Festival for disabled artists follow Paralympic Games

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

London’s Southbank Centre organizes a festival of art, music and other performances created by deaf and disabled artists. AFP Photo

London’s Southbank Centre will organize a major festival of art, dance, music and other performances created by deaf and disabled artists to coincide with this summer’s Paralympic Games, according to the British-based Art Newspaper. “Unlimited: the Revelation Starts Here” will open to the public on Aug. 30, the day after the games start, and run until the end of the games on Sept. 9.

The exhibition will include 29 major new works commissioned at a cost of 3 million pounds by the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, which is mainly funded by the National Lottery through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, alongside a host of other events, talks and performances, according to the Art Newspaper.

Many of the commissions – which include a new work by the Candoco Dance Company featuring performers from China, the United Kingdom and Brazil (the previous, current and future summer Olympic nations) – have premiered in other parts of the U.K. as part of the London 2012 Festival. Ultimately, the Southbank festival is a chance for visitors and Londoners to see all the commissions in a packed, 11-day period, according to the Art Newspaper. Other events include performances by conductor Charles Hazlewood’s British Paraorchestra and artist Bobby Baker’s Mad Gyms and Kitchens, as well as an exhibition of Baker’s “Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me.” “Creating the Spectacle!” by artist Sue Austin, meanwhile, documents amazing performances.

Speaking at an event to promote the upcoming event, Jude Kelly, the Southbank Centre’s artistic director, described the festival as “game-changing” and said, with the help of the British Council and other partners, the aim was to influence other nations’ attitudes to deaf and disabled artists, as well as to promote the artists to the British public.