Wednesday 26 August 2009

Life after the Newspaper House

The Newspaper House documentary will be shown at
'Les Sommets de la Nuit'
Bormes Les Mimosas
France Provence Cote d'Azur
3 & 4 September 2009.

Three Newspaper House photographs exhibited at
'N'en Jetez Plus'
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
Palais de Chaillot
1, Place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre
75116 Paris

Exhibition runs until 4 November 2009.

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Liverpool Biennial & Independent exhibition

The Newspaper House
installation by Sumer Erek
produced by Karen Janody


The Blackie Art centre
Great George Street
Liverpool L1 9EW
11am and 6pm daily (except Tues)

Photographs by Mark McNulty
Please, ask permission to use these photographs.
karen[@]creative-city.co.uk






Mark McNulty ©


///

The Newspaper House continues its journey to Liverpool, the Cultural Capital of Europe 2008, during the 5th Liverpool Biennial of contemporary arts.

It was first created in London’s Gillett Square in March 2008, transforming over 85,000 used newspapers into a thought provoking artwork, attracting a wide range of people and press coverage internationally. It now counts over 100,000 newspapers.

The nature of the project is participatory. Liverpool artists, residents, visitors, community organisations, and schools have been invited to participate. A new community, whose members become engaged in a process of creation, forms temporarily. In past times, this was not out of the ordinary, today culturally,
it is no longer a shared experience.

The action of rolling the newspaper returns it to an almost natural state, close its natural origin. Newspapers are then placed in a prescriptive order to create the foundation of the “House”.

First Erek builds a shell-like structure. Metin Senerguc writes:
“If we re-read Walter Benjamin's aphorismatic warning: "The work is the mask of its conception", we may believe that Erek is trying to turn this process around in his Newspaper House project. He first builds the mask, then places the ideas within it. He fills it up from inside to make it visible.”


Inside the Newspaper House. Photography by Sumer Erek

To appreciate the complexity of this installation, one needs to understand the notion of 'house', which recurs in Erek's works. Metin Senerguc writes:
“This notion can perhaps be seen as his reaction to having lived more than half of his life away from the land of his birth. But to see the notion of 'house' as a nostalgic longing for the motherland would be misleading. Especially in the "Upside Down House" (2001), the 'house' is used not just as a location but also as an existential niche, home and a metaphor for identity and belonging. In the Newspaper House project, Erek takes 'house' a step further. He turns the 'Newspaper House' into both a shelter and a workshop, where he creates his art. At the same time it becomes a finished artwork and a 'gallery', which spectators walk into to see the artwork.”


Erek places the Newspaper House between the private and the public, the real and the imagined, the work of art and the gallery. It purposely remains in a constant ‘work in progress’ stage, as life is itself. The relationship with real life is the reason he says:
"One of my main aims with this project is to share it with participants who are not artists, and to embrace this process as natural as one lives his daily life."

Suzana Vaz points out in her writing to this particular aspect of Sumer Erek’s work:
“Erek's biography is marked by the early event of expatriation within the territory of Cyprus, divided as a result of the 70's Greek/Turkish dispute. From this founding experience would emanate Erek's main interrogations and deepest insights: ontology and ethics, identity and belonging, the body as an ultimate area of belonging, the creative sensitive vehicle that enacts meaning and through which the latter may be shared. Fulfilling such intuitions, the artwork is envisaged as the syncretic ground that enables the accomplishment of meaningful processes of life and of living experience.”



Sumer Erek unveiling the House.


Coinciding with the opening of the Biennial, Sumer Erek removed the shell to ‘reveal’ the final artwork. A fitting epitaph to Liverpool, Capital of Culture as 2008 draws to a close.


Produced by Karen Janody / Creative City

Karen Janody has a history of curating/ producing art shows, which do not leave their audiences indifferent. Henry Ughetto's striking 'Manequins Imputressibles' made a lasting impression on her, inspiring a life-long commitment to working in the arts and cultural sector. Now in London, working outside of the established gallery environment gives Karen a chance to open the lines of communication between the art or non-art public and between the artwork / the use of space.


