Autumn Crocuses at Cylinders
Death Notice
Author Archives: https://www.facebook.com/MerzBarnLangdale/?fref=ts
KS 75: EXHIBITIONS CELEBRATING KURT SCHWITTERS’ MERZ BARN PROJECT AT CYLINDERS
from July 30th 2022 (2 – 5 pm) The Merz Barn, Elterwater, LA22 9JB
Entartete Kunst (anti-Fascist) Artists Memorial
You are cordially invited to the Entartete Kunst (anti-fascist) artists’ memorial, commemorating the artists who were persecuted by the Nazis and declared ‘degenerate’ (entartet) and forced into exile.
дітей – Ukrainian public art project – artists and architects against fascism in Europe This year the memorial event is also dedicated to the memory of the 600 children and mothers who died in the Russian bombing of the Art School in Mariupol to which they had been evacuated, on 16th March 2022 <https://apnews.com/article/Russia-ukraine-war-mariupol-theater-c321a196fbd568899841b506afcac7a1>
Programme 8th October:
/2.00 – 5.30 pm Guided tours of the exhibitions at the Merz Barn site – KS75 (75th anniversary of the creation of the Merz Barn artwork. The Entartete Kunst and Kurt Schwitters exhibition includes the ‘Children of Mariupol’ public memorial and the Ukrainian Architecture Pavilion project.
6.00 pm A light supper of home made vegetable soup and local sourdough bread with musical accompaniment.
7.00 pm Professor Michael White (Professor of Art History, University of York) will give the final annual Kurt Schwitters lecture. https://www.york.ac.uk/history-of-art/staff/white/
9.00 pm Weather permitting, the event will conclude with the lighting up of the Ukrainian Land Art project with 500 candles marking out the outlines of the Ukrainian word for children; (дітей) on the landscape site near the Merz Barn. The ‘Reading of the Names’ of the entartete Kunst artists will take place afterwards in the memorial circle beside the Merz Barn.
LITTORAL/Projects Environment
Registered Charity No.1002365; Registered Company Limited by Guarantee No. 0526443
Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn Programmes 2002 – 2022
Cylinders Estate, Elterwater, Ambleside, LA22 9JB
Tel..++44 (0)15394 37389; Mobile..++44 (0)7966 607 1
<littoral@btopenworld.com> <celialarner97@gmail.com>
THE CHILDREN OF MARIUPOL MEMORIAL
PART OF THE KS75 ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION AT CYLINDERS
THE DARK BUNKER
Background to the work
The work is in two pieces: the bunker, set in the trees to the right of the path to the Merz Barn, and an inscription in mown grass on the grassy hill above. Designed by artist Ian Hunter it commemorates one of the most infamous acts of the current Soviet invasion of the Ukraine. In February 2022 the town of Mariupol came under fierce attack from the Russian bombers, and the decision was taken to move the women and children sheltering in the hospital to the more strongly built Mariupol Art School. To protect them there the word ‘Children’, in Russian, was painted in large letters on the car parks at either end of the building. The barbarian Russians took this as a signal to blast the building to smithereens, killing over 600 women and children.
Artist’s Statement
The Dark Bunker – the Ukrainian Architecture Pavilion at the Merz Barn A monument against fascism
This project was partly inspired by the Serpentine Gallery’s ‘Black Chapel’ architecture pavilion commission, undertaken in 2022 by a partnership involving US artist Theaster Gates and Ghanian/British architect Sir David Adjaye. Past Serpentine gallery Architecture Pavilion commissions have averaged around £1 million per project. Although the Arts Council rejected our bid to the Arts Lottery for a memorial to the Children of Mariupol pavilion created in partnership with a design partnership in the Ukraine, we decided that we would go ahead with our proposal for a flagship project at the Merz Barn. Our solution to the funding challenge came about with the support of the local community and through the intervention of climate change.
As a result of the extreme storm (Arwen) at the end of 2021, and in early January 2022, about 30% of our mature trees were felled by the gale force winds in two nights. The whole site was flooded and looked like a battlefield, as in some places it still does. Most of the large fir trees in the open space to the right of the Merz path fell during the storms; they are now incorporated in the construction of the Dark Bunker.
With the help of local farmer/contractor Mike Edmondson and landscape contractor Dave Middleton we cut, trimmed and realigned most of the large mature storm-felled trees to build a giant log cabin. This was a major undertaking in itself, but the excellent partnership of Mike and Dave came up with a practical solution. They too were inspired by the ongoing heroic struggle of the Ukrainian people against Vladimir Putin’s fascist military regime and gave their full support to the project.
The Children of Mariupol project and the accompanying Sculpture Trail and Exhibitions will remain open until the end of October 2022, 10am to 5.30 pm – subject to an absence of serious gale damage.
There is car parking onsite, and no charges are made. Those who wish to are welcome to make small donations to offset the costs of the candles, and the chalk for re-whiting the landscape inscription.
Enquiries to Ian Hunter or Celia Larner on 015394 37309. littoral@btopenworld.com
AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG WISHART; ALL OTHERS BY CAMILLA LAING-TAIT.
Exhibition Opening
Children of Mariupol Exhibition
You are cordially invited to attend the official opening of the дітей – Children of Mariupol’ exhibition, and the ‘Dark Bunker’ – the Ukrainian Architecture Pavilion commission, both of which are organised in solidarity with the people of the Ukraine.
2.00 – 5.00pm, Sat. 30th July, the Merz Barn, Elterwater, Ambleside LA22 9JB.
KS75 – the 75th anniversary of Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn project
The exhibition coincides with the KS75 – 75th anniversary celebrations of Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn project (1947 – 2022) in Langdale. On view will be exhibitions about Kurt Schwitters by contemporary artists, the heritage of Harry Pierce and Cylinders Gardens and proposals for a future Kurt Schwitters Merzbau Art Museum.
“A project of great artistic and cultural importance for Britain …..which I strongly support” Sir Nicholas Serota, Director The Tate Galley, at the opening of the Schwitters in Britain exhibition January 2013
“….[it is also] of considerable strategic importance, and direct relevance to my constituents In South Cumbria.” Tim Farron MP Westmorland and Lonsdale. (3/04/2022)
The KS75 – art events and the Children of Mariupol exhibitions are funded by Heritage Lottery Fund programme and are open and free to the public: 10 am – 5.30 pm, seven days a week, to Sunday 16th October 2022. Free parking on site.
If for any reason you can’t join us for the opening on Saturday 30th July, you are very welcome to come at any time over the next 12 weeks. Also if you would like to have a personal introduction and/or a guided tour of the project site and the exhibitions, we would be very happy to arrange this for you. Please book in advance. RSVP
With our best wishes,
Thanks to National Lottery players
Update: Government Warning: Cobra! Excessive heat expected on Tuesday July 19th. People are being warned not to travel on Tuesday, and most of our speakers have cancelled. We have decided that, as responsible citizens, we need to reckon with official warnings, so are re-arranging the July 19th event for July 30, when the main celebrations were already scheduled to take place.
Re-Opening of the Merz Barn
Artists mobilise against Fascism?
Tuesday, June 19th 2022: 2 – 3.30 pm
Commemorating the artists designated as ‘Degenerate’ by the Nazis – an artists’ anti-fascist memorial day in support of the Ukraine
“It’s 1937 all over again.. with the systemic and brutal destruction of the Ukraine’s artistic and cultural heritage by Putin’s Fascist hordes”.
at the Merz Barn, Cylinders, Elterwater LA22 9JB
exhibition, Munich 19th July 1937, that resulted in March 2022 by Putin’s Russian military. 600 the persecution and exile of many of Germany’s women and children, and local artists who had leading modernist artists and intellectuals. been sheltering inside were killed.
You are invited to the Opening and Re-dedication of the anti-fascist ‘Entartete Kunst’ Artists Memorial Garden at Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn in Elterwater from 2 to 3.30 pm on Tuesday 19th July 2022. The event marks the 85th anniversary of the infamous Munich ‘entartete Kunst’ Exhibition (1937) that marked the mass flight of the proscribed ‘Modern’ artists to Europe and America.
The Opening will be conducted by Billy Welch (Shera Rom), leader of the UK Gypsy Romani community (www.travellerstimes.org.uk/features/billy-welch-appleby). Also attending will be invited representatives from CDEC Ambleside, the LAAL Cooperative, Wigton (neuro-diverse arts collective), Anti Racist Cumbria, the UK Artists’ Union, All Saints Church Chapel Stile, South Lakes and Jewish community, the Polish community, and other colleagues from local schools, the LGBTQ community, Disability Rights, Arnside Homes for Ukraine, and the Seventh Day Adventist Church (tbc).
Free Entry and on-site Parking
For more information please contact Celia or Ian at the Merz Barn: 015394 37309.
Mob. 07796 607167 e. littoral@btopenworld.com.
SPRING IS HERE!
A Miracle at Cylinders!
– announcing a miracle at Cylinders!
Over the week-end of February 4th and 5th a miracle occurred at Cylinders, performed by a group of hardy Polish mountaineers who arrived from all over England.
As most of you will know, Cylinders was badly struck by Storm Arwen on November 26-27 2021. A massive loss was the historic Leylandia cypress tree planted by Harry Pierce in 1967 outside the shippon. Along with that giant went many other vintage trees, mostly birches and larch, 3 or 4 of which fell across the boundary wall and into the road. These latter were almost instantly removed by our Council, for which we were and are grateful.
