2010

This is the begining of Volume 1: 100 Answers to 100 Questions. Click here to read the questions and the answers so far.

Between the 1 January and the 31 December 2010 a Cake Circle consisting of 50 cakes was constructed in London.

The performance of Score 7: COLLABORATE at Kingswood school on 16 October 2009 was twinned with a performance of the same score on 15 December 2009 at L'Ecole Guillaume Manigat, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

At Kingswood's morning assembly on 20 January 2010, John Hirst and Bill Drummond told the pupils about their experience with working with the pupils in Haiti. It was also the launch of the appeal to raise funds for the needs of the pupils and the rebuilding and furbishing of L'Ecole Guillaume Manigat. Tracey Moberly, the artist who took the photos at the school, was also there to show the prints of these photos.

Ongoing information about the money raised and what use it is being put to will be documented on these EVENTS pages.

An exhibition of photographs taken by Tracey Moberly of local members of The17 on 15 December 2009 in L'Ecole Guillaume Manigat, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The photographs are hung as large scale unframed prints around the school. They depict members of The17 in formal and casual poses. They are brilliant.

DROP OF THE HAT is an online publication based on a blog that started in January 2009 and ended 12 months later. The blog documented and explored issues arising from a performance based on SCORE 320: CHOOSE. The score was performed by Emily & James Unknown. They also wrote the blog.

This Haiti fundraising event was organised by John Hirst and Karen Reilly. As well as there being a raffle and performances by The Neutrinos, BK & Dad and Death of Death of Discoteque, Bill Drummond lead a short performance of The17 with everybody in the bar at that particular time. This event is twinned with another event at The Bicycle Shop, 17 St Bennedicts Street, Norwich.

Hackney Borough Council's planning sub-committee was in session to vote on planning permission to knock down the Foundry and have an Art Hotel built in its place. Bill Drummond was invited to make a statement no longer than 90 seconds; the thrust of his statement being that Hackney Borough Council should value the contribution given by the Foundry to the cultural life of the Borough over the previous 11 years and they are more than honour bound to help find a new location for the Foundry within the Borough, if planning permission is given for the Art Hotel. Planning permission was given. The full transcript of Drummond's statement can be read at WORDS 59 in the Catalogue section of this site. 

Bill Drummond spent two days in Belfast recording a programme for BBC Radio 4 about his relationship with the city over the past 50 years and how it has influenced his art. The programme is entitled Belfast: Re-Imagining The City and was broadcast at 11:30am on 9 March 2010.

Drummond requested that the programme's producer Rachel Hooper, should pose four questions for him to answer in writing before they met up to record the programme. And that the answers to these four questions would be the four pillars for the programme to be based upon.  The complete written answers to these four questions can be read on the 100 Questions page of this site.

Tivoli's has been at the same location for over 100 years. In that time it has always been owned by the same family. If you are ever in Belfast, get your haircut there. All the other shops in the street are boarded up. Tivoli's has still some of its original fittings. Sadly the original sinks got smashed in the past few years by some lads that broke in. It is not a tourist attraction, it is a barbers.

Bill Drummond gave a performance/lecture at this year's by:Larm festival in Oslo.

Bill Drummond gave a performance/lecture at the Supermarket Art Fair in the Kulturhuset, Stockholm. His performance was part of the Documentation / Non Documentation series of talks and discussions.

Bill Drummond was patron for the Haiti Earthquake Fundraiser @ The Roundhouse. His involvement in the event was undefined. What is known is that he wrote a piece for the event's website - to read it click here. On the night he said a few words and lead the world premier of Score 357: LOUDER & LOUDER.

A drive from Bethnal Green, London to Overstones Farm in the Dark Peak and back to Bethnal Green, London.

A photography session was done with Bill Drummond and Tracey Moberly on the Dark Peak. The photographs taken at this session were to be used to promote the book $20,000 and as one of the photographs for 25 Paintings.

The recording of a radio proagramme entitled On The Map for BBC Radio 4. To be broadcast on 22 March 2010.

Belfast: Reimagining A City is a programme first broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 9 March 2010.
The programme was written and presented by Bill Drummond and produced by Rachel Hooper. It was chosen to be Radio 4's podcast of the week and was also featured on the station's Pick Of The Week programme. A podcast of the programme may be made available via this site at a later date.

