The Growth of A Sometimes Project and its Role in Plymouth Art Weekender
Plymouth Art Weekender returns with a wide array of exhibitions and events, one of which is A Sometimes Project—a dynamic and international initiative that will play a key role in this weekend’s festival. Through its screenings and collaborations, A Sometimes Project is connecting creatives from across the globe, bringing their work to audiences in Plymouth and beyond.
Made in Plymouth's Bracken Jelier chatted to one of the project's founders, Dr. Laura Denning, an artist, writer and academic. Her art practice is transdisciplinary, working across film, sound, social participation, curation and installation, often using mark-making (including photography) and walking as experimental methodologies.
The Origins and Aims of A Sometimes Project
A Sometimes Project began with an idea sparked by the chance combination of two opportunities. A gallery in Cornwall was searching for a curator for an exhibition on water, and at the same time, a friend of the project’s founders, Caroline Mawdsley, had just embarked on an MA focused on creating films about water. This led to the birth of A Sometimes Project, which began with an open call for submissions from artists around the world. What initially seemed like a small endeavor quickly expanded as the project received over 95 submissions from countries including the US, South Korea, Germany, and beyond.
A Sometimes Project aims to showcase a broad range of moving image works, with its first exhibition, "Moving Water," taking place at Terre Verte Gallery in Cornwall. This exhibition features five headline artists, including Bryony Gillard and Sonia Levy, alongside 17 silent films selected through the open call process. These works all explore the theme of water in unique and diverse ways.
Partnerships and Screenings at Plymouth Art Weekender
The project's second initiative brings seven carefully selected films to Plymouth Arts Cinema throughout October. These films, chosen for their high production values and narrative quality, offer a blend of artistic and cinematic storytelling that aligns perfectly with the ethos of Plymouth Arts Cinema. More details about this screening series can be found on the cinema’s website here.
In a special collaboration with Alright Mate, a Plymouth-based initiative that explores mental health, A Sometimes Project will present a series of films exploring the relationships between men, women, and water. Some of these films explicitly address mental health, while others subtly allude to it. This event will take place at Leadworks on Saturday, October 19, from 10:30 a.m. to noon as part of Plymouth Art Weekender. Entry is free, and no ticket is required.
Additionally, the project has expanded its screenings to include the Immersive Dome in Devonport. Fifteen short films, vibrant with colour and creativity, will be shown as part of Plymouth Art Weekender on both October 19 and 20. This offers audiences a truly immersive experience that highlights the playful and experimental nature of many of the submitted works.
A Global Reach
One of the most remarkable aspects of A Sometimes Project is its global reach. The call for submissions was distributed through an international platform called Experimental Cinema, and the enthusiastic response from filmmakers worldwide demonstrates the power of creative communities connecting across borders.
Looking Ahead
Beyond its work in film, A Sometimes Project is already looking to future endeavors, with plans for sound installations in a secret woodland. This project will include live performance art and sound-based works, further pushing the boundaries of creativity. The project remains open to collaborations with artists of all disciplines, from filmmakers to poets, inviting them to participate in its ever-evolving journey.
In the long term, A Sometimes Project has its sights set on expanding internationally, with screenings being planned in Istanbul, Sydney, Kyiv, Budapest, and New York. With such an ambitious vision, the future of the project seems limitless.
A Sometimes Project is a testament to the creative spirit, and its presence at Plymouth Art Weekender promises to be one of the highlights of the festival. Whether through its cinematic screenings or its boundary-pushing installations, the project continues to inspire and connect artists and audiences around the world.
Fo more information on the film screenings and all other Plymouth Art Weekender events, see the Plymouth Art Weekender Website.
SOME OF THE FILM MAKERS INVOLVED:
Michael Betancourt: Niagara produced while artist in residence at the Institute for Electronic Arts in Alfred University, NY. 10 minutes, 2024, HD (1920x1080 30p) stereo
Researcher and filmmaker Serdar Kökçeoğlu delves into Türkiye's radical music history, transforming his research into films. Mimaroğlu premiered at Visions du Réel, and was screened at numerous festivals, winning multiple awards. In 2024, he created a short Blue: Revolution, and VHS Tapes, inspired by the archives of a cinephile involved in revolutionary activities in the 1970s. ''Istanbul’s multicultural pulse is best felt on the ferry from dynamic Beşiktaş to timeless Üsküdar. My abstracted sea images capture the rhythm and eternity of this journey, merging the city's rich layers that defy simple East-West or old-new contrasts.'
Izabella Retkowska is an interdisciplinary Polish artist who mainly focuses on video art and animation. Her videos are dedicated to human behaviour and identity and serve as a mirror for the viewer to reflect on themselves. Her works have been shown in numerous festivals and art events worldwide.
Catherine Phillips is an Experimental Filmmaker and painter based in West London. She combines painting on film, super 8mm, abstract images, sound art, Butoh and martial arts to create short experimental films exploring transformation, nature, the environment and self-healing. 90 Seconds of Simplicity is a short experimental film using scratched and painted on super 8 film, that looks like sunlight on shimmering water. It is a subtle, calming art work on film that brings back memories of summer holidays, on the beach watching the sun go down.