/The devastation, although it caused little damage to buildings, had a greater impact on the site than even the gales of winter 2015-16, and added to a 52 hour power cut caused by three larches falling onto the power supply lines, led to a bleak two months when we had to close the site once again to visitors. The visual devastation was added to by the fact that the larch copse by the Merz Barn, although perfectly healthy to the naked eye, had been condemned earlier in the year by the Forestry Authority, and an order served demanding its felling by the end of January 2022. This was duly accomplished by contractor Mike Edmondson, but he is under extreme pressure up and down the valley since all others with larches on their land are working to the same time-line. The condemned larches therefore are still lying where they fell, and after the storm Cylinders was left looking like a vast lumber-yard.
The whole thing was simply depressing, and apart from a small tidy-up to repair the waste pipe snapped by the fall of the cypress, and free the pathway to the Merz Barn, we resigned ourselves to a long wait before further remedial action could be taken.
But then, a mere ten days ago, an Angel appeared on site in the guise of Joanna Jozefowicz, an MA student at Salford College of Art. Joanna knew the Merz Barn, having taken part in one of artist Jill Randall’s annual residency visits with her students (the next is scheduled for this March). Joanna spent the day discussing her MA project with Ian, each of them growing more excited by the minute as they viewed the possibilities afforded by the site and its links with the gallant Polish Brigade during and after WWII.
SPRING IS HERE! – announcing a miracle at Cylinders
Over the week-end of February 4th and 5th a miracle occurred at Cylinders, performed by a group of hardy Polish mountaineers who arrived from all over England.
As most of you will know, Cylinders was badly struck by Storm Arwen on November 26-27 2021. A massive loss was the historic Leylandia cypress tree planted by Harry Pierce in 1967 outside the shippon. Along with that giant went many other vintage trees, mostly birches and larch, 3 or 4 of which fell across the boundary wall and into the road. These latter were almost instantly removed by our Council, for which we were and are grateful.
The devastation, although it caused little damage to buildings, had a greater impact on the site than even the gales of winter 2015-16, and added to a 52 hour power cut caused by three larches falling onto the power supply lines, led to a bleak two months when we had to close the site once again to visitors. The visual devastation was added to by the fact that the larch copse by the Merz Barn, although perfectly healthy to the naked eye, had been condemned earlier in the year by the Forestry Authority, and an order served demanding its felling by the end of January 2022. This was duly accomplished by contractor Mike Edmondson, but he is under extreme pressure up and down the valley since all others with larches on their land are working to the same time-line. The condemned larches therefore are still lying where they fell, and after the storm Cylinders was left looking like a vast lumber-yard.
The whole thing was simply depressing, and apart from a small tidy-up to repair the waste pipe snapped by the fall of the cypress, and free the pathway to the Merz Barn, we resigned ourselves to a long wait before further remedial action could be taken.
But then, a mere ten days ago, an Angel appeared on site in the guise of Joanna Jozefowicz, an MA student at Salford College of Art. Joanna knew the Merz Barn, having taken part in one of artist Jill Randall’s annual residency visits with her students (the next is scheduled for this March). Joanna spent the day discussing her MA project with Ian, each of them growing more excited by the minute as they viewed the possibilities afforded by the site and its links with the gallant Polish Brigade during and after WWII.
As she was leaving Joanna remarked, seemingly idly, ‘I see you could do with some help here. I am secretary to the Polish Mountaineers’ Society. They will like the area and are very hardy, used to camping in all weathers. Several of them have chain saws and other tools. I will put out a call for any helpers, and see if we get a response’.
To be honest we were in too low a state to be expecting much, but Joana was better even than her word. Within three days she announced she had fifteen takers, and that they were coming in five days’ time, February 4th to 6th, with the intention of working at Cylinders on the Saturday, and enjoying the mountains on the Sunday. They would bring all their own supplies.
Littoral realised it had to get its act together. The idea of so many people attempting to camp on site in February was unthinkable. Luckily the TOC H bunk barn at Chapel Stile proved to be available – warm, well equipped, beautifully sited by the river, and capable of accommodating 24 people. Hiring the resource made us feel happier but – the weather forecast for the week-end was dire!
And correct. The Polish guests installed themselves in the bunk barn on the Friday so quietly that we were not even sure they had arrived until Ian visited them and found a cheerful party of over 20 people in progress. He told them to breakfast at their leisure the next day, and forget any idea of making an early start. When Saturday dawned however the rain was coming down in vertical streaks and strong winds were attempting to tumble our remaining trees, so he went back and told them to take the day off – Mike Edmondson, the farmer up the valley who had agreed to work with them had already announced that he was not coming out in such a tempest, and we fully agreed with him.
