Merz Barn

Ian Hunter & Celia Larner: Agri-Merz: from ArtBarns to the Merz Barn

Lecture at an event arranged by Jan-Erik Andersson and AmosLAB 7.12.2015 in Turku, Finland.

How Kurt Schwitters came to the aid of English hill farmers; Pillar III, artists propose a new cultural framework for EU CAP agriculture reform and rural development policy. Following the FMD (Foot and Mouth) farm animal epidemic in Britain in 2001 which cost the United Kingdom some £8 billion (Euro 11 billion), the UK Government called for radical new creative thinking in rebuilding the post-FMD rural economy and in promoting innovation in the agriculture sector.  In response, the Littoral Arts Trust persuaded Arts Council England to support the establishment of a national arts and cultural strategy for the agriculture sector. However, the Arts Council, initially, said that it was not their job to support farmers, etc., and also that, in their view, there were no precedents for making art work on farms!   So we brought in Kurt Schwitters and referenced his extraordinary Merz Barn project in rural Cumbria (merzbarn.net). The rest, as they say,  is history!We also helped to set up the  Rural Cultural Forum (ruralculture.org.uk) in 2007, as a cultural advocacy and lobby for farming culture and creative rural communities. 
Ian Hunter and Celia Larner are the artist directors of the Littoral Arts Trust, which for over 25 years has been promoting new critical art practices in response to issues to do with accelerated social, cultural, environmental, and economic change in mainly rural areas in the UK (littoral.org.uk).

Christine Clinckx,Tribute To Kurt Schwitters,Video Assemblage, Merzbarn Elterwater, UK

Christine Clinckx, Tribute To Kurt Schwitters, Video Assemblage , Merzbarn Elterwater, Langdale, Great Brittain , 2013. I dedicate this video to Ian Hunter and Celia Larner for giving me the opportunity to make this video. Special thanks to Littoral Arts Trust director of the Merzbarn project : Ian Hunter and Celia Larner, New research and residential centre for art students, artists and architects and artist Carina Gosselé
We stayed for 5 days to work on a project, a video assemblage as a tribute to Kurt Schwitters, Merzbarn. I gathered at the shore of England waste that washed ashore from the sea and I did an assemblage action at the Merzbarn. This video is the result. more info clinckx.net

Hatton Gallery - Merzbarn - Newcastle University

Merzbild 25 A Kurt Schwitters

On the way up to Lingmoor 16th October 2011

On the way up to Lingmoor in the lake district national park.
the 1st of a few vids taken on the 15th October 2011..Emmanual Church walk on a 9 mile walk in the lake district from Elterwater up to lingmoor fell, to side pike down to Little langdale valley, past Blea tarn to Wrynose pass, past little langdale tarn and back to Elterwater..

Elterwater & Ambleside

The Lake District. England.

Cumbria

Hello!

This is a little video of our research trip to Ambleside, Cumbria, the last home of German artist Kurt Schwitters.

Our musical, Here, is set upon Cylinder Farm, where Schwitters stayed and worked on his Merzbarn installation, until his death in 1948. Having exiled himself from Germany during the Second World War, Schwitters continued to create art after settling in Ambleside. Through the medium of collage, he believed in finding order from chaos, finding beauty and sense in disparate elements, and observed these ideas in life itself.

We came across a photograph of those he lived with on the farm. Here is an imagining of who these people were, what their stories might have been, and whether such a group of similarly disparate people could find harmony in living together.

So, we went to Ambleside, and were dumbstruck by the natural beauty. No wonder Schwitters wanted to stay here. It's a magical place, the nature constantly changing - vivid colours, bright light and clean air quickly turn heavy and ominous.

We were lucky enough to stay on Cylinder Farm, the very place we've been writing about for two years. It's enchanting, left pretty much as it was back then. The spirit of the place has remained untouched.

Thank you to Ian Hunter and Celia Larner of Littoral Arts Trust for having us, and for keeping Schwitters' final wish alive - to support young artists in creating and developing their work. And thank you for all the wonderful stories.

Music: 'Here' from Here, a musical.

Words and Music: Kate Marlais and Alex Young.

Copyright 2012/13.