Od Arts Festival [Od pronounced Odd] brings exhibitions, performances, film and workshops by local and international artists to not-so-sleepy Somerset. New and specially sited artworks will pop up around the villages of East Coker and West Coker, in cafes, halls, houses, chapels and fields, and also online for a special digital programme.
The festival takes its name from the Od: a crooked stream that meanders through the neighbouring villages of East and West Coker. Led by Coker-based OSR Projects, Od Arts Festival 2023 – Still & still moving, takes its title from T.S Eliot’s poem East Coker, the second of his famous Four Quartets.
…Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
T.S Eliot
From sunken lanes and smugglers paths to the virtual landscapes of computer generated worlds, Still and still moving will explore responses to human movement through space, both real and imagined.
Through art and creative community activity the festival will address issues including land rights, migration and access, exploring some of contemporary and historical connections of the Cokers to the rest of the world. We invite people to walk with us, stray off the path and discover new ways to think about the journeys we make.
This year we are joined by Cornwall based curator and producer Cat Bagg. Having worked for UpProjects, T1+2 Gallery, and Hive Projects in London, she co-founded Field Notes CIC in 2014 in Cornwall with her curatorial partner Rosie Allen. Together they have developed and delivered many large scale publicly funded community based visual art projects and festivals including Inland Art Festival, 2014 and 2016, Plymouth Art Weekender 2017 and 2018, and Goonhilly Village Green 2015 and 2019. Cat is also a director of the Redruth based residency space Back Lane West and is the Programme Coordinator for CAST in Helston where she works across the visual arts screening, events and learning programmes.
