of grime leads to surface darkening and cleaning campaigns that may well cause damage. The protected bright gilding that survives on shadow boxed frames of the second half-century illustrates how more exposed gilding has now been altered by grime, abrasion, and staining from moisture and grease during handling. Handling All gilded objects should be handled with non-marring gloves to avoid abrasions and staining, and even paper towels or cotton cloth will suffice. In practice, however, gilded frames are still handled with bare hands as the frame is considered a safe means of handling the artwork.
  • Indiana Archaeology

    Indiana Archaeology

    INDIANA ARCHAEOLOGY Volume 5 Number 2 2010/2011 Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Indiana Department of Natural Resources Robert E. Carter, Jr., Director and State Historic Preservation Officer Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA) James A. Glass, Ph.D., Director and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer DHPA Archaeology Staff James R. Jones III, Ph.D., State Archaeologist Amy L. Johnson Cathy L. Draeger-Williams Cathy A. Carson Wade T. Tharp Editors James R. Jones III, Ph.D., State Archaeologist Amy L. Johnson, Senior Archaeologist and Archaeology Outreach Coordinator Cathy A. Carson, Records Check Coordinator Publication Layout: Amy L. Johnson Additional acknowledgments: The editors wish to thank the authors of the submitted articles, as well as all of those who participated in, and contributed to, the archaeological projects which are highlighted. Cover design: The images which are featured on the cover are from several of the individual articles included in this journal. Mission Statement: The Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology promotes the conservation of Indiana’s cultural resources through public education efforts, financial incentives including several grant and tax credit programs, and the administration of state and federally mandated legislation. 2 For further information contact: Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology 402 W. Washington Street, Room W274 Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2739 Phone: 317/232-1646 Email: [email protected] www.IN.gov/dnr/historic 2010/2011 3 Indiana Archaeology Volume 5 Number 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Authors of articles were responsible for ensuring that proper permission for the use of any images in their articles was obtained.
  • Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings 306

    Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings 306

    PART FOUR Current Approaches to the Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings 306 Florentine Structural Stabilization Techniques Andrea Rothe and Giovanni Marussich by the great flood of 1966 in Florence than by both World Wars combined. Many paintings Mand other artifacts were submerged in the floodwaters for more than eighteen hours. They were covered with mud mixed with heavy deposits of heating oil that had seeped from the storage tanks housed in the many basements of the city.The worst damage was done to the large num- ber of panel paintings in Florence and the surrounding countryside; those that had been submerged swelled many inches beyond their original size. Subsequently, these paintings were subjected to a long and gradual drying process, first in the limonaia, the old hothouses built by the Medici in the Boboli Gardens for their favorite collection of citrus plants. These hothouses were quickly converted into one large humidity chamber. The humidity was raised to 95% at a temperature of 12 °C over a two-year period. Afterward, the treatment was continued in the former army bar- racks of the Fortezza da Basso, which in the meantime had been trans- formed into the largest restoration laboratory in the world; it had, in fact, become an independent governmental department, a soprintendenza, by special decree. Despite the carefully controlled drying process, many of the panels shrank considerably. This shrinkage caused severe blistering and cupping of the paint layers, as well as deformation of the supports (Cianfanelli, Ciani Passeri, and Rossi Scarzanella 1992). Consequently, many of the panel paintings had to be transferred to canvases and to new, rigid supports.
  • A FUND for the FUTURE Francis Alÿs Stephan Balkenhol Matthew

