2010

Between the 1 January and the 31 December 2010 a Cake Circle consiting of 50 cakes will be constructed in London. Further details to follow and week-by-week updates.

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. As of the 20 January the fund is over £2,000.

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 has been 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 will be leading 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. Further information to follow

Hackney Borough Council's planning sub-committee was in session to vote on planning permission be given to knock down the Foundry and have an Art Hotel built in its place. Bill Drummond was invited to make a statement on 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 will be giving a performance/lecture at this years by:Larm festival in Oslo. Further information to follow.

Read PB Poster 217 40 Poster In Stockholm to know what this event is.

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

Further information to follow.

Bill Drummond is a patron of the Haiti Earthquake Fundraiser @ The Roundhouse. His involvedment in the event will evolve. What is known is that he has written a piece for the events website - to read it click here. It is aslo persummed that on the night he will say a few words about The17 in Haiti, before leading the audience through a performance of the world premier of Score 357: LOUDER

More information to follow.

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 is going to be setting up his stall in the 'wine bar' of this years Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park and be open for business and interrogation.

The back cover blurb of $20,000 reads:

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT:

UNCERAINTY, 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.

This is a very intimate weekend literary festival. The web pages for this years festival are not up until February sometime, but this is a link to last years pages, so that you can get an idea.

This will be a performance of Score 4: AGE. The17 for this performance will include 85 of the residence of Cushendall. It is part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour and will be twinned with a performance of the same score in the city of La Antigua, Guatemala in September 2010. Further information to follow.

Bill Drummond will be constructing The Göteborg/Gothenburgh Cake Circle during the Live Action Göteborg - International Performance Art Festival

This will be 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. Precise times and dates to follow. If you want to take part in this performance contact admin@the17.org.

Bill Drummond has been 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 is being hosted by HRT/Croatia in Zagreb. The Workshop is between 9 - 11 June. The overall title for 2010 is "Listen Again: The Power of Sounds"

Bill Drummond will be leading The17 through a performance of the UK premier of the score NIGHTCLUBBING at Camp Bestival 2010. The performance will include ten sessions with groups of 17 individuals. Each session will last up to 30 minutes and will take place through out Saturdau 31 July, at an as yet undisclosed location on the festival site. The combined performance/recording will be played back through the main PA on the Sunday evening. Tickets can be bought from the Camp Bestival site here.

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

Further information to follow.

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 will be a bonfire in the back garden and a free bowl of curry and glass of wine for all comers. The winner is announced at 11pm.

This will be a performance of Score 4: AGE. The17 for this performance will include 85 of the citizens  of the city La Antigua Guatemal in Central America. It is part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour. This performance is twinned with a performance (May 2010) of the same score in the small town of Cushendall, N. Ireland. Further information to follow.

There will be numerous performances given by The17 in this time in Kolkata/Calcutta. This will include performances of Scores 9 WELCOME, 13 CELEBRATE and 16 COMPLEMENT, versions of which will be translated into Bengali and there will be links to them in this section. These three performances in particular will be twinned with the performances of the same scores in Derry, N. Ireland in October and November 2008. They are also part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour.

Further information to follow.

This will be a performance on the Isle-of-Man will be of Score 3: DRIVE. This performance is part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour and is twinned with a performance of the same score performed in Hong Kong in December 2010

There will be a handfull of Soup Makings on the Soup Line as it passes through the Isle-of-Man in November 2010. If you consider that you live on the Manx section of Soup Line and would like to host an evening, contact soup@penkiln-burn.com

Bill Drummond will be leading a performance by The17 at Guangzhou Live - International Action Art Festival in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China. Further detail to follow.

This will be a performance in Hong Kong will be of Score 3: DRIVE. This performance is part of The17's Coast-to-Coast world tour and is twinned with a performance of the same score performed on the Isle-of-Man in November 2010