OverWorlds & UnderWorlds has begun. An eruption on Briggate in central Leeds has surprised & intrigued shoppers and pedestrians. Direct from the imaginations of the Quay Brothers, the familiar street has been radically re-imagined as a 14 metre wide sculpture burst through onto the surface of Leeds overnight.

It has arrived just ahead of the main event next weekend, 18-20 May, when Leeds will be flooded by artists, musicians and performers channelling the Quay Brothers vision into the atmospheric Dark Arches, the elegant County Arcade, and the busy streets in and around Briggate.

Join us at the Dark Arches, County Arcade or on Briggate to collect a map & explore the OverWorlds & UnderWorlds, allowing yourself a couple of relaxed hours for this enigmatic multi-venue experience. For further details, hints and clues follow @OW_UW, Leeds Canvas’s Facebook page or visit overworldsandunderworlds.com

OverWorlds & UnderWorlds,

18-20 May, Leeds City Centre, Free.

• Fri 18 May 5pm-9pm: County Arcade Performances 5pm, 7pm. Dark Arches open 5-9pm
• Sat 19 May 2pm-9pm: County Arcade Performances 2.30pm, 5pm, 7pm. Dark Arches open 4-9pm
• Sun 20 May 2pm-5pm: County Arcade Performances 2pm, 3.15pm. Dark Arches open 2-5pm

This week, the OverWorlds & UnderWorlds production team moved into the Dark Arches to take on the challenge of building the dream that has been in development since 2009. It’s a formidable task as they prepare to turn this huge, beautiful, unconventional performance space into something otherworldly.

Adam Long, of TG Events, responsible for transforming the arches is under no illusion about the size of the task, “Yesterday we laid 2km of mains cable, today its 2km for sound.  And as the river runs through the installation, with all this rain we work with one eye on the forecast.”

Jason Taylor, is the Lighting Designer who’s job it is to transform the Dark Arches using 450 lights and hundreds of metres of cable. He said, “Lighting so many spaces within the Dark Arches is a great challenge which I am enjoying immensly. I have to create the right mood, illuminate the fantastic Quay-designed installations and  light four very different dance pieces. It’s a wonderful opportunity for a lighting designer.”

Photo by Tom Arber: Danny Owen, Tim Garbutt, Jason Taylor, Adam Long

Music has been written and recorded.  Dancers are in rehearsal rooms.  The team of artists assembled by Leeds Canvas and the Brothers Quay has begun to prepare to realise the Brothers’ mysterious, darkly beautiful & ethereal ideas in some of Leeds’ most impressive public spaces. OverWorlds & UnderWorlds will involve live performance and installations to create a large-scale public event involving music, dance, theatre, film and light. Rivalling the scale, complexity & ambition of a major feature film, it goes on location in the centre of Leeds from 18-20 May 2012 where the event will be staged for free, for one weekend only.  The Dark Arches is only one of our locations.

The lead artists filling this awesome space are:

Gavin Bryars: Composer

Mic Pool: Sound Designer

Jason Taylor: Lighting Designer

Kelly Jago: Designer

Daniel de Andrade: Choreographer

Gary Clarke: Choreographer

Charlotte Vincent: Choreographer

Douglas Thorpe: Choreographer

Daniel will be working with dancers from Northern ballet, Charlotte with dancers of Phoenix Dance Theatre, Gary and Douglas with their own companies.

In the Brother’s words, “This is the first time we have been invited to work on such an enormous scale, and we’re delighted to be working with such an exciting and talented group of artists and designers. Leeds is a city full of unusual spaces that resonate with our ideas and those of the creative team. OverWorlds & UnderWorlds is going to take all of us into new territory, through familiar spaces, perceived in unfamiliar ways.”

Choreographer Gary Clarke says: “This is a fantastic opportunity to work in unusual spaces that are usually off limits to performers, and with other artists I admire, combining our individual experience and our different artistic backgrounds, to create something fresh and unusual that audiences won’t forget in a hurry.”

OverWorlds & UnderWorlds will take place across the heart of the city.  As Adam Ogilvie, who holds the portfolio for Leisure in Leeds Council says, “The Quay Brothers’ Dormitorium Exhibition at Light Night in October was loved by the thousands of people who saw it in Leeds Town Hall, and as an insight into their world it was the perfect taster for what we can expect with the spectacular OverWorlds & UnderWorlds, which will be like nothing else Leeds has ever seen before.”

To follow the story visit overworldsandunderworlds.com or follow @OWUW

Photos: Gary Clarke, Daniel de Andrade, Gavin Bryars, Charlotte Vincent

Click here to view the embedded video.

Space2 have been working with people in Seacroft and Gipton, local artists and Yorkshire Dance in a beautiful stretch or urban greenery.  Taking their lead from the idea we are exploring – using the place we live as a canvas – and one the themes the Brothers chose for OverWorlds & UnderWorlds – the flow of people and water. Let Emma Goodway from Space2, Kate Ferris Neely from Yorkshire Dance and sound artist Kevin Hickson explain…

but remember, ignore the credit at the end, the Wykebeck Arts Trail will now take place on Sunday 13th May … noon ’til four. The trail starts at Killingbeck Fields, LS9 – where Wykebeck Valley Road & Foundry Lane meet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Their ideas, subject to much speculation, will be shrouded in secrecy until 18th May, although we can reveal they have attracted high profile collaborators to work with them, including composer Gavin Bryars, writer Blake Morrison and choreographer Gary Clarke.

As we count down the days until OverWorlds & UnderWorlds begin to emerge from the streets of Leeds, we invite you to join us for a special screening of the Quay Brothers films at Hyde Park Picture House on Tuesday 24th April.

The Quay Brothers will be introducing four of their animated films:

Street of Crocodiles (1987)

Maska (2010) – British Animation Award Winner 2012

Stille Nacht 1: Dramolet (1988)

In Absentia: (2000)

The screening will be introduced by Stephen & Timothy Quay, and followed by discussion with the Brothers led by Nick Ahad of the Yorkshire Post.

The Quay Brothers have also chosen two feature films which convey some of the cinematic influences for OverWorlds & UnderWorlds. See Jean Cocteau’s Orphée on 15 April and David Lynch’s Mullholland Drive on 12 May.

This event is a collaboration between Leeds Canvas and the wonderful people at Hyde Park Picture House and The Culture Vulture who we would like to thank for their tireless energy and enthusiasm for making this event possible.

OverWorlds & UnderWorlds: The Quay Brothers Special Screening, Tuesday 24 April 2012, 6.40pm. Adult Stalls £4.00. Adult Balcony: £6.00.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

OverWorlds & UnderWorlds taking place in the city 18th, 19th & 20th May 2012.

Alex Croft takes a v-bloggers look at the launch

Moira Innes, Director of Leeds Met Gallery and Studio Theatre writes …

On Light Night – October 7th – we launch the Dormitorium, an exhibition by the Quay Brothers of what they call film decors and having sorted out all the pragmatic details we spent time last week with the Brothers discussing the installation. The connotations of Leeds Town Hall Crypt seemed perfect to add to the dark mystery suggested by this series of miniature film sets.

Stephen and Timothy left charged by the potential and so in a couple of weeks’ time we will set about transforming the venue from being a fully functional hall into a darkened world.

Physically dark with internal lighting to lure you to come closer, the glass cases are filled with enigmatic scenes that invite you to complete the narrative. Dolls taken apart and re-assembled, lush fabrics, neon signs, strange contraptions.  A different era.  Quills and lenses to look through.

The unheimlich comes to mind where you are viewing something uncomfortably familiar or is that uncomfortably strange, where you are not afraid or shocked but simply unsettled.  How do we make sense of all this?   When I saw the exhibition some months ago, I found my mind flowing in and out of stories and making wonderfully irrational connections between the various decors.  There was no right or wrong path, only my imagination.

For many this will be the first encounter of the dark and mysterious world of the Quays but they do have quite a cult following and I have had several approach me who are keen to work on the exhibition.  This enthusiasm is so refreshing and offers the ideal scenario where knowledgeable staff will be able to engage visitor in the work.

This exhibition, can be seen as the first tangible step in the journey we want to take you on as we work towards the realisation of The Quay Brothers in May 2012.

The exhibition runs 8 October – 3 November

Tuesday – Friday, 11am – 5pm   Saturday 11am – 4pm  with an informal tour at 1pm each day

7 October, 6pm – 10pm Exhibition open as part of Light Night