    A FUND for the FUTURE Francis Alÿs Stephan Balkenhol Matthew

    ARTISTS FOR ARTANGEL Francis Alÿs Stephan Balkenhol Matthew Barney Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller Vija Celmins José Damasceno Jeremy Deller Rita Donagh Peter Dreher Marlene Dumas Brian Eno Ryan Gander Robert Gober Nan Goldin Douglas Gordon Antony Gormley Richard Hamilton Susan Hiller Roger Hiorns Andy Holden Roni Horn Cristina Iglesias Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Mike Kelley + Laurie Anderson / Kim Gordon / Cameron Jamie / Cary Loren / Paul McCarthy / John Miller / Tony Oursler / Raymond Pettibon / Jim Shaw / Marnie Weber Michael Landy Charles LeDray Christian Marclay Steve McQueen Juan Muñoz Paul Pfeiffer Susan Philipsz Daniel Silver A FUND FOR THE FUTURE Taryn Simon 7-28 JUNE 2018 Wolfgang Tillmans Richard Wentworth Rachel Whiteread Juan Muñoz, Untitled, ca. 2000 (detail) Francis Alÿs Stephan Balkenhol Matthew Barney Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller Vija Celmins José Damasceno Jeremy Deller Rita Donagh Peter Dreher Marlene Dumas Brian Eno ADVISORY GROUP Ryan Gander Hannah Barry Robert Gober Erica Bolton Nan Goldin Ivor Braka Douglas Gordon Stephanie Camu Antony Gormley Angela Choon Richard Hamilton Sadie Coles Susan Hiller Thomas Dane Roger Hiorns Marie Donnelly Andy Holden Ayelet Elstein Roni Horn Gérard Faggionato LIVE AUCTION 28 JUNE 2018 Cristina Iglesias Stephen Friedman CONDUCTED BY ALEX BRANCZIK OF SOTHEBY’S Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Marianne Holtermann AT BANQUETING HOUSE, WHITEHALL, LONDON Mike Kelley + Rebecca King Lassman Laurie Anderson / Kim Gordon / Prue O'Day Cameron Jamie / Cary Loren / Victoria Siddall ONLINE
  • On the Very Idea of a “Political” Work of Art*

    On the Very Idea of a “Political” Work of Art*

    The Journal of Political Philosophy: Volume 29, Number 1, 2021, pp. 25–45 On the Very Idea of a “Political” Work of Art* Diarmuid Costello Philosophy, University of Warwick I. “POLITICAL ART” AND/OR “POLITICAL ARTISTS” RT can be “political” in a variety of ways. Mobilizing these differences offers Acorrespondingly many ways for artists producing “political art” to understand themselves, and the activity in which they are engaged. To demonstrate this, I focus on a particular work of art (The Battle of Orgreave, 2001), by a particular contemporary artist (Jeremy Deller), seeking to locate it within this broader possibility space. The work consists in a re-enactment, as art, of a notoriously bloody confrontation that took place between police and picketing miners during the 1984–5 National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike. Deller has said of an earlier work, Acid Brass (1999), comprising the rearrangement for brass band of various acid house anthems from the 1980s: “It was a political work but not, I hope, in a hectoring way. To be called a ‘political artist’ is, for me, a kiss of death, as it suggests a fixed or dogmatic position like that of a politician.” Of The Battle of Orgreave. he remarked in the same interview: I went to a number of historical re-enactments, and they mostly seemed drained of the political and social narratives behind the original events … I wanted instead to work with re-enactors on a wholly political re-enactment of a battle … one that had taken place within living memory, that would be re-staged in the place it had happened, involving many of the people who had been there the first time round.1 *An early draft of this article was given at the Art and Politics symposium, held in conjunction with Jeremy Deller’s exhibition English Magic at Margate Contemporary (Nov.
  • Breaking News: Alcohol Banned at This Year's Law Revue

    Breaking News: Alcohol Banned at This Year's Law Revue

    the commentatorThe Student Newspaper of the New York University School of Law Volume XLIII, Number 11 March 24, 2010 Breaking News: Alcohol Banned at This Year’s Law Revue Bottles and Loud Patrons Blamed for Policy Change; Pre-Show Parties to Occur Before Every Show BY MICHAEL MIX ’11 “[Dean Richard] Revesz has auditorium aisles and from rowdy administration felt that it had searching of persons before the EDITOR -IN -CHIEF had a lot of issues in the past … crowds in general. Instead of in- no choice but to put the ban in show. In addition, to help maintain mostly because there has been such troducing the alcohol ban then, the place this year. While no alcohol some of Law Revue’s traditional Law Revue, NYU Law’s an- a culture of bottles, bottles running administration made a deal with is allowed, there will not be any place in the community, there will nual music parody, has traditionally down the aisle, bottles clinking, Law Revue in which its members be “pre-parties” before every show, been an alcohol-laden event, as and it seems like the Law Revue would police the 2009 show. These sponsored by different groups on students could bring drinks into audience has to drink as loudly as policing measures included an- Pre-Show Parties campus. A list of pre-parties can nouncements during be found in the accompanying • Apr. 7, 6:30 - 7:45 in Gold- the show, students pa- berg, hosted by student groups sidebar. trolling the aisles, and “One of the positives is that an SBA email asking • Apr.
  • This Is a Pre-Proof Version. for Citation Consult Final Published Version in Hart, C. and Kelsey, D. (Eds.), Discourses of Diso

    This Is a Pre-Proof Version. for Citation Consult Final Published Version in Hart, C. and Kelsey, D. (Eds.), Discourses of Diso