Gerdi Petanaj Aqua Mirabilis, features close-up, and often post-produced footage of water, captured from rivers in the Ligurian region of Italy. Drawing inspiration from the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, I used his story as a lens to investigate the human condition as a mirror of nature, reflecting upon itself. Aqua Mirabilis (Brucerò), 3min
Jeff Sermon an artist and filmmaker whose work spans various mediums, including text, photography, and film. Through these lenses, I explore the intricate relationships between time, landscape, and society. Central to my artistic inquiry is the question: How deeply are our identities intertwined with the landscapes we inhabit and shape?
"Water as Narrative" explores the hypnotic nature of water, using it to craft a story. Inspired by Walter Benjamin's idea that narrative is language, the film questions what our language reveals in water. What unfolds before and after a mysterious body emerges in the frame?
Matthew Pell is a moving-image artist and sound designer. Pell’s varied work includes explorations of the natural landscape, urban topography, and glitch art. Pell has created both commissioned and self-initiated projects for public screenings, exhibitions, musicians and performers. Pell is a Senior Lecturer at De Montfort University.
Vannenergi The video captures the movement and inherent energy of the Oldeelva and Dalaelva rivers in Norway. Almost 100% of Norway’s electricity is generated by renewable hydropower. This means that Norway has one of the smallest carbon footprints.
Zsolt Gyenes - media artist. He is mostly interested in experimental visual music. His audiovisual works have been shown at various festivals and galleries in Europe, America, and Asia. He lives and works in Pécs, Hungary.
Maelstrom 2.30 mins
Valentin Sismann is a French acousmatic music composer and video artist. After making the film In Repetito Religare with Audrey Colard, he decided to combine electroacoustic and video art in his practice. His work has been presented in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the United States in group exhibitions, screenings and concerts. In 2024, he won the DJTAL Humain prize for his video Screensong and the petites formes prize for his acousmatic piece Loinaître.
Anatomy of a wave is a study of movement, a legacy of chronophotography in the video age. In a system of time dissection, the object studied is ultimately recomposed. At first, this object merges with the filmed object, obviously the wave, but also the two characters exploring it in its space. On the other hand, it's an investigation into the medium itself: video, but also archive. In the same way as one of my other video work The mystery of the missing necklace, it's a personal found footage approach questioning childhood, in this case the bond between my older brother and me.
Giorgio Gerardi I live in Italy, in Favaro Veneto (Venice). In recent years, I have focused on some details of the environment around me: clouds, leaves and everyday objects that you daily have under your eyes. I have also produced some videos, which have been screened at video mapping festivals and participated in film festivals. I'm also interested in the use of AI. I have exhibited my works in many art exhibitions, both online and offline, and have been published in national and international magazines
Chilli Carney is a Scottish multidisciplinary artist based in Berlin. They work with collage and video, often incorporating their written work into their visual landscape. "Aquascapes" explores how light interacts with the movement of water to create patterns and distortions on the water's surface . The videos were shot on a mini DV camcorder in Malaga, Spain.
Adam Fung
a painter and filmmaker who has utilized his connection to the planet as the impetus for his creative works over the last 20 years. His practice draws on the history of landscape painting, direct experience, and the process of painting as an interaction of surface and materials.
This silent excerpt of the four-channel film titled “fathom” is a contemplative representation of a larger work that addresses the state of our planet. The film uses footage from the archipelago of Svalbard, during the Arctic Circle artist residency about the Barkentine sailing ship the Antigua in summer of 2023.
Ruxandra Mitache
Ruxandra Mitache is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Switzerland. Her practice focuses on installation, where she often explores the fluid nature of perception by juxtaposing stable and unstable mediums. Drawing inspiration from the interplay of light, she incorporates video, analog animation, photography, and sound into her work, reflecting on the experimental approaches of time and spatiality, the resonance of the space.
Through these mediums, she tries to construct meditative experiences, ambients that invite the audience to contemplate the created poetic synthesis, the delicate relationship between sensory elements.
Since recently she has organised and curated biannual exhibitions at her studio in Montreux, with the intention of exploring in time the contrasted expressions of the fluid metaphor “Melting Walls”.
Roopesh Sitharan
This work considers water as a force that shapes and alters reality. Specifically, the video work captures specific moments of water encountering urban landscape. This confrontation exposes the adequacy of water to not only adapt to our environment but also as a solvent that imposes ecological pressures on our wrongdoing.
I am a new media artist operating from Malaysia. My works mostly engage with the question of research, art practice and the possibilities of artist in critically encountering/questioning real world problems. I have participated in several local and international projects, exhibitions and residencies.
Rosa Prosser
“a line made by swimming” is an experimental moving image installation developing ways of sensing, experiencing and relating to and with the River Eden in Cumbia. Contrasting abstract lines which fix and freeze water on a map, the artist seeks to create her own line, through simple acts of swimming.
Rosa Prosser is an artist filmmaker from the Lake District, Cumbria. Her practice seeks to explore and (un)tangle human - more-than-human encounters and relations through the moving image; developing a methodology she describes as “sensory ecological ethnography” as a way of engaging with the world.