The Crossover – Connects is a forthcoming experimental film series produced by The Crossover (Cork) in association with The Garden Collective (Lisbon). The series features collaborations between two or more artists combining to create a multidisciplinary 4-part series of experimental art-film.
The series is a re-working of The Crossover – Lisboa, a cross-cultural collaborative piece of performance art that was due to take place at Garden’s PORT to PORT Festival in Lisbon in March 2020. In keeping with the spirit of that event, the series is being produced between Cork and Lisbon, featuring artists from both port cities, due for simultaneous release on both sides of the water between May and September 2021.
The project is made possible by the support of Cork City Council’s Arts Office.
A cross-cultural collaboration between Cork poet Michelle Delea and Lisbon sound artist and musician Shaka’s Lo-fi Experience (Joaquim de Brito). Co-produced between Lisbon and Cork, this multi-lingual short film brings together animation, poetry and sound art.
This Cork-based collaboration brings together the music and spoken word of The Choke Collective and the narrative visual storytelling of The Rain Com- pany. Filmed on location in Cork City centre, the screenplay uses the city as its backdrop while exploring a most pressing issue faced by its inhabitants.
This Lisbon-based collaboration brings the fire of Jay Graca’s words in combination with Mr. Bubble’s rich and varied soundscapes. With visuals devised and developed by Garden Collective’s Niall Hearne, the trio’s complementary styles culminate to give the piece unique texture.
The basis for this collaboration are the line drawings of Glasgow-based, Irish visual artist, Katie O’Grady, with Donegal producer and musician Shane McIntyre providing the soundscape. Cork dance artist Emer Murphy then responds to both features through dance, creating a visual narrative.
The Crossover is a multi-disciplinary performance art project initiated in 2018 in Cork City featuring collaborations between poets/ rappers, musicians, dance, visual and performance artists. The live events are structured in acts of 35/40 minute pieces of performance art featuring multi-disciplinary pieces woven into each other through a series of visual and lighting cues. There have been 3 unique events in Cork City to date, at Dali & Gala in March 2018, Dali CORK in November 2018 and The Kino as part of First Fortnight Festival in January 2019. The Crossover – Hazelwood was devised for and performed at Hazelwood Stage, Electric Picnic 2019, thanks to support from Triangle Productions.
The Crossover – Connects represents a new venture for the project with a view to sharing arresting, socially conscious, subversive performances through the medium of film. The performance is brought to you by a variety of Cork and Lisbon based artists and musicians working collaboratively. It aims to bring artist from different disciplines and cultures together to create new work and expand the audience of each medium.
MUSICIANS/ACTORS/RAPPERS/POETS/WORDSMITHS/VISUAL ARTISTS/THEATRE MAKERS/DIRECTORS/DESIGNERS/DANCERS/DJs
Garden Collective are a platform for creative pursuits and cultural diversity originally founded in Cork, Ireland but now based in Lisbon, Portugal. The core team consists of four members: Eddie Ivers, Niall Hearne, Eden Flaherty and Emmet Coleman. The collective is based on creativity for the sake of creativity, but in doing so we are bringing up-and-coming artists to the forefront of the cultural scene and giving them a platform to present their work. By basing ourselves in more than one country, we are able to bring Irish musicians and visual artists to Portugal where they have the opportunity to work with Portuguese artists, creating cross-border collaborations and facilitating cross-cultural exchanges in the creative sector.
Since 2017, the collective have run 40+ events in both Portugal and Ireland, collaborated with 200+ artists, produced several video series and workshops and most recently released 3 records from associated acts on their newly formed record label.
Joaquim de Brito (aka Shaka) is a versatile Portuguese musician with a classical training in piano and composition. Joaquim realized early on that he wouldn’t align with a single particular style of music or art form. He has always been a passionate percussionist with influences spanning the Portuguese, African, Brazilian, Indian and Irish traditional music. He has composed several soundtracks for short films, anima- tion, documentaries, and theatre plays. While in Lisbon, Joaquim plays regularly with different bands. In Seattle, where he lived for two years, he worked on several music and visual art projects of his own, including “Shaka’s lo-fi Experience”, his solo act, and now, the most important one. Now, back in Portugal along with his life as a musician, Joaquim is hosting an Open Mic for all ages and arts in Lisbon, makes woodblock prints and he’s trying to reshape his work to the Portuguese reality, always seeking to find and share something that touches those around him.
Michelle Delea is a multi-disciplinary creative from Cork City. She has been a regular contributor to The Garden Collective and The Cross- over projects in the past, which have featured her poetry, performance art and choreography. She has a MA in Architecture from CCAE. Her thesis, based in the city of Lisbon, proposed a community-driven micro-economy in Marvila, which followed explorative studies of the city’s skyscape. Michelle has performed at multiple events including Voulmentin Literary Festival, Shannonside festival, Townlands, Electric Picnic and most recently Live @ St.Lukes during Cork Midsummer Festival. Her most recent publication: ‘Spoken Worlds/ Exhaling Ink’(2018, O Bhéal press) featured in association with Cork/Coventry Twin City Poetry Exchange. Michelle is an advocate of collaboration and maintains an experimental approach to the arts.