    This is a pre-proof version. For citation consult final published version in Hart, C. and Kelsey, D. (eds.), Discourses of Disorder: Riots, Strikes and Protests in the Media. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp.133-153. Metaphor and the (1984-85) Miners’ Strike: A Multimodal Analysis Christopher Hart 0. Introduction Recent research in Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Linguistic Critical Discourse Studies (CL-CDS) has shown that metaphor plays a significant role in structuring our understanding of social identities, actions and events. This research also demonstrates that metaphorical modes of understanding are not restricted in their articulation to language but find expression too in visual and multimodal genres of communication. In this chapter, I show how one metaphorical framing – STRIKE IS WAR – featured in multimodal media representations of the 1984-85 British Miners’ Strike. I analyse this metaphorical framing from a critical semiotic standpoint to argue that the conceptualisations invoked by these framing efforts served to ‘otherise’ the miners while simultaneously legitimating the actions during the strike of the Government and the police. I begin, in Section 1, with a brief introduction to the British Miners’ Strike. In Section 2, I introduce in more detail cognitive metaphor theory and the notion of multimodal metaphor. In Section 3, I briefly introduce the data to be analysed. In Section 5, I show how the STRIKE IS WAR metaphor featured in the language of news reports as well as in two multimodal genres - press photographs and editorial cartoons - and consider the potential (de)legitimating effects of this framing. Finally, in Section 5, I offer some conclusions.
  • KATE TYNDALL London & UK Where Strangers Meet 1

    KATE TYNDALL London & UK Where Strangers Meet 1

    MAKING JEREMY DELLER’S WE’RE HERE BECAUSE WE’RE HERE KATE TYNDALL London & UK Where Strangers Meet 1 Making Jeremy Deller’s We’re here because we’re here Text by Kate Tyndall On 1st July 2016, early in the morning, over 1,400 volunteers dressed in First World War uniforms began to appear on the streets, slip roads and landscapes of mainland and island Britain. Each represented a soldier who had died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, exactly 100 years before, and wore an individual authentic uniform. In towns and cities, on mountain ranges and island ferry crossings, railway concourses and roundabouts, in underpasses and shopping centres they marched in silence, gathered, waited and moved on, breaking only to sing elliptical bursts of We’re Here Because We’re Here – which was sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne in the First World War trenches. Following close to 80 routes in more than 50 locations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, unannounced and unexplained, they handed out cards in silence to members of the public stating the name, rank and regiment of the soldier they represented and, where known, his age on the day he died. Two million people witnessed the soldiers. Some were indifferent, others watched from a distance. But from the earliest moments, more than anyone had anticipated, people drew forward, looked on quietly, asked what they were doing, took a card, and found themselves experiencing a powerful response. Moved by the physical presence of these men, and realising what it was they were being asked to consider, people were tearful, silent, wanting to know more, grateful, stirred up, reflective.
  • Cover 3 1.Indd

    Cover 3 1.Indd

    Interface A journal for and about social movements VOL 3 ISSUE 1: REPRESSION & MOVEMENTS Interface: a journal for and about social movements Contents Volume 3 (1): i - iv (May 2011) Interface volume 3 issue 1 Repression and social movements Interface: a journal for and about social movements Volume 3 issue 1 (May 2011) ISSN 2009 – 2431 Table of contents (pp. i – iv) Editorial Cristina Flesher Fominaya and Lesley Wood, Repression and social movements (pp. 1 – 11) Articles: repression and social movements Peter Ullrich and Gina Rosa Wollinger, A surveillance studies perspective on protest policing: the case of video surveillance of demonstrations in Germany (P) (pp. 12- 38) Liz Thompson and Ben Rosenzweig, Public policy is class war pursued by other means: struggle and restructuring as international education economy (P) (pp. 39 - 80) Kristian Williams, The other side of the COIN: counter-insurgency and community policing (P) (pp. 81 - 117) Fernanda Maria Vieira and J. Flávio Ferreira, “Não somos chilenos, somos mapuches!”: as vozes do passado no presente da luta mapuche por seu território (P) (pp. 118 - 144) Roy Krøvel, From indios to indígenas: Guerrilla perspectives on indigenous peoples and repression in Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua (P) (pp. 145 – 171) i Interface: a journal for and about social movements Contents Volume 3 (1): i - iv (May 2011) Action / practice notes and event analysis Musab Younis, British tuition fee protest, November 9, 2010, London (event analysis, pp. 172 - 181) Dino Jimbi, Campanha “Não partam a minha casa” (action note, pp. 182 - 184) Mac Scott, G20 mobilizing in Toronto and community organizing: opportunities created and lessons learned (action note, pp.
  • How to Be a Feminist in the Twenty-First Century

