Saturday 11 September 2004 - Sunday 12 September 2004

The Turbine House, Blake's Lock, Reading

Admission free

Context

As part of the continuing programme of City Stages projects, where artists are invited to make temporary interventions in public settings within the centre of Reading, this commission is presented in association with Reading Museums for Reading’s Heritage Open Weekend. The artist Adam Dant has chosen to use a former turbine pumping house above the River Kennet as the site for the casting of his film, offering members of the public a chance to participate in the creation of an alternative, Italian-inspired view of Reading’s cityscape.

Project

A casting call for the movie 'Reading Holiday' is an attempt to notionally transform the town of Reading into 'the eternal city' without anyone noticing the difference. This fleeting exhibition and event calls for members of the public to appear in front of the cameras at a notional casting call. The casting will take place beside 'The Tiber' (River Kennet) at 'Il Casa di Blake' (The Turbine House) amongst a series of location drawings for the original movie. Members of the public are invited to sit for a brief screen test. These will be recorded using the traditional methods of seventeenth century Roman moving picture technology. Participants may be called upon to deliver their lines in Latin.

Artist

Adam Dant was the winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2002. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in galleries in New York, London and Paris and he was invited to create the inaugural exhibition for the Drawing Room – a gallery devoted to the practice in London’s East End. Through his altar ego, Donald Parsnips, Dant published a daily journal of the same name for five years - a direct link to early pamphleteering, encompassing current issues of cultural production and global information networks. Dant has undertaken a number of inventive interpretation projects - most recently at the South London Gallery. His work has occasionally embraced performance or an interactive element involving contributions from the public, and he has published an alternative guide ' An A to Z for the effective use of your City'.