Since 2005, Tom Trevor has been the Director of Arnolfini, Bristol鈥檚 innovative interdisciplinary art space. Having worked as an artist, musician, television producer, lecturer and independent curator, Trevor is well versed in bringing different art forms together.
What does your programme hold for April/May? Is there always an overarching theme between the disciplines?
Recently we have been developing the programme around broad themes. Our current season, Lingua Franca, looks at the power thresholds that exist within language. For example, if you think about translation, or even pronunciation, and all those different territories defined through language. We鈥檝e just opened an exhibition as part of this by Imogen Stidworthy who works with people who have lost the power of speech, often through accidents, and have had to re-learn how to talk. In the summer, we have a big one-person show by the LA-based artist, Kerry Tribe, and we鈥檝e commissioned a major new work from her, working with Modern Art Oxford and Camden Arts Centre.
How would you define the Arnolfini experience?
It鈥檚 about experimentation. We鈥檙e always going to be edgy rather than mainstream. We鈥檝e just come out of our Artist / Activist season that鈥檚 been very much about participation and collaborative projects, so that has been very intense, focusing on dialogue and co-generation of new work. I guess this next season is going back to more of an observer/critic role for audiences, but there are many different activities alongside it that people can get actively involved in.
What is it that makes this interdisciplinary format so important?
Arnolfini has always been a mixed art centre, perhaps primarily known for the visual arts, but that crossing over between art forms is what produces risky, new experimental work. We鈥檙e also well known for our live art programme. Film, music, dance, online projects and literature are all part of this particular chemistry. It鈥檚 a real spectrum of the arts. I suppose you could say that visual arts have tended to be more towards the introverted end of the spectrum, which is part of its engine, its critical rigour. It鈥檚 good to have a mix of different attitudes bumping up against each other.
Could you tell me a bit about the forthcoming Otto Zitko & Louise Bourgeois exhibition Me, Myself and I?
It鈥檚 Otto鈥檚 first show in the UK, but he has worked in museums across the world. He makes vast abstract, free-drawing interventions and, at Arnolfini, he鈥檚 going to be scribbling across all of our interior walls over three floors for three weeks. Contrasting with that is Louise Bourgeois鈥 latest drawings, as well as work from the 1940s. She鈥檚 now in her 99th year. What she鈥檚 been doing recently is a series called Je T鈥檃ime. She describes these drawings as being about relationships and the emotional, psychological boundaries between people, whereas Otto鈥檚 work is a kind of omnipotent projection of self.
You have Electric Hotel coming up; how was it brought to life through the combination of sound and dance?
We鈥檙e collaborating with Mayfest, which is a really interesting experimental theatre festival in Bristol, and Electric Hotel is going to be the centrepiece. It鈥檚 a dance piece that has come out of Sadler鈥檚 Wells and effectively you鈥檙e seeing into a constructed hotel, with bodies visible behind frosted glass, and listening into their conversations, via headphones. It鈥檚 going to be quite a spectacle.
How has the changing economic climate in recent years affected audience鈥檚 responses to new works?
I was an artist in London during the last recession, having studied at Goldsmiths in the 1980s, and it was a really productive time. Along with my contemporaries, we were producing shows in warehouses, without any money, but really trying things out. Then the market picked up and seemed to seal all of this experimentation up, packaging it and re-branding it. All through that YBA period, it was as if the market was still feeding off the ideas we鈥檇 been developing in the 1980s, but somehow it had been taken over by a commercial imperative. So I think it鈥檚 a healthy time for arts now, despite the economic downturn, a time to re-think, review and get some fresh ideas.
Is the 鈥渄igital age鈥 a good thing for art?
Digital is definitely transforming the landscape, not just as a tool, but creating a different set of relationships. If anything, the thing that鈥檚 being left behind is that old passive role of audiences coming into a space, feeling baffled and intimidated 鈥 that鈥檚 not acceptable anymore, we鈥檝e got to engage people and find new ways of enabling them to get involved. The autumn season, which we have called Old Media, specifically talks about definitions of new media. At the same time, many artists are returning to 鈥渙ld media鈥 such as 16mm film or TV. We鈥檝e been using this term new media for more than 20 years now, so what do we really mean? After all, the new media of today is only the old media of tomorrow.
What are your aims for Arnolfini for the future?
We鈥檝e been through quite a radical shift recently, and it鈥檚 our 50th anniversary next year, which is going to be a platform to the next 50 years. Our five strategic priorities are experimentation, interdisciplinarity, interaction, social context and internationalism. Within the microcosm of Bristol, we can explore all of the issues of internationalism and globalisation, as a port city and as a place made up of different communities. It is incredibly rich territory for artists, and the starting point has to be critical dialogue and debate that engages with different audiences. That鈥檚 our vision. We like to think of ourselves as a space for ideas.