    How to Be a Feminist in the Twenty-First Century

    How to Be a Feminist in the Twenty-First Century Georgia Christinidis (University of Rostock) Feminism, the Assault on Women’s Times on 20 October 2017, that Reproductive Rights, and Sexual “feminism”, as a purely western credo Harassment born in America of postwar affluence, is no longer particularly relevant, to me or to n 2006, feminist cri- others. The principle of equality between Itic Toril Moi claimed that the sexes is now sturdily enshrined within a general notion of liberal human We are witnessing the emergence of a whole rights; feminism has done its work there new generation of women who are careful to preface every gender-related claim that seems laughable to me at a time when just might come across as unconventional there is a backlash against those very with “I am not a feminist, but_”. rights, with various incarnations of It is a familiar phrase; one that I suspect the alt-right leading the assault while everyone who teaches gender and/or decrying what they often refer to as feminism has heard their students use “gender madness”, and purportedly at least occasionally. In the face of the ‘mainstream’ politicians like US assumptions usually implicit in this President Donald Trump, President disavowal of feminism, that feminists of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, and Prime are “strident” or unreasonable in their Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán not demands, or, on the other hand, that far, if at all, behind. A central goal of the feminism has nothing more to offer alt-right seems to be to curtail women’s contemporary women because its aims reproductive rights; this ties in both have long been achieved, I find it not with the patriarchal view of the family only easy but necessary and urgent to frequently espoused by its members, and self-identify as a feminist.
  • One to One Performance a Study Room Guide on Works Devised for an ‘Audience of One’

    One to One Performance a Study Room Guide on Works Devised for an ‘Audience of One’

    One to One Performance A Study Room Guide on works devised for an ‘audience of one’ Compiled & written by Rachel Zerihan 2009 LADA Study Room Guides As part of the continuous development of the Study Room we regularly commission artists and thinkers to write personal Study Room Guides on specific themes. The idea is to help navigate Study Room users through the resource, enable them to experience the materials in a new way and highlight materials that they may not have otherwise come across. All Study Room Guides are available to view in our Study Room, or can be viewed and/or downloaded directly from their Study Room catalogue entry. Please note that materials in the Study Room are continually being acquired and updated. For details of related titles acquired since the publication of this Guide search the online Study Room catalogue with relevant keywords and use the advance search function to further search by category and date. Cover image credit: Ang Bartram, Tonguing, Centro de Documentacion, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, photographer Antonio Juarez, 2006 Live Art Development Agency Study Room Guide on ONE TO ONE PERFORMANCE BY RACHEL ZERIHAN and OREET ASHERY FRANKO B ANG BARTRAM JESS DOBKIN DAVIS FREEMAN/RANDOM SCREAM ADRIAN HOWELLS DOMINIC JOHNSON EIRINI KARTSAKI LEENA KELA BERNI LOUISE SUSANA MENDES-SILVA KIRA O’REILLY JIVA PARTHIPAN MICHAEL PINCHBECK SAM ROSE SAMANTHA SWEETING MARTINA VON HOLN 1 Contents Page No. Introduction What is a “One to One”? 3 How Might One Trace the Origins of One to One Performance? 4 My Approach in Making
  • Under Embargo Until 7Pm, 1 July 2016 the National Theatre Takes

    Under Embargo Until 7Pm, 1 July 2016 the National Theatre Takes

    Under embargo until 7pm, 1 July 2016 The National Theatre takes part in 14-18 NOW’s UK-wide work by Jeremy Deller to commemorate the centenary of the Somme Hundreds of volunteers led by the National Theatre were part of a UK-wide event that took place today, 1 July 2016, as a modern memorial to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. Commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary, the work was conceived and created by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller in collaboration with Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre. The specially commissioned event saw around 1,500 voluntary participants dressed in First World War uniform appear unexpectedly in locations across the UK. The National Theatre was one of 27 organisations which collaborated on the work, called ‘we’re here because we’re here’. It was produced by Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the National Theatre, working in close collaboration with partners including: Lyric Theatre Belfast, Manchester Royal Exchange, National Theatre of Scotland, National Theatre Wales, Northern Stage, Playhouse Derry-Londonderry, Salisbury Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres and Theatre Royal Plymouth. The project breaks new ground in terms of its scale, breadth, reach and the number of partners and participants involved. This is the first time three national theatres have worked together on a joint project, and the first time so many theatres have worked together on a UK-wide participation project. The participants who walked the streets today were a reminder of the 19,240 men who were killed on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.