Drummond requested that Rachel Hooper, should pose four questions for him to answer in writing before they met up to record the programme. And that the answers to these four questions would be the four pillars for the programme to based upon.  The complete written answers to these four questions can be read on the 100 Questions page of this site.

In 1995 Bill Drummond bought a work of art by the artist Richard Long. It was a photography & text work called A Smell of Sulphur In The Wind. It cost him $20,000. Richard Long was his favourite artist. The photographic element to the work was a photo of a stone circle created by Richard Long while walking across Iceland from top to bottom in 1994. 24 years earlier in 1970, the 17 year old Drummond and his sister attempted and failed to walk the same route across Iceland. Bill Drummond hung the the newly bought work on his bedroom wall. He was happy.  In 1998 Drummond realised he never noticed the Richard Long work anymore, so decided to sell it for $20,000. And once sold take the money in 20,000 one dollar bills to Iceland, start walking across it from top to bottom, burying the $20,000 in what remained of the stone circle made by Richard Long, take a photo of the now enriched circle, then complete the walk he failed to do in 1970. And on his return to the UK have the photograph framed in an identical frame to the Richard Long work and title the new work A Smell Of Money Underground and hang it on his bedroom wall.

He was going to sell the work to an individual, but then changed his mind. Instead he gridded the work up into 20,000 small rectangles (11.2mm X 4.05mm) and started to give performance sales pitches where he would explore his relationship with art and then cut up with a Stanley knife fractions of the work to sell at a dollar a throw. Between 2002 and 2005 he gave 86 of these performance. By then he had only sold off just over half of the work. He decided to take a break and get on with The17. The break is now over. To coincide with the publication of the book $20,000 he set up his stall in the 'wine bar' of 2010's Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park and where he was open for business and interrogation.

This was the eighth annual giving of 40 bunches of daffodils to total strangers by Bill Drummond. Documentation photographs of the Hungerford giving can be viewed at the PHOTOGRAPHS section of the CATALOGUE.

The back cover blurb of $20,000 reads:

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT:

UNCERTAINTY, MOTORWAYS, MONEY, MEETING STRANGERS, MISSING THE POINT, A DRIVE UP BRITIAN, A WALK ACROSS ICELAND, BILL DRUMMOND, SITTING IN CAFES, STARING OUR OF WINDOWS, THE UNKNOWN, FINDING OUT, CONFUSION, MUSIC, DOING THINGS, RICHARD LONG, CUTTING UP & MAKING A SALES PITCH.

AND IT IS ALSO ABOUT:

Why we make art. And what we want from it. And what it is worth. And why we think about it. And where it is going. And is it ever too big? And is it getting better? And why we buy it. And why it can make us angry. And why do people have to write about it? And what it is for. And is it important? And why sometimes we want to destroy it. And is my art better that your art?

WARNING: To avoid disappointment read the following words before purchase:

This is the second edition of this book, the paperback version. The first edition was titled How To Be An Artist. It was hardback, clothbound and landscape in proportion. It had 90 colour plates and the paper was of superiour quality. It was an object of desire and indulgence. It was also only available in specialist art bookshops and it was published in 2002. This edition is cheaper and easier to hold, shelve and use. It has no colour plates and the paper is pulp. Three paragraphs that appeared in the hardback have been deleted, as they are now irrelevant, some factual mistakes have been corrected. it also brings the story up to date, wiith 15,304 brand new words. The third edition will have yet another title, lots of photographs, more words and be vastly more expensive. The third edition will not be published for some years.

On The Map is a series of 10, 15-minute programmes for BBC Radio 4. The programme is presented by Mike Parker, author of the book Map Addict. The programmes were broadcast between Monday to Friday at 4.45pm in the weeks beginning 22nd and 29th March 2010. And to quote the blurb:

‘The series looks at maps and map-making since the beginning of the twentieth century and will cover the use of maps for everything from leisure and motoring to propaganda and story-telling. It will also include the different approaches which have been taken to the mapping of cities, the use of maps during war, the creation of atlases and the political agendas behind different maps. And it looks at the future of cartography as digital technology opens up mapping to everyone.’ 

