Your Place Arts Project
Hastings-based arts organisation Tempo Arts has developed Your Place, a new digital platform which features the work of five international artists: Greig Burgoyne (Hastings), Claudia Kappenberg (St Leonards), Tom Cardew (London & Wales), Marcos Vidal Font (Mallorca, Spain) and Neno Belchev (Bulgaria). These interactive works have been developed in response to the social and personal restrictions of Covid-19’s lockdown and post-lockdown life.
During August, Your Place will highlight The Hastings Book of the Earth – Funerals that Have Been and Funerals Yet to Come, a new work by Claudia Kappenberg. The project is a response to the pandemic which has been a stark reminder that death is part of life, and that we need to engage with death beyond statistical evidence to ask what a good death would look like. Reminiscent of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which laid out a journey through the underworld, the Hastings Book of the Earth explores the process of dying here and now, and rituals associated with death.
Kappenberg is collecting images and sounds from around Hastings, exploring its earth, geological formations, urban sites and gardens, to portray locations that are specific to the area. Alongside this collection the artist is inviting those who would like to contribute to the project to describe a moment at a funeral that was in some ways significant, or to describe how they imagine their own funeral and even, if they wish, to write what could potentially be their own last words.
The written contributions, images and sounds will be brought together in an e-book, and made public on Tempo Arts’ website later in August www.tempoarts.org.uk. To contribute visit the artist’s blog at thehastingsbookoftheearth.wordpress.com
The artists’ on-line works will be live on Tempo Arts website through April 2021. Your Place is realised with public funding through Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund and East Sussex Arts Partnership.
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