Looking Back – 2023 in Review
Let’s be honest, we’ve all pretty much clocked off now haven’t we? Mince pies on desks, secret santa at the ready, ‘let’s come back to this in the new year’ emails landing in inboxes.
It’s always kind of bittersweet pulling these end-of-year blogs together. A bit like scrolling through someone’s Instagram feed and seeing all the nice stuff and none of the less ‘gramable worry and stress. And there’s no denying that there is a huge amount of pain and hardship in the world right now that feels so huge and overwhelming, it’s almost impossible to bear. Art has the power to offer respite, escape, conversation and provocation. We hope that our work offers some of that.
And of course things continue to be ridiculously challenging for everyone working in the arts, with very few signs that things will get easier any time soon. We salute all our brilliant colleagues in all corners of our sector – artists, freelancers, organisations – who continue to make amazing stuff happen in the toughest of tough environments. You’re all absolute heroes.
So here’s a kind of low-budget Spotify Wrapped but for Bristol-based live performance producing. A whistle-stop sleigh ride through some of the brilliant projects we’ve had the good fortune to work on this year and at the end some of our highlights from 2023. Let’s delve in.
Residencies
We’re about two years into running our lovely creation space at St Anne’s House. What started as an experiment is fast becoming something cherished by artists across the city. Space to make work in Bristol is at a premium, so it feels good to be able to offer an affordable, comfortable place for artists, and this year we expanded our residency offer. We hosted residencies with Jamie Hale (supported by our friends at Unlimited), Aidan Moesby & Daniel Bye, and Verity Standen Projects, alongside kicking off our longer-term residency programme I Like It. What Is It? (more on that below). Verity has also just released a collection of beautiful new songs that you can listen to here – well worth checking out.
A Crash Course in Cloudspotting in Edinburgh
In the beautiful surroundings of the French Institute in Edinburgh, August saw the first full outing for Raquel Meseguer Zafe’s A Crash Course in Cloudspotting since Mayfest 2022. Presented as part of Horizon, we shared Raquel’s beautiful installation and performance with audiences and international presenters and programmers during the final week of the showcase.
“So amazing to remember the essentialness of rest. A radical act in these times. Thank you.” Audience Member
Horizon
The third year of Horizon, and things were really in full swing. Ten incredible projects from artists making work in England, shared with over 40 international delegates and hundreds of audiences at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Bristol was represented particularly strongly – Rachael Clerke, Jo Hellier & Yas Clarke, Brook Tate, Raquel Meseguer Zafe were all part of the showcase as either residency or presenting artists – and it was wonderful to feel the seeds of new international relationships begin to germinate. The impact of this project will be continue felt for years to come and it’s a pleasure to see work that Horizon showcased travelling the world.
Forge – Rachel Mars
This incredible project finally made it to Bristol having been thwarted twice before due to Covid and various other annoying factors. Over a weekend back in May, Rachel Mars recreated the infamous gate of the Dachau concentration camp, witnessed by audiences and accompanied by Dinah Mullen’s amazing soundscape. Moving, powerful, difficult and a little bit camp, FORGE touched audiences in profound ways. And we had ‘What a Feeling’ from Flashdance in our heads for weeks afterwards.
I Like It What Is It?
This wondrous thing kicked off in earnest in 2023. Four incredible artists – Malaika Kegode with Handina Dutiro, Katherine Hall, Malik Nasard-Sharpe and Luca Rutherford are all in residence with us, slowly, over the next year and a bit. The first part of the year included trying to whittle down 400 amazing applications to just four residency places, which was a challenging and rewarding experience. And now each of the artists is beginning to unfurl their ideas and processes, using our MAYKING Space as a base. There’ll be plenty more from this project next year. Thank you to Jerwood for this wonderful opportunity to really explore.
Confluence
A pop-up from just a few weeks ago that invited audiences to think about how Bristol is changing. Featuring Verity Standen, Travis Alabanza, Ryan Convery-Moroney and Asmaa Jama, Confluence was a weekend-long exploration into universal and deeply personal reflections on the city we call home. Commissioned by Ginkgo Projects, there’ll be more Confluence next year, so keep an eye on our website. If you came along and would like to give us some feedback (and be entered into a draw to win Mayfest 2024 tickets), fill in our survey here.
Blind Magic – Jo Bannon
White rabbits, sleight of hand magic and ASMR are featured heavily in our work this year. We’re in the midst of developing three new projects with Jo Bannon, all under the banner of ‘Blind Magic’. Earlier this year Jo and her collaborators were at the Wellcome Collection in London shooting a film work ‘Passing’, supported by The Space, which will premiere next year, and we’re now in production for ‘Sleight of Hand’, a performance/installation that will open in Bristol in spring 2024.
Other Highlights
…and that’s not all. We also heard new ideas from five artists at Demostage in February; welcomed artists from Cork to get to know the scene in Bristol (and sent from Bristol artists to Cork) as part of Tales of Two Cities with Cork Everyman, Cork Midsummer Festival and Bristol Old Vic; took part in conversation and debate about how we might start a Citizens Assembly for Culture in Bristol and the West of England (an idea dreamt up by Emma Harvey at Trinity and LaToyah McAllister at St Paul’s Carnival), hosted a UWE MA in Curating student Theoni Dourida; said goodbye to our brilliant Senior Producer Hattie Gregory who left us at the end of the summer, and our Communications and Marketing Manager Ben Horton, …and then said hello to Marketing and Communications Coordinator Liza Bilal and Producer Josephine Gyasi; and launched an album of songs from Sleepdogs’ pop odyssey A Million Tiny Glitches.
And finally, here are some of the MAYK team’s 2023 highlights… Thanks for reading and see you in 2024.
Danny
Dame Area - drums meets syth, punk meets techo band from Barcelona. I saw them twice this year, and both times I left feeling reborn. I remember turning to my mates mid gig and saying "I'm not worried about anything" - pure ecstasy!
Josephine
My highlight from this year was my trip to Ghana in March. I healed, learned, and felt so much. I basked in the sun, whilst simultaneously throwing myself under the stream of Kintampo waterfall, caught my first plane inland to visit my brother, attended two of my cousins’ graduations, held my grandmother’s hand - and to top it all off, I DJ’d at a sold-out event in Accra!
Kate
Paraorchestra and Surgeon Girl’s collaboration Trip the Light Fantastic at the opening of Bristol Beacon. A true heart swelling explosion of craft, passion and innovation.
Liza
My highlight of 2023 has to be the birth of my nephew in November. I’ve loved spending time with him already and I can’t wait to see the person he grows up to be!
Matthew
Spending almost eight hours playing a video game in a theatre in Kingston, Ontario with about 100 other people. Milton Lim and Patrick Blenkarn’s asses.masses is incredible. Now, I wonder if we might see it in Bristol soon…
Theoni
My highlight for 2023 was a guilty pleasure that finally came true: metal detecting! After 5 hours in Weston Super Mare beach, we retrieved all these rusty treasures. We had a blast and I would do it again at the drop of a hat!
Support Us
If you’ve made it this far, then you’re a certified MAYK fan, and it’d be remiss of us not to ask you for money. You can sign up to be a MAYK Friend from as little as £5 per month, or make a one-off donation – anything you can offer makes a real difference. You get priority booking for Mayfest, an lovely MAYK tote bag and exclusive emails with insights into our projects. As we’re sure you’re aware, arts organisations like MAYK are finding things particularly challenging right now, so any donation you can spare would be very gratefully received. Find out more and donate here