Bill Drummond is Mike Parker’s guest for the first of these programmes. Drummond requested that Parker and the programme's producer Jeremy Grange, should pose four questions for him to answer in writing before they met up to record the programme on the 5 March 2010. Drummond hoped that in answering these questions it would focus his mind on what maps have meant to him.  The answers to these four questions can be read on the 100 Questions page of this site.

This is a very intimate weekend literary festival. The performance that Bill Drummond gave was even more intimate. The Boat House in question was the home of Dylan Thomas and Drummond's performance was on the top floor of this house. It being so intimate tickets for this performance sold out immediately and thus tickets bought for the whole weekend would not give access to this particular event. Thus Drummond's name had to be taken off the posters and flyers and published line up. This is a link to what else was available to be taken in at the Laugharne Weekend 2010. 

Read PB Poster 217 40 Posters In Stockholm to know what this event is. It is also one half of a performance of Score 358: TRANSLATE. The other half of this performance was happening in a small area of North East London. It is also part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour.

Bill Drummond performed Score 358: TRANSLATE in central Stockholm and a small part of North East London. This performance is considered part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. Further information and documentation can be found elsewhere.

This performance was rescheduled from its original date on 17 April. This was because of the closure of air space due to the volcanic ash from Iceland, preventing Drummond from flying to Gothenburg.

Bill Drummond constructed The Göteborg/Gothenburg Cake Circle during the Live Action Göteborg - International Performance Art Festival. The ten cakes that he baked to construct this Cake Circle, were baked in the open air in a public square in the centre of Gothenburg. Drummond attempted to answer questions posed by passers by, while he baked the cakes.

Bill Drummond was invited to give a talk and lead a performance by The17 at the 2010 European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Radio Drama Workshop. The EBU is based in Geneva and its Radio Drama Workshop is held in a different European state, every second year. In 2010 it was hosted by HRT/Croatia in Zagreb. The Workshop was 9 - 11 June. The overall title for 2010 was "Listen Again: The Power of Sounds".

The shave was prepared using foam. It was not satisfactory. But the shop was what you would want from a back street barber's shop in Zagreb.

Bill Drummond gave a Performance/Lecture at An Lanntair, the evening before the performance of Score 8: TAKE.

An Lanntair is "a beacon for the Arts in the Highlands and Islands. Bringing you the very best in Arts, Events, Music and Cinema, Food, Shopping and Relaxation all day from 10am until late - Monday to Saturday."

This was the annual performance of Score 8: TAKE. The Callanish Stones are an ancient stone circle in the middle of the Isle-of-Lewis. This performance is also part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour and will be twinned with a performance of the same score, to be performed near Almendres Cromlech, Evora, Portugal in June 2011.  If you want to take part in this performance contact admin@the17.org. Or turn up at the Stones at 7am on the 19 June.

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

This was the third in the ongoing photographic and performance work The Life & Death Of An Artist by Tracey Moberly and Bill Drummond.

This was the fourth in the ongoing photographic and performance work The Life & Death Of An Artist by Tracey Moberly and Bill Drummond.

Bill Drummond built a large bed out of wood over the weekend. He attempted to answer questions about carpentry while doing it. The bed is for a member of his family. Although Drummond by and large earnt his living throughout the 1970s as a joiner on building sites and in theatres, he is not contemplating in moving professionally back into it as a trade. He is only doing this as Tom Hodgkinson asked him to do something for The Idler’s Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment section of the festival and this is what Drummond suggested he could do. It is also Penkiln Burn Bed Three.

Bill Drummond lead The17 through a performance of the UK premier of the score NIGHTCLUBBING at Camp Bestival 2010. The performance included ten sessions with groups of 17 individuals. Each session took place throughout Saturday 31 July at the festival site. The combined performance/recording was played back through the main PA on the Sunday evening.

This performance is part of The17 City-to-City world tour.

This is the annual open day at the Curfew Tower, where all can vote for the best piece of work produced by an artist-in-residence over the previous 12 months. In the evening there was a bonfire in the back garden and a bowl of curry and glass of wine for all comers.

THE FIRST TIME. Bill Drummond did a short interview (15 Minutes) with the BBC earlier in 2010. He had no idea this interview was to form the basis of an hour long programme. Thus unaware when this programme was to be broadcast until two days before it was aired.