But there was no stopping the Poles! Suddenly the gates were thrust open and they appeared – men, women, children, broad grins on their faces, tools at the ready! There were at least twenty-five of them. The women advanced on the shippon, where Ian had lit a blazing fire in the stove, and proceeded to prepare lunch, a special hot and spicy goulash called a ‘bigot’, as far as we could tell. The men fired up their chain saws (seven of them, I think) and got to work, aided and directed by Dave Middleton with his pride and joy, his new quad and trailer. Ian made cafetière after cafetière of strong coffee, accompanied by jokes; a pleasant old dog lazed in front of the fire; the peacocks peered suspiciously out of the henhouse. The hens laid no eggs that day.
Celia, venturing into the shippon, peered out of the window as a Polish warrior sliced apparently effortlessly through the two-metre thick trunk of the cypress, jumping aside with a dance-like kick as each swiss-roll section fell. All around, as the rain sheeted down, there was similar activity. Mud sprayed in all directions so that by the end it was possibly only the dog – his name was Caro – that remained dry.
Towards the end of the afternoon Ian suggested that a bonfire be built to get rid of the tower of brash that had built up in the car park. Although it seemed scarcely credible as the rain continued to fall (over an inch to judge by the amount collected in the poultry drinking bowl) the leylandia fronds ignited like an oil well, throwing out clouds of heat, steam and red fire to the delight of all who danced around it.
By the end of the day, to Celia’s astonishment, the site was completely tidy again, only the imprint of many boots showing where the activity had been, reminiscent perhaps of the ground on the day after Waterloo. There is still work to be done, especially along the roadway, but at the party in the bunk barn that evening a decision was taken to return in the near future to finish the job – indeed the Littoral team had to plead for a week or so of respite before the return, since some keen lumberjacks were proposing to come the following week-end.
And all this because Ian had told Joanna how Kurt Schwitters had met with a posse of the Polish Brigade when they were stationed at Grizedale, and had exchanged reminiscences with them on their life in exile in England.
Definitely, a miracle took place at Cylinders last week-end!
THE SEASON’S GREETINGS
The Harry Pierce Micro-Museum
The opening of the new little museum and reading-room is scheduled for June 20th at 2 pm – All Welcome!.
STORM ARWEN – CLOSURE OF THE MERZ BARN SITE
Cylinders, site of the Merz Barn, the morning after Storm Arwen (November 27th). Our great cypress has gone – but see how it missed doing much greater damage! (Took the sewage pipe out however). Total damage has yet to be assessed but the Merz Barn itself is untouched.
Total damage to the trees on the site is extensive, but the Merz Barn itself is untouched. There is damage to the roof of the Drawing Office which, like the other after-effects of the storm, will take time to be assessed.
The whole of the Langdale Valley was without electricity for 54 hours, and the devastation was major. Cylinders is closed until further notice while we make it safe for visitors.
We are filled with thankfulness that nobody was hurt: even the little red squirrels are still bouncing about, and the hens and peacocks (which seem to have advanced warning of bad weather to come, and abandon their treetop roost well in advance of stormy weather) kept themselves safe.
MERZ BARN UPDATE
November 2020
It has been a long time since we have issued an update on the Merz Barn. Like the rest of the country we have been hoping for a let-up in the Covid-19 pandemic, or the arrival of a viable vaccine, in order to issue an up-beat report. Since this is not yet in sight we have decided simply to send out a personal message to our Friends and Supporters.
Ian and Celia spent January visiting relatives in Australia and New Zealand, and arrived back at Cylinders in February tanned and relaxed and unaware of the impending health crisis. When we discovered what was happening we remembered the Cultural Documents of FMD project we ran during the Foot-and-Mouth epidemic of 2001-2, and the Pandemics and Society exhibition and conference in Manchester in 2006. These two programmes had put the Littoral trust in contact with experts from Britain and the US in the fields of epidemiology and related medical studies. Some of the papers read during the conference had contained dire forecasts of the possibilities of new pandemics caused by the interaction between animal and human viruses.
Two things were exceptionally clear as the virus spread across Europe and to Britain: that old people and those with existing medical conditions were particularly at risk of requiring hospitalisation if they contracted the new Covid-19 virus, and that the consequent strain on NHS facilities could swiftly bring hospitals to a standstill. By March 2020 it was evident that this was already happening. Our Government was slow to take action at a national level. Ian and Celia took what they at that point hoped was a sensible temporary measure, a decision to go into immediate self-shielding at Cylinders, and close the Merz Barn site to the public from March 13th, ten crucial days before the whole country was forced into lock-down.
Since then there has been no moment at which it has seemed safe to relax vigilance. What has the reality been so far?
