About Supernormal
SUPERNORMAL is a three-day, experimental arts and music festival taking place at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire. It offers a platform for artists, performers and musicians to work collaboratively and creatively for a new kind of audience seeking experiences out of the mainstream. It is determinedly small and intimate with an audience of 1,500 and has been born from a place that values the currency of ideas and imagination rather than commercialism and profit.
Supernormal allows the exploration of the unspoilt and extraordinary grounds of Braziers Park; an eco-site with fresh running water, eco toilets and hot outdoor showers set within a glorious wooded camping area.
Background
SUPERNORMAL began life in 2010 evolving from Braziers International Artists Workshop (BIAW), an artist-led initiative that started in 1995 bringing artists from around the world to Braziers Park for a two-week residency each year. BIAW provided a meeting point for artists working in all visual disciplines bringing together up to 30 artists of all nationalities to work, exchange dialogue and experiment in a way that is mutually beneficial. It offered an opportunity of participating in an activity removed geographically and conceptually from usual studio practice; in an environment where experiments can be made and leaps of imagination can occur.
SUPERNORMAL carries the baton of BIAW and is intended to give the arts a far wider audience and artists a greater challenge than the former artists’ residency or conventional festival ‘with art attached’ ever can. The focus remains firmly rooted in art, environment and pushing boundaries, embracing difference whilst celebrating common cause. Supernormal is vehemently committed to supporting artists at various stages of their careers.
Supernormal is a Community Interest Company and not-for-profit organisation produced and curated by a small collective of artists, musicians and enthusiasts who share the aims and ethos of this truly alternative event bringing a wealth of interests, knowledge and experience to the forefront.
Team
Directors
- Sam Francis
- Rich Howard
- John Lynch
- Jimmy Martin
- Matilda Strang
Production Team
- Laura Bottin (Programme Assistant)
- Owen Clarke (Build Manager)
- Coco Le Berche (Volunteer Coordinator)
- Vanessa Taylor (Production Assistant)
Not to mention a ton of amazing volunteers!
Advisory Board
- Braziers International Artists Workshop members:
- Gill Ord
- Bernadette Moloney
- Keran James
Supernormal also works with invited curators, producers and promoters this year including contributions to the programme from:
Artist and curator Anne Robinson’s practice is multidisciplinary, often working with the moving image, voice and painting. She teaches artists’ film at London Metropolitan University and has worked for some years on temporality – the perception and politics of time passing, including the symposium and show ‘One More Time’, the ‘Over Time’ pro-ject and recent film works such as Thrashing in the Static (2014).
Qu Junktions is a musical adventure operation based in Bristol, England. They tour, produce, curate and dream up ways of making musical as alive and enthralling as possible. Established in 2004 by Mark Slater and Chiz Williams, it is now a three-way collaboration with John Stevens.
Unconscious Archives is an ongoing event series which aims to generate a responsive curatorial platform for artist film works which are performative or expanded in nature, alongside sound works by sonic artists whose work encompasses visual or sculptural elements.
Blue Tapes is a boutique cassette label specialising in handmade packaging, alternative process artwork, sound art and curious audio releasing music from Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA.