Fields of Vision
MPA is very excited to be working with Yorkshire partners on this ambitious project for Le Grand Depart of the world’s greatest cycle race, when the Tour de France rolls through Pennine Yorkshire in July. For this once in a lifetime occasion, we are delighted too to be commissioning one of the most influential artists on the international contemporary art scene.
From 27 March - 6 July 2014 Yorkshire Welcomes The World to 100 days of world-class music, dance, theatre, film, art, sculpture and one or two art forms there probably isn't a name for yet. The events will span the county, engaging the widest possible audience, and welcoming the Grand Départ of the Tour de France - the world's largest annual sporting event and one of the most spectacular. Part of the celebrations is an ambitious land-art project set to appear in the fields and pastures of the South Pennine uplands, called Fields of Vision. Artists, environmentalists, schoolchildren, hundreds of young farmers and local cyclists will sow, cut and weave original designs into the hillsides and grasslands around the race route.
The project brings together commissioned artists working with hundreds of local people to cultivate a patchwork of field-size living installations including three sites designed to grow into natural settings for live performances. These will be animated by music and dancing, curated by arts festivals who are based nearby. This network of locally produced art and reimagined landscape will change and grow over the coming months to form a once-in-a-lifetime experience of the South Pennines.
We are extremely pleased to be able to bring the work of one of the most exciting visual artists in the world today to Yorkshire as part of the Fields of Vision.
MPA have commissioned Imran Qureshi to create a landscape installation to view from both sky and ground level, at the spectacular Baitings reservoir. The installation is in two parts, titled Here & There and Bridging.
One of the most important figures on the Pakistan art scene, Imran Qureshi has now also achieved global recognition as a leading figure of international contemporary art. Born in 1972, the artist lives in Lahore where he teaches at the National College of Art. In his paintings and installations, he combines the centuries-old Islamic art form of miniature painting with conceptual approaches and elements of contemporary abstract painting.
In 2011 he was awarded a Sharjah Biennial Prize for his installation "Blessings Upon the Land of My Love", commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. In 2013, his work featured in "The Encyclopedic Palace", 55th Venice Biennale, his large solo exhibition inaugurated the new KunstHalle of Deutsche Bank in Berlin, and he was chosen as Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year. During 2013, too, a site-specific work by Imran Qureshi was commissioned for the Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Using the 8,000-square-foot open-air space as his canvas, the artist worked areas of his spilled and splattered red acrylic paint into patterns of lush ornamental leaves that evoked the luxuriant walled gardens that are ubiquitous in miniatures of the Mughal court; they also echoed the spectacular verdant foliage of Central Park surrounding the Roof Garden. Imran Qureshi was the first artist to create a work painted directly onto the Roof Garden’s surface, and encouraged visitors to walk on it as they viewed it.
Imran Qureshi is commissioned for Fields of Vision by MPA, curator Fareda Khan, in association with Corvi-Mora. Later in 2014, Ikon Gallery Birmingham will host a major survey of his work.
Fields of Vision is a partnership project led by Pennine Prospects and involving Working Parts, MPA and a range of Yorkshire partners.
