Forma Arts

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Studio 102 The Pill Box

115 Coventry Road
London E2 6GG

Media Release
February 2015

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Cantata Profana
A video installation by Matt Stokes, a Dilston Grove
Matts Gallery presentation in association
with Forma Arts
Private View: 22 March 2015 2PM 5PM
Exhibition: 27 March 26 April 2015 (Fri, Sat, Sun)
Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London, SE16 2DD, UK
Matt Stokes' remarkable video and audio
installation takes the form of an amphitheatre of
screens presenting a choral composition, created in
collaboration with British composer Orlando
Gough and six grindcore vocalists.
Cantata Profana interweaves extreme metal music
culture with classical choral traditions, resulting in
an unexpected union. The intense sound and body
movements of the vocalists together with the
backdrop of the out dated GDR radiobroadcasting
studio in which the piece was filmed, all contribute
to the immersive atmosphere of the work.
Extreme metal as the name indicates is abrasive,
combining textural sounds, colour and tone of
voice, often without the use of words. Here, six
vocalists are stripped of their bands, allowing us to
concentrate on their voices and revealing the
complex range of sounds they can create. The
work explores the physicality of extreme metal
vocalists and the intensity of emotion their
performances demand. Using arrangements
normally associated with choral performances the
six metal vocalists are drawn together to create, in
effect, an anti hymn.
Traditional music structure is applied, producing a
hybrid between accepted ways of using the voice
and vocalists who represent the antithesis of the
choral tradition.

Forma Arts and Media Limited

Matt Stokes research-based practice often stems

from a long-term inquiry into music subcultures
and their impact on peoples lives and identities.
He builds trust and immerses himself into
particular groups and after a process of collecting
and absorbing, produces films, events and
installations that whilst related to his findings take
on a conceptual and aesthetic life of their own.
Orlando Gough the musical director for Cantata
Profana, writes music for theatre and devises and
directs large-scale site-specific choral pieces. He is
associate artist of the Royal Opera House, London.
Through Cantata Profana, Stokes creates an
experience that is immersive to both the eye and
ear, allowing us to be in the moment with the
vocalists in a work that gives the feeling of an
intimate performance.
Forma www.forma.org.uk
Matts Gallery www.mattsgallery.org
Dilston Grove www.cgpgallery.org
For further information, images and video please
contact Penny Sychrava PR
0796 791 5339 or pennysychrava@hotmail.com

Forma Arts
forma.org.uk

Media Release
February 2015

@FormaArtsMedia

About Matt Stokes

Matt Stokes (b.1973, Penzance, Cornwall,
UK)
Stokes has lived, studied and worked in the
north east of England since 1993. In 2006, he
was the winner of the Becks Futures Prize,
and in 2012 was shortlisted for the Jarman
Award.

Image Credit: Matt Stokes, Cantata Profana

(2010). Documentation by Colin Davison,
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, UK.

Notes to Editors
Production Credits
Cantata Profana running time 6 min 48 secs
The second in a series of co-productions
between Matt's Gallery and Dilston Grove,
Cantata Profana is presented in association
with Forma Arts.
Cantata Profana was commissioned by
Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Germany, and
produced by Forma Arts with support from
De Hallen Haarlem, Netherlands and Arts
Council England. It has been exhibited at
Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; De Hallen
Haarlem, Haarlem and Baltic Centre for
Contemporary Art, Gateshead.
Matt Stokes, Cantata Profana, Matts Gallery
at Dilston Grove is supported by Arts Council
England, CGP London and Southwark
Council.

Forma Arts and Media Limited

Recent solo exhibitions include In Absence of

the Smoky God, Site Gallery, & Sensoria,
Sheeld 2014; Dance Swine Dance, Grundy
Art Gallery, Blackpool 2014; Give to Me the
Life I Love, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastleupon-Tyne & The Whitechapel Gallery,
London 2013; Nuestro tiempo/Our Time,
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporneo
(CAAC), Seville, Spain, 2011; Cantata
Profana, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art,
Gateshead, 2011; The Distant Sound, De
Hallen, Haarlem, Netherlands, 2011 and No
Place Else Better Than Here, Kunsthalle
Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany in 2010.
Matt Stokes is represented by Lttgen,
Cologne, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead and
ZieherSmith, New York.
About Forma
Founded by curator David Metcalfe, Forma
began in 1992 and has since grown to become
one of Europes foremost creative
commissioning and producing agencies
working with artists and other practitioners to
develop large-scale experimental and
technologically pioneering exhibitions,
performances, films and public artworks.
Forma is a registered charity, which receives
support and funding for its core activity from
Arts Council England.