Left to right: Rhodri Davies; Usurper; RP Boo
and collaboration. Counterl ows commissions a lot of new work and collaborations that might never happen otherwise.’ As the festival’s curators, Campbell and Hope spend a great deal of their time looking ahead, researching and planning, all the while challenging and questioning each decision they make to ensure that every element of the festival is the best that it can be. For Campbell, the curation is all about making connections between the varying components or strands that make up the i nal programme.
‘We like to see the programme itself as a complex web-like structure, where disparate elements (the artists performing) can be threaded together in a way that highlight their originality and potential common ground. We see the venues in Glasgow and the movement between each of them as some sort of topography of this web.’ ‘We initially look at new projects, commissions and collaborations that excite us, and then see how we can make them happen i nancially and practically,’ adds Fielding. ‘Then we develop ideas and themes that we may drop or eventually don’t like. We’ll talk with artists, look for new venues and community spaces, talk with our peers, pose questions to ourselves and visit other festivals. Then the festival slowly forms.’
With such a strong series of festivals behind them, both Campbell and Hope understandably struggle to pick out one dei ning moment. But among their favourites are Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force and Clara from last year; Heatsick’s collaboration with Golden Teacher and Joe McPhee a few years back; Noura Mint Seymali and the i rst appearance of the Counterl ows’ dance circle, and the i rst time duo of Mette Rasmussen and Zeena Parkins.
‘There have been so many beautiful, joyous, hilarious moments from past festivals,’ Hope says. ‘We like to think that it’s a festival that conjures up a melange of emotions and makes audiences leave feeling overwhelmed, stimulated, and inspired. That said, explosive moments of joy on the dancel oor are something that the festival has earned a reputation for.’ So with such interesting and noteworthy past appearances and performances demonstrating Counterl ows’ afi nity for curation that is as broad and disparate as it is progressive, what does the future hold? ‘Every year we feel like the festival is rei ning and intensifying itself,’ Campbell coni dently notes. ‘It can only get better.’
Counterl ows, various venues, Glasgow, Thu 5–Sun 8 Apr.
h the flow h the flow 1 Apr–31 May 2018 THE LIST 21