Supported by

L1 Partnership,
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation,
Liverpool City Council City North Neighbourhood,
Liverpool Environmental Department,
Plus Dane Group, LHT, NMS,
Merseytravel



/// Recent press ::

The Newspaper House was featured on page 3 of Liverpool's Daily Post



Read the whole story on the
Liverpool Daily Post website

The Newspaper House was featured on BBC Northwest Tonight Monday 15th.

Sumer Erek and Karen Janody were interviewed by Claire Hamilton for Radio BBC Merseyside broadcasted Tuesday 16th at 6pm.

Sumer Erek was interviewed on Simon O'Brian's show on Radio City on Saturday 13th.

Sumer and Karen spent an evening with Margie Clarke on Saturday 20th for Radio City.

Karen Janody was interviewed by Neil Morrin for ARTINLIVERPOOLFM (Defnet Media).

Ruth Dillon wrote a great review for Nerve


///


With very special thanks to Ashley Middleton for managing the Youth Engagement and volunteering programme.

Councillor Stephen Munby (Chair of L1 Partnership), Adrian Devers (City Council City and North Neighboorhood) and Maria Checkland (Merseytravel) for their unquantifiable support and help in getting the Liverpool project off the ground.

The project would have never been made possible without the support from our funders:
L1 Partnership, Liverpool City Council City and North Neighbourhood, Liverpool City Council Environment Department, Merseytravel, Plus Dane Group, LHT, NMS, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Liverpool Biennial sponsor).


Special thanks to Maria Checkland of Merseytravel for inviting Holy Lodge and Maghull schools, who contributed massively.

Thank you Ricky Elliot for assisting Sumer Erek in building the installation, Ruth Dillon, Tammy Siebold for accompanying us along the way and many more, who quietly led us on the right path.

Thank you to Liverpool 08 volunteers, who include:
Joe Kelshaw, Shelagh, Margie, Sue and Margerita. Young people from Liverpool L1 and L8 include Ben Osu , Ellie Tedford, Gracie Coppell, Alice Kelley, Joshua, Robin Weymouth, Lauren, Antonia and Laurie, Sarah Forrest and John Fisher, Leo Chrysokhou, Anthony Cannon, Cesca Middleton, Tessa Bridges, Eilleen Heyes, Collette Rothine and Faze Al.

Photography by Sumer Erek, Karen Janody, Ruth Dillon, Sumer Erek, Tamasine Siebold. Animation by John Fisher.





People ::
Sumer Erek, artist 07957666097
sumererek[at]aol.com
www.sumererek.com

Karen Janody, producer 07989 954 414
karen[at]creative-city.co.uk
www.creative-city.co.uk

Ashley Middleton, Youth Engagement Officer 07 841 707 454
oishiiyo[at]gmail.com

Thursday 31 July 2008

Newspaper House Liverpool News & Video

The Newspaper House is moving to Liverpool to continue the work in progress started in London Gillett Square this March.

This participatory project by Sumer Erek transforms discarded newspapers into a fascinating art installation.

The Newspaper House builds with the participation from the Liverpool public, inside a shell, installed from September 5th.

Creative City asks Liverpudlians to bring newspapers to the Blackie, Chinatown. Follow the folding instructions below, and bring your newspaper to be included within the design of the House.




The Newspaper House unveiling on September 19th at 2pm will reveal to the public Sumer Erek's thought-provoking artwork and the work of all who participated.

The Newspaper House will be exhibited until October 5th.

Opening hours
11am - 6pm
Closed Tuesdays


WATCH THE VIDEO!




The project is produced by Creative City

Supported & funded by

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

L1 Partnership

Liverpool City Council Environmental Department
Liverpool City Council City & North Neighbourhood
Plus Dane Group
MerseyTravel
The Blackie


The Newspaper House
@ The Blackie
Great George Street
Liverpool L1 5EW
tel: 0151 709 5109

Tuesday - Saturday
10am - 6pm
Sunday
10am - 4.30pm


Main contacts::

the artist Sumer Erek
sumererek@aol.com
07 957 666 097

the producer & press info
Karen Janody
karen@creative-city.co.uk
07 989 954 414

the youth engagement officer & public participation
Ashley Middleton
oishiiyo@googlemail.com
07 841 707 454

If you are based in Liverpool and around, start preparing yourself for the newspapers collection days to build the House with.

Help Sumer in his task to inspire the artwork from the Liverpool people and architectural landscape.

Monday 7 April 2008

Newspaper House press

Most recent!




