Name: Dead Cat Bounce
Start: 2024-10-12T19:00:00+01:00
Location: Soft Ground

Dead Cat Bounce

We develop creative projects connected to the world around us.  Our public programme is open to all. We activate spaces for people to think differently about the world around them using art to explore social and environmental issues, provoke debate, and test out alternative ways of learning.We collaborate with artists, activists and people with different kinds of knowledge to organise creative projects that respond to social and environmental issues. Our programme often takes place within community spaces, unusual sites and outdoors.Subscribe to our newsletterto stay updated with the latest updates from us!

Arts Catalyst

An oratorio about finance and catastrophe

Soft Ground

Join <a href="https://artscatalyst.org/" title="https://artscatalyst.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Arts Catalyst</a> for this experimental opera performed live at Soft Ground.This performance will happen as part of <a href="https://noboundsfestival.co.uk/" title="https://noboundsfestival.co.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">No Bounds Festival</a>. Tickets for this performance on 12 October are included in the weekend festival pass for<a href="https://ra.co/events/1607259" title="https://ra.co/events/1607259" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> No Bounds</a>. If you do not have a No Bounds festival pass, or only want to see this performance, please book a ticket for Dead Cat Bounce. Tickets are limited.<a href="https://artscatalyst.org/?post_type=whats_on&amp;p=5869" title="https://artscatalyst.org/?post_type=whats_on&amp;p=5869" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dead Cat Bounce </a>by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Waste Paper Opera (Klara Kofen and James Oldham) explores financial alchemy and the unmaking of reality in the time of catastrophe. Dwelling in the strange light of speculative times, Dead Cat Bounce is a story of unpayable debts, entangled histories and repeated jokes.Staged within a sculptural installation at Soft Ground, the performance takes the form of an oratorio, a mode of baroque performance in which instruments and voice are used to tell a sacred narrative.The work unfolds over five interwoven vignettes of pre-emptive catastrophe. In China (2016), five hitmen arrive in court to discover that they have each subcontracted another to kill the same real estate developer. At the palace of Louis XVI (1788), thirty Swiss virgins are having their teeth checked in order to secure the national debt. In Miami (2027), an insurance broker redrafts a contract for a house that is already underwater. In Jerusalem (589 BC), the prophet Jeremiah weeps incessantly for the impending wrath of an unforgiving god. In earthquake-struck Japan (1855), a brothel-owner pays tribute to a catfish deity as she surveys the sunlit ruins of the city.Musically, the work draws loosely on Jomelli’s Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, interpreted through Waste Paper Opera’s approach bringing together the absurd with the sacred, improvisatory elements and scored material.Following the performance, over the course of six weeks Dead Cat Bounce will continue in the form of an exhibition at Soft Ground.This event is suitable for 14+. Under 18's should be accompanied by an adult. A bar serving alcohol and soft drinks will be available. There are no cloakroom facilities.Access: This is a seated event. Soft Ground has lift access and accessible toilet. Please email admin@artscatalyst.org if you have any specific access requests. More information about Soft Ground, parking and travel can be found on our <a href="https://artscatalyst.org/soft-ground/" title="https://artscatalyst.org/soft-ground/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Soft Ground page.</a>** Please note: This performance contains roughly 20 seconds of strobe lighting 30 minutes into the show. Soft Ground can be cold in the winter, so please wrap up warm.Tickets: Tickets for this performance on 12 October are included in the weekend festival pass for<a href="https://ra.co/events/1607259" title="https://ra.co/events/1607259" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> No Bounds</a>. If you do not have a No Bounds festival pass, or only want to see this performance, please book a ticket for Dead Cat Bounce. Tickets are limited.Schedule6.15pm - Doors7.00pm - Performance starts8.00pm - Performance endsWe take extra precautions to manage the risk of COVID-19. We are limiting capacity to maintain air quality and our team test regularly. If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 such as sore throat, continuous headache, dry cough, runny nose, loss of taste of smell, or high temperature, or have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, please do not attend.Refunds are only available up to 7 days before the event in the case of Covid-19 self isolation. We want to keep everyone as safe as possible. Thank you for your understanding.PHOTO CONSENT: We will have a photographer present to document this event. Arts Catalyst will also use the photos to promote our work on our websites, social media and newsletters.If for any reason this does not feel comfortable, please let one of the organisers know at the start of the event and we'll make sure you do not appear in any photos or footage.About the Artists<a href="https://wastepaperopera.net/" title="https://wastepaperopera.net/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Waste Paper Opera</a> (Klara Kofen and James Oldham) is a collective working between sound, music, performance and film . WPO was founded in Birmingham in 2012 and is run by dramaturg, writer and researcher Klara Kofen and composer, and performer James Oldham. Their work explores ecological, musical, historical, financial and cosmic temporalities through experiments in form, dramaturgy and multimodal worldbuilding.<a href="https://www.zhexi.info/" title="https://www.zhexi.info/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Gary Zhexi Zhang</a> is an artist and writer whose work explores connections between cosmology, technology and economy. He was born in Suzhou and works in London. He recently edited a book of fictions, essays and interviews about finance and time, Catastrophe Time! (Strange Attractor Press, 2023). The opera he co-created with Waste Paper Opera, Dead Cat Bounce, premiered at Somerset House in 2022. His last solo exhibition, Cycle 25, documented events that blur the boundaries between speculative belief and the material world, like natural disasters, scam nations and cosmic economies.Dead Cat Bounce is supported by Arts Council England, Marchus Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, and Birmingham Opera Company.

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Dead Cat Bounce

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