The Choke Collective is a multi-disciplinary performance art collective. They were founded in 2015 and produced Tumbling Birds for Obheal’s Winter Warmer Festival. The piece featured performative adaptations of the poetry of Polish nobel-prize winner, Wisława Szymborska and showcased the sound-art of her countrymen, Michau Weber, as well as the foursomes’ own poetry/theatre making and songwriting. The piece was performed extensively across the city throughout 2016/ 17. The collective have gigged regularly in a host of venues across the city, especially The Friary, where they often gig with freak folk band The 5th Floor, with whom they share a member and are an affiliated act. The collective has grown in size and style in recent times. Their sound comprises of spoken word poetry, rap, hip-hop, jungle, drum&bass, alt-rock, dub, techno, electronica and improvised beats built live. They now perform as a four piece and gig regularly throughout Cork City. They are delighted to appear as part of The Crossover – Connects, having featured at previous live events in Dali & Gala in March and Dali CORK in November 2018.
The Rain Company is a Cork based video production company formed in 2017 by Felix Castaldo and Michael Casey. Specialising in film, music video production and commercial content, both Felix and Michael have extensive experience in the Irish film and photography industries, we strive to create content that is creatively forward thinking.
“Ja Yl’ Son (of Lights) aka “O Camoes Preto” is a santomense-portuguese writer and singer. Raised within the mixed suburban zones of Portugal, since a very young age he gained a taste for Reggae, Hip Hop, Jazz and other styles of music. He started singing and rapping at 10, but it was only in his first Selectas nights in Lisbon when he was a teen, that he found the love for freestyle and toasting. His journey started by singing in different jam sessions around Lisbon, Almada, Seixal, Amadora and others spots, until being invited to join “Nomad Embassy Soundsystem”, a collective with “craft system inspired by the Jamaican culture of the fifties, through Roots, Steppa and Dub” being the first toaster for the group. Ja Yl’ Son never lost his desire to Jam and kept doing it all around the town, in places such as Arroz Estudios, Anjos70, Titanic, etc in recent years. In 2020, alongside “In-Finita”, he published his first poetry book, “Rasgos”. His different flows, rhymes, metrics and “Slanga” give energy and soul to his performances.
Mr. Bubble is a musician and poet based in Lisbon, Portugal who uses a combination of spoken word, beatboxing and live instrumentation to build up his largely improvised and experimental live sets.
“I like to think of my work as a constant co-working space, where the narrative is based on improvisation. The sound is a visual message without political or moral standpoints. The idea is to imagine a protective bubble from those moments of big catastrophes, massacres, war oppression that we cannot control. For a moment, I aim to share my Bubble”
Mr. Bubble is also a co-founder of Buzio, a Lisbon based record label and events organiser.
Katie O’Grady is an artist and curator currently studying her Masters in Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) jointly at the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow. She is a founding member of the Ragaire Collective, an artist-led cu- ratorial group, and Sorey No Pics, a series of web-based curatorial projects. Following her graduation in 2017 from Limerick School of Art and Design, Katie worked as the event programmer for TACTIC Cork until July 2019. She led and successfully executed various exhibitions throughout Cork City during her time there. Katie’s practice is concerned with ideas of how we perceive, create and contribute to our world(s), drawing from the occult, folklore and ecological thought.
Shane McIntyre is a Donegal musician/producer based in Cork City. He is a graduate from Bimm Dublin where he special- ized in Bass guitar. Shane has no idea what type of music he makes, but he hopes it’s calming. He uses his voice primarily to create melodies with accompaniment from synths, bass and reverberated guitars. Melody is the main focus for Shane and he tries to create music which aims to help the listener contemplate the nice things about life. He has too many emotions which he tries nursing with his own music.
Emer is a dancer, choreographer and performer from Cork. Over the years Emer has held many teaching residencies in Cork city and county, including HipHop choreographer for UCC dance and a selection of stage schools. Furthermore, Emer has taught choreography based workshops to various non-profit organisations in Cork and India. As well as starring in a number of music video productions, Emer was recently awarded a dance programme scholarship from Kimberly Wyatt of the former girlband ‘The Pussycat Dolls’.
Videos to be released monthly on the first wednesday of every month starting from June 2nd via the social media profiles of The Crossover and Garden Collective.
All the artists will be presented on ONE SINGLE STREAM, so no flicking about. Just tune in, grab a drink and enjoy!
Also, we will soon be using this email to share our upcoming events, DIY Zines, digital exhibitions, open calls for collaborations and lots more fun and interesting bits and pieces!
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