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.
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.
Page | 2 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.
More info here.
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