Featuring BAZ, Helen Brown, Home of Metal, Napalm Death, plan b, David Rowan, Bedwyr Williams
We Are Eastside at City States, Liverpool Biennial
As part of ‘City States’ at the 7th Liverpool Biennial, We Are Eastside presented Birmingham The Magic City a welcome to the hidden undergrounds, blushing civic pride and future visions of our ‘magic’ city.
‘The Magic City’ is borrowed from a proposed artwork by BAZ, inspired by the sign that originally welcomed visitors to Birmingham, Alabama, USA. BAZ want to build a new version of the sign next to the planned hi-speed rail station destined for Eastside, Birmingham, UK. BAZ believe everything Birmingham does is magic.
Eastside and Digbeth are the oldest parts of Birmingham. Birmingham’s reputation as an industrial city started here, with foundries, metal workshops and tanneries dating back to medieval times. The area’s factories and warehouses now contain galleries, studios and creative organisations producing a visionary programme.
Birmingham: The Magic City provided a snapshot of overlapping perceptions, an exploration of the unknown underground sub-infrastructure of the city, a collage of 1980s Grindcore fanzines from the birthplace of heavy metal, a day in the life of walkers of Birmingham, an orgy of civic boosterism and a reconstruction of a ‘creepy’ wooden lath wall.
Welcome to Birmingham.
Organised by We Are Eastside, a consortium leading independent arts in Birmingham formed of Capsule, Eastside Projects, Flatpack Festival, Fierce Festival, Grand Union and Ikon Gallery.
Kindly supported by Birmingham City University.