This was the first of 25 Paintings each displayed in 25 different Turkish barbers within the London Circle.

The Institute of Music of Oldenburg University invited Bill Drummond to lead a performance by The17 in Oldenburg as part of the Sounding D festival. Sounding D is organised by Netwerk Neue Musik. Sounding D is happening at various cities across Germany including Oldenburg. In Oldenburg the festival is based at the city's railway station and takes on the name Bahnklang (Train Sound). Drummond lead a performance of Score 328: SURROUND

If you are a German speaker and want to know more please visit:

http://www.musik.uni-oldenburg.de/medien/47863.html

http://www.klangpol.de/

This was The17's premier performance in Germany.

Kofomi#15 - KOMPONISTENFORUM Mittersill (Mittersill Composers' Forum) is a nine day forum for contemporary composers and musicians. It is situated in the small Austrian town of Mittersill.  Webern, one of the greatest composers of the 20th-century, lived and worked in the town for the last few years of his life before he was shot.

The first Mittersill Composers' Forum was in 1996. Bill Drummond was the composer in residence for this year's forum. He gave lectures and lead workshops. At the end of the week he also lead a performance of The17, made up of everyone attending the Forum.
 

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

Photography portraits of each of the composers attending the Mittersill Composers Forum 2010 were taken by Kurt Hoerbst

Bill Drummond was a guest lecturer at the Do Lectures 2010. He also lead the performance of three scores by The17. To know what the Do Lectures are visit their site: http://www.dolectures.com/about-do/

As part of The17's world tour Bill Drummond launched a performance of Score 321: SHOW in Milton Keynes, England. On Wednesday 22 September 2010 he elicited the 100 responses needed for this score, in bars and cafes across the city. 

This performance is twinned with another performance of the same score that John Hirst lead in Anchorage, Alaska at the same time.

The 200 collected responses were then used as text on 200 different editions of beer mats. These beer mats were distributed throughout bars in both Milton Keynes and Anchorage.  Written and photographic documentation of these two performances of SHOW were added to the TOUR section of The17 site.

This score was originally scheduled to be performed in Milton Keynes and Anchorage in July but was postponed due to the unforeseen urge to commit graffiti.

Un-Conventions are "international music conferences for the grass roots of the industry". Drummond gave a performance/lecture in Salford Station's underpass at noon on Friday 1 October. He lead a large scale performance of SURROUND across the city starting at noon on Saturday 2 October. He also lead a performance of TWO TRIBES at the Salford Lad's Club at noon on Sunday 3 October, but this performance had to be postponed.  The performance of TWO TRIBES was part of The17's Coast-toCoast world tour.

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

This was the fourth in the ongoing photographic and performance work The Life & Death Of An Artist by Tracey Moberly and Bill Drummond.

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

This is a repainting of the first of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. The original was painted in 2008 and subsequently painted over by the local authorities. If this was to happen again, Drummond may return and repaint the graffiti. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

Bill Drummond lead a performance of the Score 360: BEFORE ANY MEAL with members of the crew at The Insomnia Festival onboard the retired whaler Vulcana. This is a new score composed while Drummond was a composer in residence at the Mittersill Composers Forum 2010 in Austria. It was composed to act as both a secular and pan-religious grace that can be performed before any meal.

This performance is to be part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour and is to be twinned with a performance of the same score on a trawler working out of Scotland. This will happen sometime in 2011.

As with all locations on The17's world tour, Drummond made one of the IMAGINE WAKING TOMORROW AND ALL MUSIC HAS DISAPPEARD graffiti, on a bridge in the city.

This is one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

Claudel Casseus as the Penkiln Burn 'You & Me - Me & You' collaborator for 2010 has been making a number of hand painted T-shirts to promote The17 in Haiti. Claudel Casseus is the man standing in the left of the photograph below. These T-shirts are commercially available.

This was the postponed performance of TWO TRIBES that was originally scheduled for 3 October as part of Un Convention. The two tribes included in this performance were members of the Irlam Amateur Boxing Club and members of the Salford Lads Boxing Club, and took place inside the Salford Lads Club. This performance is to be twinned with a performance of the same score with two warring tribes in Papua New Guinea and is also part of The17 Coast-to-Coast world tour.

