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The celebration of Liberation Day this week saw a huge range of artists create exhibitions and performances inspired by this event, ranging from a play about the experiences of children during the war and subsequent Liberation, to a new trail focussing on the plight of forced and slave workers brought to Jersey during the Occupation.
Every Friday, Express presents a selection of online and offline exhibitions, performances, workshops, events and other historic, creative and delicious content to help islanders get their weekly dose of culture.
Here's this week's offering...
The themed trail was created by Liberation Route Europe (LRE), and consists of 18 locations around the Island, including labour camps, tunnel complexes, quarries and memorials.
Together, these points of interest and the oral history associated with them offer an insight into the origins and experiences of the multi-national workforce of the Organisation Todt, and their relationship with the civilian population in the Island.
The Forced Workers Trail can be found on the LRE website.
Having just celebrated Liberation Day, it’s the perfect time to come and see some of the objects and documents that would have been part of Islanders’ lives 77 years ago. Jersey Heritage's latest ‘Meet the Collections’ event takes place this Saturday 14th May at the Jersey Archive from 10am-2pm and the theme is 'Occupation and Liberation'.
The event is free and offers an opportunity to see historic items that are not normally on display, including a crystal radio set, Red Cross parcel, handmade toy and archive material, with collections staff on hand to talk about their favourite items from this momentous period in our Island’s history.
No booking is required. More info about upcoming ‘Meet the Collections’ events can be found here.
This week, Barbed Wire and Teddy Bears took audience members on a journey with Gwen, Tommo, Roy, Queenie and their friends to discover what life was really like for children under the occupation of German soldiers in Jersey, from 1940 to 1945.
This ensemble play by Karen Forbes is based on the book Occupation Memories by Therese Tabb.
Jersey Arts Centre audiences were treated to an insight into how the youngest members of Jersey’s population coped with rules, curfews, and the constant presence of the Greenfly for two special performances as part of Jersey’s Liberation Week celebrations.
After being put on hold by the pandemic, the 13th Parish Film Festival is back at Jersey Arts Centre with an eclectic selection this weekend.
There will be over 80 international films from all around the world, as well as resources for local people to get involved in filmmaking and use film to express their own ideas and views.
The idea of the extra “13th Parish” is an “imaginary landscape […] a place where all sorts of issues can be discussed. It’s a bit like Jersey when the tide goes out, it does not belong to anyone, it’s where all ideas take place.”
The full programme of the festival can be found on the 13th Parish website.
The La Fête du R'nouvé springtime festival returns to La Hougue Bie on Sunday 15 May.
Islanders are invited to celebrate the season of renewal by bringing a picnic rug, meeting friends and or just hanging out for the day under a beautiful canopy of trees. There will be acoustic sounds, storytelling, good food and great company.
Jersey Heritage are trialling a no parking initiative at this event in keeping with the peaceful nature of the site. Attendees are encouraged to bus, walk, cycle or get dropped off. Free shuttle bus will loop between Liberation Station and La Hougue Bie from 10am to 5pm.
The full La Fête du R'nouvé programme can be found here.
Photographer and artist, Tom Pope, will be staging an experimental photographic performance at ArtHouse Jersey’s HQ at Greve de Lecq Barracks on Thursday 19 May.
‘Terminating Martin Parr’ will see the physical destruction of 16 professional photographs that were created by Martin Parr as part of the Archisle Contemporary Photography Program hosted by the Société Jersiaise, but are not in public circulation.
The destruction process will take place over the course of one whole day and be live streamed online in its entirety, but ArtHouse Jersey is inviting people to come to the Barracks to witness this artistic performance first-hand. Artist Tom Pope will invite the audience, online or physical, to select from a range of objects set out on a table. He will then use the selected object to destroy one of the 16 photographs.
More information can be found on ArtHouse Jersey’s website.
Jersey National Park’s ‘Walk in the Park' is back is back for a second year, with even more walks to choose from.
Locals and tourists are being invited to discover the natural beauty of the Park - and find out more about what it has to offer - through a series of expert-guided educational walks during May which is National Walking Month.
For those that aren’t able to sign-up for the guided walks, there are also 14 self-guided routes available as well as a series of audio guides, so exploring the Park is made possible for everyone.
A schedule of guided walks and information on how to book can be found on the Jersey National Park website, alongside a selection of self-guided walks and audio tours.
The Art Department at Victoria College have created an art installation for the college’s main building as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.
The sculptural head totem is part of a project that examined the portrait of the face and how to draw its features. To inform this work and give it meaning and process, students also looked at Easter Island Heads, Caricatures and African Masks and combined this with studying an artist called Michael Brennand-Wood who makes sculptures using textiles.
In line with Mental Health Awareness week, students throughout the school will be responding to the totem and answering questions about how the heads might be feeling and thinking. These responses will be via school screens to encourage students to engage further with important issues of emotions and well-being.
An islander no longer able to attend a “world-class” opera event is auctioning off the tickets to the highest bidder in aid of Ukraine. The Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, an annual international music event, will be taking place in Aix-en-Provence, South of France in July this year.
Tara Holland Prior originally purchased the tickets at The Opera Awards, at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 2019. Due to covid, the concert had to be postponed. As she can no longer attend the new date, she said she thought she would use the tickets to help raise money for those suffering in Ukraine.
Both tickets are for two operas on different nights in seating areas described by Tara as the “best available”:
Anyone interesting in purchasing the tickets should contact Tara via email at: taragardeners@outlook.com. Bidding will close on Thursday 26th May 2022.
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