As most of you know, aside from being a site dedicated to Kurt Schwitters’ memory, to refugees in general, and to the artists and emergent artists of our own day, Cylinders is seen by us as a stronghold for native Cumbrian wildlife. Before the trust acquired the site at the end of 2006 it had been left untouched for almost thirty years, and during that time had become a refuge for birds, mammals, amphibians, invertebrates, and our local wild plants and fungi. In a normal year the winter months are not especially welcoming to casual visitors so that in spite of occasional irruptions by groups of artists or students there are enough quiet times for our natural residents to maintain their trust in the site. 2020 has given them a summer respite welcomed by all species, although the necessity to improve our boundary walls and fences to combat the increasingly athleticism of the hordes of Herdwick sheep on the fells may have cut down the numbers of the roe and red deer normally resident or visiting here.
So much for the site. How about Ian and Celia? Have they simply been taking life easy?
Celia is now 83, and it has to be said that she has welcomed the change of pace that leaves her time, after attending to the book-keeping and report-writing, for her own pursuits.
Ian on the other hand has been very busy indeed. With the impossibility of travel to meetings and conferences he has had time to work intensively on future programmes for Cylinders and the Merz Barn, including celebrations for the 25th anniversary in 2022 of Schwitters’ Merz Barn art installation. At the same time he has returned to the Littoral Arts parallel programme The Arts and Agricultural Change, and the linked Creative Rural Economy strand.
As a counter-balance to this desk work Ian has spent the last seven months looking after the Cylinders site and buildings, upgrading the cottage, mending the dry-stone walls, dealing with flood and storm damage, and much more. Some of these jobs have necessitated outside help – mainly the felling of trees that have half-fallen and become dangerous – but it is also amazing how much Ian has managed to achieve completely without help.
It is now November. Following promising updates on the imminent availability of an anti-Covid vaccine we are waiting to find out if and when we may expect to receive it, but we are alive to the fact that there are many people who will require to be treated first, and it seems likely that we will have to wait until next spring to be able to re-open Cylinders for visits and residencies.
We are also waiting awhile to publish our plans for future projects, and in particular for the summer of 2022 when we hope to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn installation. There are exciting projects, proposals, and partnerships in the pipe-line which will be unveiled in due course.
In the immediate future we hope to be able to re-launch artist Lizzie Fisher’s project and exhibition ‘Metzger at the Merz Barn’, supported by Cumbria Community Council, in 2021, and we are also working on an HLF assisted project with Ali McCaw, Prism Arts Carlisle, and children from Dissington Primary School, for the summer of 2021.
There is a Future and Littoral Arts and the Merz Barn will be there for it!
GUSTAV METZGER AND KURT SCHWITTERS AT THE MERZ BARN
from October 9th 2021. Photo Debbie Akam.
Installation by Cian Quayle and Ian Hunter. Sound installations by Christopher Fox and Marc McKiernan.
Vintage Flit gun as used by Metzger in his 1961 work, Auto-destructive Acid Action painting.
The tea-table is one of the very few objects at Cylinders that were there during Schwitters’ time, and can be seen outside the Shippon in contemporary photographs.
GUSTAV METZGER AT THE MERZ BARN
Two works by Gustav Metzger (1926-2017) – Rubbish Bag (1960/2021) and Dancing Tubes (2014) – will be installed at the Merz Barn, Elterwater, the site of Kurt Schwitters’ last great (unfinished) work.
Although a generation apart, both artists came to the UK as refugees from Nazi Germany. Schwitters had just turned 53 when he arrived in 1940; Metzger came on the Kindertransport in 1939, aged 13. Both their lives and work were profoundly impacted by the experience of exile, crisis and loss, and both were hugely influential in shaping the course of post-war British art.
Schwitters spent his last years in the Lake District, where he began to create what he regarded as his most important work – the Merzbarn. Although he struggled with poverty and illness during this time, it was an intensely productive period; over the course of under 3 years he created over 540 works, consolidating and refining innovative modes of working and key themes which included a deep-rooted engagement with nature as part of a holistic ‘Merz’ Weltanschauung – world view.
Gustav Metzger’s life and art reflected an equally rigorous set of artistic and ethical principles which stemmed from concerns over the (ultimately self-)destructive aspects of humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Like Schwitters, whom he admired greatly, Metzger worked across disciplines, developed hybrid artforms and deployed chance or natural processes alongside the latest technology as part of an expansive, experimental envisioning of the role of art and artists in society.
This exhibition establishes a conversation between these two artists and their pioneering artistic practices. The presentation of these two particular works, which bookend the development of Metzger’s radical aesthetic theories, highlights specific confluences between the material and aesthetic sensibilities of Gustav Metzger and Kurt Schwitters by way of opening up the rich and largely unexplored common ground between the two.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Lizzie Fisher, Leverhulme Research Fellow at Northumbria University, and supported by the Gustav Metzger Foundation, the Littoral Trust, and Westmorland Arts Trust. Presented in association with the Kurt Schwitters Autumn School 2021 and the Entartete Kunst Memorial event which takes place after the lecture at 8.45pm on Saturday 9th October 2021.