This reconnoitre to the Runcorn Bridge was done by Drummond to find if it was suitable for a IMAGINE WAKING TOMORROW & ALL MUSIC HAD DISAPPEARED graffiti. It is and will be done when the weather is fine and the schedule allows.

Leah Gordon spent time photographing the 25 Paintings painted on the walls of Port-au-Prince in the Spring of 2010. These 25 Paintings are now fading and being layered with the patina of Port-au-Prince city life. It is in this process that the true beauty of the paintings begin to reveal themselves. The rest of these photographs can be viewed by clicking on the link below and then clicking on PHOTOGRAPHS and then clicking on 25 Paintings (25 TABLO) - The Port-au-Prince, Haiti wall paintings (Leah Gordon photos): Autumn 2010

http://www.penkilnburn.com/catalogue/

This was a talk hosted by g39 and given by Bill Drummond and Tracey Moberly about two spaces - The Foundry and The Curfew Tower. The Foundry was in London and existed for over ten years until it was closed by developers in the Spring of 2010. The Foundry was many things. The Curfew Tower (Cushendall, Ireland), is an artist's residency and you can read about it elsewhere on this site by clicking here 

This event took place in the Milkwood Gallery and not g39's usual home.

This reconnoitre to the Blue Bridge over the M4 was done by Drummond to find if it was suitable for an IMAGINE WAKING TOMORROW & ALL MUSIC HAD DISAPPEARED graffiti. This bridge is not far from Bristol and carries the South Wales Main Line trains. To Drummond's dissapointment, he believes that because of the frequency of highspeed trains over the bridge, an attempt to make a graffiti that would do this particular bridge justice, would be a bridge too far.

HAITI RISING - Haitian History, Culture & the Earthquake of 2010. Edited by Martin Munro and published by Liverpool University Press. Included in this book is a story written by Bill Drummond entitled What Is This Earthquake For?

To find out more about the book click here.

Terminal Convention is a 'music, art, film and discursive event set in the decommissioned terminal at the former International Airport in Cork, Ireland.' The above quote is taken from the email sent to Bill Drummond asking him if he, in his capacity as the leader of The17, might take part in this event. Terminal Convention took place over a period of a week begining 17 March 2010. On Sunday, 14 November, Drummond spent the day walking around the perimeter of Cork Airport to explore the possibilities of it being be a suitable location for an interpretation of the score SURROUND.

The publication of the fifth edition of the book 45 by Bill Drummond. 45 was first published in 2000.

To celebrate and promote the launch of the Haitian Kreyòl version of the website My Death a number of advertisments have been hand painted onto walls around Port-au-Prince. The doing of this has been overseen by Claudel Casseus. The following is the contents of an email sent by Casseus to Drummond on the 21 November.

Bill hello how are you? I hope you are well .... Well I'm sending this
email in photos of three paintings that I already do, I must tell you
also that because of the campaign period I find it very dificult to
open walls in Port-au-Prince, because the government have said they
could not erase or tear the photo,......
and also because of the cholera epidemic currently occurring in the
country a lot of people wonder why I write what I write (prepare'w pou
mouri)? when I tell them that it is a website that gives you the
possibilty to express your last will before you died ... they're telling
me is it because I knew they were going to die especially because that before the
cholera epidemic they used to see similar messages in the same
format.
But anyway I've already made three paintings today and I was fortunate
to find another wall to put the fourth, the work is done ....  I
gotta say that the paintings have a lot of effect on the person who
read them and then a lot of people have promised to visit my death.com

With all my respect and love for you

Claudel

The other photos taken of these wall painted advertisements can be seen at the CATALOGUE section of this site.

Claudel Casseus makes the RANJE KABANN OU (Make Your Bed) wall painting to announce the making of Penkiln Burn Bed Four by Bill Drummond in Guangzhou, China over the following three days.

Bill Drummond was the man making a bed at Guangzhou Live 2010 - International Action Art Festival in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China. Further details may be found at the MAKE YOUR BED section of this site. The bed made was Penkiln Burn Bed Four.

Bill Drummond had a shave in a back street barbers to celebrate the completion of the making of the bed. It was also the most painful shave he has had in his life to-date.

This is almost one half of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.

This is the second half of one of the 40 graffiti being done as part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. To view all graffiti done to date click here.