Amazing BBC coverage...It was shown on the TV news on Sunday March 9th BBC News


The video podcasts are attached to the Guardian articles Guardian Society on 16 Jan 2008, Guardian Arts Diary of 27 Feb 2008 & Guardian Environment of 10 March 2008;



& on the Building Design article of 29 Feb 2008

Two times in the Metro on 5 March 08 and 10 March 08.




Time Out 'Critics' Choice' on 28 Feb 2008


A-N Magazine


Big Issue on 3 Mar 2008


Evening Standard on 31 Jan 08


The prestigious National Geographic online magazine posted this image with a short review.


The Newspaper House was featured twice in Hackney Today, once on 28 Jan, and 30 March 08



The Reuters article that sent the House on a worldwide tour on 29 Feb 2008

and Europe 1 France's n.1 radio broadcasted the Newspaper House on 3 March 2008

A feature in Planning Resource on 7 March 2008

Channel 4's Big Art Mob

A good article in Icon Eye is accompanied by a podcast of Sumer Erek explaining the artistic concept and reasons behind the Newspaper House.

The Telegraph's the Week in picture Week in Picture

London Lite on 24 Jan 2008

Newspaper House in France, on page 9 of Neo Planet in France


Newspaper House in Brazil, Revista V!


Newspaper House in China


Newspaper House in the USA


Newspaper House on Turkish Daily News 11 Feb 2008

Apparently, an article was published in Greece, so we expect many more worldwide that we cannot chase.


An article is Tree Hugger followed by comments

All in London

A write-up in Hold The Front Page

Photographs on This Is Local London

Art Now Online

& so many blogs, to name but a few, Archinect, Tree-Nation, PSFK, British Blogs, Superuse,Londonalive, Crooked Brains, & London Daily Photo scrawl down and The Paper Planet.


Cate Gillon / Getty Images tooks some photographs on a daily basis on Gillett Square. Here are two of her early ones at St Barnabas Cate Gillon's

Londonalive has quite a lot of shots too, some of which are interesting details of Sumer's work!

As you know, the Newspaper House was closely linked with Metronet Rail, who donated 2 tons of newspapers to the project and Project Freesheet, which donated 10,000 newspapers to the House, collected while demonstrating against the excess waste in London.

Thursday 13 March 2008

First House built, work in progress will continue

You were over 1,000 to participate in the project over the course of the week!

Members of the public dropped by and ended up rolling sticks with our team in the afternoons, others dropped newspapers for us, youth groups and friends, made during the course of the project, stayed and helped us reach Sumer Erek's target.

The unveiling was very well attended. The House, a work in progress, is 2/3rd completed!

Next? Another location! Another settlement and more opportunities to engage and strengthen ties with people around issues that touch us all.

Congratulations to all for the Newspaper House was a success on all levels, and an amazing piece of work by Sumer Erek, Creative City and a dedicated team.





To find out how to get involved or receive our info / mailing list, send an to email:
Producer Karen Janody karen[@]creative-city.co.uk


Photographs to follow by Ruth Gardiner & George Torode. Do not use without permission.


Ruth Gardiner


Ruth Gardiner


Ruth Gardiner


Ruth Gardiner


Ruth Gardiner


Ruth Gardiner


Ruth Gardiner


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode


George Torode

Monday 10 March 2008

THE NEWSPAPER HOUSE VIDEO

Click here to watch THE NEWSPAPER HOUSE VIDEO

a Guardian Media podcast.

Directed by Gillian McIver, assisted by Christina Zaris and Rozy Sarkis. Edited by Karen Janody & Gillian McIver. Narration by Aisling Leyne.

and ...

the paper planet

Sunday 9 March 2008

a contemplation


and it started with this...


unvalued, unwanted, discarded without thought, not even recycled...

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

photo: Nazir Tanbouli

The Newspaper House revealed



top: SUMER EREK AND THE NEWSPAPER HOUSE
Photos: Nazir Tanbouli

Saturday 8 March 2008

The Newspaper House - First View!

photographs by George Torode

paper rolls
above, Jo Beechy, of the Newspaper House team and participatory workshop facilitator

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A work of art ...
made from your waste...
... a transformative process of revaluing


The House open to the public

photos Gillian McIver for Creative City