Programme
Saturday 9 October 2021
1pm The Merz Barn: Two works by Gustav Metzger (1926-2017) – Rubbish Bag (1960/2021) and Dancing Tubes (2014). Curated by Dr. Lizzie Fisher.
Shippon Gallery: large-scale wall drawing & installation by Ian Hunter and Cian Quayle, ‘Gustav Metzger – Portraits of the Artist’
6pm Official opening of Gustav Metzger at the Merz Barn, with a short introduction by Cumbrian curator and founding director of the Lake District Holocaust Project, Trevor Avery MBE.
Welcome and opening remarks from Gustav Metzger Foundation co-directors Ula Dajerling and Leanne Dymterko.
Light refreshments (Soup and bread; Wine)
7pm. Annual Kurt Schwitters lecture: Dr Lizzie Fisher ‘Gustav Metzger and Kurt Schwitters: an aesthetics of exile?’
Followed by panel/open forum discussion with Trevor Avery, Cian Quayle, Ula Dajerling and Leanne Dymterko.
8.30pm. Kurt Schwitters Ursonate – reading of an excerpt from the Ursonate by Christopher Fox, Professor of Music, Brunel University. Followed by the ‘Reading of the Names’ Entartete Kunst annual ceremony and memorial event at the Merz Barn. Honouring the memory of the artists, musicians, composers and designers who were persecuted and exiled by the Nazis.
INVITATION TO FILM SCREENING & TALK
From 6 pm, July 7th 2021
Shippon Gallery, The Merz Barn, Cylinders, Langdale, Ambleside LA22 9JB
Invitation to Film Screening & a Talk celebrating Prism Arts 2 year outreach arts programme exploring the life and times of Kurt Schwitters
The Fragments Lost & Found film documents elements of 10 years of Schwitters’ life in exile, interspaced with a fictional narrative of two Jewish children on the run from Nazi Germany.
Fragments Lost & Found film screening:
6.30 pm July 7th 2021
followed by a Talk by Vicki Maxfield and Ali McCaw (LAL)
FRAGMENTS LOST & FOUND
Invitation to the Opening of FRAGMENTS LOST AND FOUND, an Exhibition by Prism Arts which coincides with Schwitters’ birthday on June 20th, and in conjunction with Refugee Week. 2 pm, Sunday June 20th at the Shippon Gallery, Merz Barn, Elterwater, Ambleside LA22 9JB.
THE EXHIBITION celebrates a two year project with Mayfield School and Distington Community School exploring the life of Kurt Schwitters and the impact of the Second World War.
Exhibition opens daily from 10am to 5pm, until July 7th 2021.
MERZ BARN RE-OPENING!
WELCOME!
From Friday April 30th Cylinders, the Merz Barn, and the Harry Pierce Drawing Office will be open from 10am to 5pm daily
We are happy to announce that Cylinders, the Merz Barn, and the Harry Pierce Drawing Office will re-open for individuals and small groups from Friday, April 30th 2021, 10am to 5pm daily.
Please observe national guidelines on numbers and distancing, and wear masks inside the buildings. Children should be warned of hurtful or hazardous plants, and kept away from the ponds.
Visitors will notice that we have acquired a pair of young peacocks, Lancelot and Pearl. They are nervous birds, living entirely free, and will take time to adapt to noise or disruption. Please do not allow children to chase them. The new hens, however, Rosie, Lulu, and Bella, are friendly and gregarious. Our beautiful and beloved cockerel, Fortinbras (Forty) died just before Christmas at the age of nearly twelve. He is survived by his sister Hilde, now rather ancient and rickety but intent on asserting her status as Boss of the Flock..
Cylinders is also a reserve for native animals, birds, fungi, plants and trees. Keep strict control (short leads) on any dogs so as not to disturb the wildlife, and clean up after them. Even in the course of art-making please do not pick fungi, flowers, fruit, plants or mosses, climb or damage trees, or make fires, without asking permission beforehand.
MERZ BARN CLOSURE
We have come to the sad decision that Cylinders and the MERZ BARN should be closed until there is better news on the health front.
As soon as we can safely do so the site will re-open, and everyone will be able to enjoy it again in full confidence that there will be no residual traces of the coronavirus outbreak.
Meantime, stay safe, dear Friends.
“My spirit must not stop”
KS Seminar: 7 pm, Tuesday 10th December 2019: Georgian Room, Kendal Town Hall
A tribute to Mary Burkett OBE, Helen Capp, and the many other people in Cumbria and beyond who have done so much to promote public awareness and understanding of the artist.
