GIasgow International 2016: After Dark Events

GI's gearing up for memorable events from Turner nominees Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Jedrzej Cichosz, along with temporary lounge area Châteaux Double Wide, the Fantom Cinema and roller rink choreography from Asparagus Piss Raindrop

Feature by Adam Benmakhlouf | 01 Apr 2016

We've given a well-deserved shout out to the socially engaged projects of the Glasgow International festival elsewhere, but there's further community building planned throughout 8-25 April, taking place across temporary bars, performance evenings, roller rink events and one-off cinemas.

Starting at 2.30pm on the first day of the festival (8 Apr), crypto-conceptual science fiction anti-climax band  Asparagus Piss Raindrop strap their art onto roller skates. Translating their choreography into poetic teasers, they promise: “The performance, viewed in compressed snapshot will look like a hybrid of Giorgio Moroder's giant poodle and a kind of floral gamelan scene circa 1986, with Prince going past, cute flames coming from his feet. Over the long form of real life time however, impossible to say. Costumes – certainly, lights (perhaps pointing the wrong way) – very likely, music – yes. We promised a flashback corner.”

Later on 8 April, from 7-9pm, Turner-nominated spouses Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Jedrzej Cichosz’s unleash their Mega Hammer pop-up event on regular Art School club night PVC. “Popping up and bursting into action,” in their own words, Chetwynd and Cichosz’s schedule of collaborative performances will be part of the opening party.

Summing up what’s planned for Mega Hammer, Chetwynd describes “pure expression, almost like air guitar.” After our interview, Chetwynd shared the entire plans for the whole evening – we won't give it all away, but you can start getting excited about artistic canapes, Guinness Book of Records achievements, and a 20-minute performance by Chetwynd and five performers with salamander and fire costumes.

Through 8-25 April in the Old Hairdresser’s, the collaborative project Fantom Cinema will present a programme based on Hauntology and the promise of future psychedelia. On 10 April, audiences are invited to participate in a five-minute unwaged internship to create a 'Work Book', published by artists Kevin Malcolm and Kristina Bengtsson. Then, until 15 April, there are screenings and discussions of international artists’ films, and a role-playing and radical world-building discussion card game.

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Next we head to the Avant Garde music bar in Trongate, where Zoe Williams and Urara Tsuchiya will set up their Châteaux Double Wide in the basement. One of these events will feature a mix of “live Tinder and adult baby beauty pageant," with judges lined up and a lifetime achievement award to be won – that takes place on 15 April, 8pm-12am.

Offsite, there will also be Hekate’s Sauna at the Old Barn inside Pollock Park on the weekend of 16-17 April, where Tsuchiya will host a dinner in the stables with performance artist Paul Kindersley dressed up as an animal. Aphrodisiac Feast's inspiration is clear: “It’s a bit like Beauty and the Beast, but more pornographic.” In the film there are “fantasies about horses; it’s not really certain if it’s a dream or fantasy.” At the end, the protagonist has sex with The Beast, who is killed by her lust.

Speaking about Châteaux Double Wide, Williams describes not wanting it to become “seriously just art”. Also important was not to be “too precious.” In the same sense, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd describes being “unaccountable in a really positive sense, as if you’re protecting a little bracket of a moment when you can be irresponsible. No need for archival material, no need for health and safety, no need for curators.”

It’s important for an art festival to include a sauna, some saucy evenings and flame suits at a club night. Of course, we'd advise you to see the many, many programmed exhibitions, but also to make some noise and meet people. In the spirit, we'll leave the last word to Asparagus Piss Raindrop: “The love connection comes from how we are with each other; tactile improvisations sewn into our everyday lives and then turned inside out.”


Asparagus Piss Raindrop: It's Called Discharge, Roller Stop, 8 Apr, 4.30pm
Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Jedrzej Cichosz: Mega Hammer, The Art School, 8 Apr, 7-9pm
Zoe Williams and Urara Tsuchiya: Châteaux Double Wide, Avant Garde Music Bar, 8-25 Apr
Fantom Cinema, The Old Hairdresser's, 10-15 Apr