Snapshots from the Borders
Workshops, exhibitions, talks and film screening: ‘To the Four Winds’
Saturday 19th October 2019 at Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn, Cylinders Estate, Elterwater LA22 9JB
Programme: Saturday 19th October 2019
2 – 3 pm Guided tour of the Merz Barn site and exhibitions
- Children’s art of the Holocaust
- Entartete Kunst and the Nazi Declaration of war on modern art
- Prism Arts at the Merz Barn exhibition
- Harry Pierce – the Drawing Office Garden History micro museum
3 pm Tea and biscuits for all
3.30 – 5 pm Workshops.
- Children’s ‘magic snake stick’ art workshop
- Workshop on the themes of the ‘Snapshots from the Borders’ project, a Communities of Philosophical Enquiry approach to engage us all in thinking about migration, and empathising with people who choose or are forced to migrate and recognise the values we share.
6 – 7 pm Bonfire & BBQ – hot soup, sourdough bread and cheese for all
7 – 8 pm Talk, and film screening at the Merz Barn
Screening of the film ‘To the Four Winds’
and two talks at the Merz Barn: Kurt Schwitters and Gustav Metzger by Lizzie Fisher; The story of Merz and Entartete Kunst by Rosie Galloway-Smith
8.30 pm The Reading of the Names ceremony – the artists’ memorial
We conclude the evening with the ‘Reading of the Names’ ceremony, an annual event honouring the memory of the many artists who were declared ‘degenerate’ (‘entartet’) by the Nazis, and the many other artists who died in the Holocaust or were forced to flee into exile. In the final part we read out the names of all the artists featured in the infamous Nazi exhibition which opened in Munich in July 1937 (see above). People are invited to chalk each name on one of the stones in the end wall of the Merz Barn. Our vicar George Wrigley will lead the dedication.
The memorial is also dedicated in the memory all artists who have suffered persecution, imprisonment, or lost their lives due to their religious beliefs, political affiliations, sexual orientation, gender. or ethnicity.
Sunday 20th October: To the Four Winds film programme, 2.30 to 4 pm
Over two years To the Four Winds follows an activist smuggler between the Italian/French border in his attempts to ease the migrants’ plight. The result is a portrait of a group of modern heroes who want to show that Europe is more than its strict immigration policies. We see Herrou’s crowded backyard, and follow him on his journeys across the border into France or on his way to court. At the same time the rebellious farmer talks about his motivation and experiences, with the soundtrack weaving together the action, scenes and interviews.
For information on the Sunday programme please contact: Ian Hunter Celia Larner.
T 015394 37309. e. littoral@btopenworld.com. w. merzbarn.net
For the Saturday workshop programme and registrations see: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/snapshots-from-the-border-19th-and-20th-october-2019-tickets-75590554383
A Merz Barn partnership with Cumbria Development Education Centre and No More Bricks in the Wall
Reg. Company No. 02526443 Reg. Charity No: 1002365
Reg. Office: The Merz Barn, Cylinders Estate, Elterwater, Ambleside LA22 9JB
INVITATION TO THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE DRAWING OFFICE
INVITATION TO THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE DRAWING OFFICE
HARRY PIERCE READING ROOM AND MICRO-MUSEUM
to be opened by Harry’s Grandson
Mr. WILLIAM PIERCE
Saturday, September 14th, 2019, from 2pm
Cylinders, Elterwater, Ambleside, site of the Merz Barn
EXHIBITION & SITE VISITS
CHILDREN’S DROP-IN WORKSHOP
Tea and Biscuits will be provided
The Ambleside Art Society visits Cylinders
We are delighted by the choice by Ambleside Art Society of Cylinders for their annual sketching trip.
They were also able to enjoy a cup of tea in the new Drawing Office, and view the exhibition of Harry Pierce’s 1943 plans for Cylinders, and the Pierce family archive of photographs of Cylinders in the 1940s and 50s.
THE HARRY PIERCE MICRO-MUSEUM
Darren pouring concrete over the insulation fill, October 12th 2018
THE FOUNDATIONS FOR THE NEW HARRY PIERCE MICRO-MUSEUM AND READING ROOM ARE ALMOST COMPLETE
OUR CONTRACTORS COOK & LAKIN HOPE TO COMPLETE THE BUILDING BEFORE CHRISTMAS.
Opening of the re-built Drawing Office
In the Drawing Office, June 20th 2019
Phil Keen and Jan of the Lakeland Fiddlers giving an impromptu performance during the opening reception at Cylinders.
The Exhibition shows archive images of the site, and of Harry Pierce’s plans for it, as well as his friendship with Kurt Schwitters.
THE HARRY PIERCE DRAWING OFFICE
The Cylinders estate in Langdale, heart of the South Lakeland National Park and home to Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn, opens a new attraction to the public on June 20th 2019 at 2 pm.
Thanks to a grant from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, supported and administered by the Cumbria Fells & Dales Local Action Group, the old Drawing Office at Cylinders has been completely rebuilt on the site of the derelict original.
The original little building was built by Landscape Designer Harry Pierce, owner of Cylinders, in the early 1940s, as a place in which to create his garden plans for Mawson’s of Windermere, for whom he was the chief designer. The new building is designated as a micro-museum, and will hold a selection of Pierce’s plans for his own garden at Cylinders, plus his writings about his experiences and dreams, and photographs taken at the time.
The Drawing Office museum will open to the public from 2 pm on June 20th, when there will be a reception, and guided tours of the museum and site.
Thereafter The Drawing Office will be open daily from 10 am to 5 pm, free of charge. There is ample parking inside the gates.
Please keep dogs on the lead, and remember that Cylinders is a wildlife and plant and fungus sanctuary.
SUMMER SCHOOL AT THE MERZ BARN 2019
This year the annual Summer School at the Merz Barn is again organised by Cat Robertson and students at the Royal School of Art.
It runs from July 13th to July 22nd, and is fully booked.
The students will be staying in the TOC H bunk barn at Chapel Stile, next to the river, where the accommodation is a great deal more comfortable than at Cylinders.
All best wishes for a fine summer!
‘ARTISTS AND THE HOLOCAUST’ EXHIBITION IN THE MERZ BARN
Images from the BBC programme ‘Civilisation’: ‘The Vital Spark’ with Sir Simon Schama
It was through the Wiener Library in London, and later Sir Simon Schama’s BBC Civilization TV series – in particular the programme ‘The Vital Spark’, about the children’s art project in Theresienstadt, that we at the Merz Barn were inspired to develop the concept of the ‘Artists of the Holocaust’ memorial project at the Merz Barn site. Encouraged by their heroic art teacher Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, the children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp created images conjuring up the lives and hopes of which they were being deprived, and Schama’s programme is a poignant tribute to the power of art to sustain optimism in the face of adversity.
‘The Dream’ – one of the Theresienstadt children’s paintings
Artists and the Holocaust Exhibition in the Merz Barn Cake Room.
The ‘Cake Room’ exhibition space, and the seating circle outside the Merz Barn, are designated as a memorial to the artists, composers, musicians, dancers and writers, – and children – who were proscribed by the Nazis during their campaign of terror (1934 – 1944, or exterminated in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Belsen, Theresienstadt, etc.
The connection with Langdale is through the German refugee artist Kurt Schwitters, who came here in 1947 to work on what was to be his last great experimental art work; the Merz Barn. Although not Jewish, Schwitters identified closely with the Jewish people, and many of his artist friends were Jewish.
‘Writing the Names’ the Entartete Kunst memorial project
Alongside the ‘Artists of the Holocaust’ exhibition we are continuing with the Entartete Kunst documentation project. Over the summer and autumn we are planning a number of exhibitions, seminars and events to commemorate the artists who, like Kurt Schwitters, were declared ‘degenerate’ (entartet) by the Nazis.
As a part of this we have a list of the names of the artists included in the infamous ‘Entartete Kunst’ exhibition in Munich in July 1937. We invite visitors to the Merz Barn, and the ‘Artists and the Holocaust’ exhibition, to help us celebrate the artists’ names by writing them in chalk on the end wall of the Merz Barn.
The Merz Barn Circle and end wall
Please enjoy the little memorial circle and, if you would like to, take a piece of chalk and write the name of one of the artists (list supplied) persecuted and declared ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis, on the wall of the barn.
Artist Jill Rock with Ian Hunter in 2013 after the artists’ names have been chalked on the Merz Barn wall for the first time.
Coloured chalks are provided for children and young people to create their own drawings and art works on the flag-stones flooring the Memorial circle.
The motto for the Merz Barn project is..
“The triumph of creativity over evil”
‘MY SPIRIT MUST NOT STOP..’
Pip Hall’s beautiful carving at Cylinders
On Saturday October 27th 2018 Pip Hall finished carving the inscription of a saying by Kurt Schwitters on a found glacial erratic boulder at Cylinders.
The work was finished in time for the annual Reading of the Names of the artists ridiculed by the Nazi régime in the Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich in 1938. This moving ceremony was led by the vicar of All Saints church, Chapel Stile, George Wrigley, and, in a departure from our usual practice, took place in the candlelight inside the Merz Barn.
Pip Hall at work
Kurt Schwitters' last Merzbau: The Elterwater Merz Barn 
You must be logged in to post a comment.