Catwalk event launches Opera House 50th birthday celebrations
Image: Picture by Jon Super for MIF Manchester Internationsal Festival.
Jeremy Dellar Fashion Runway Manchester 29 June '17
A 60 metre long luminous yellow catwalk raised high above the ground. At one end is a huge screen on which photos and snippets of text are projected. In the space of roughly an hour, 150 people will promenade along this catwalk, their stories and photos projected onto the screen, watched by thousands of people gathered around.
This was an idea imagined out loud by Jeremy Deller and brought to fruition by director Richard Gregory in Manchester, UK, 2017.
The event has been repeated six times around the world. This weekend, it will be held for the first time in Australia, kicking off the month-long 50th anniversary celebrations of the Sydney Opera House.
Titled What is the City but the People? (a Shakespeare quote) the event aims to showcase the diversity, creativity and beauty of this city through its inhabitants. More than 100 of the almost 150 participants were interviewed for the event. They come from all walks of life and all parts of Sydney.
“Some of them are dancers, and some are bricklayers, and some are security guards who work at the Opera House,” explains Dr Felicity Castagna, the writer charged with conducting the interviews. “There’s a guy named Ivan who has been working front of house at the Opera House for 50 years, and another woman called Kit who takes care of all the VIPs and her story is about escorting the Dali Lama and the Queen around the Opera House. We’ve also got people who have worked in costumes, a woman who hand-makes all the shoes for the ballet dancers”
There are some recognisable names too, including Yvonne Weldon and several celebrity chefs.
Some of the participants are very closely connected to the Opera House.
“One of my favourite stories is the Hoffman family,” says Castagna. “They’re descendants of one of the first workers on the Opera House. Essentially their father laid some of the first bricks.”
The family told Castagna how their father would bring home fresh fish every night. “The workers used to set up fish traps under the pylons underneath the Opera House, and all the workers would take turns bringing the fish home to their families.”
Not all the participants have an association with the Opera House, but that was not the main intention. The focus of the event is to present a profile of Sydney.
“The idea is that, simply, when you take a lot of people from the city and you display their collection of stories, you are telling the story of a city and its people.”
The team followed various avenues to ensure they had a broad diversity of participants. Among those who’ll be on the catwalk is 108 year-old dancer Eileen Kramer.
Stereogamous (Paul Mac and Jonny Seymour) have composed original music for the event which will play as the participants walk.
“I think this encompasses all the emotions of the city as well,” says Castagna. “I know just from rehearsals — people watching the screens, everybody felt a real trajectory of emotions, from laughing at some of the funny things people had to say, to being incredibly moved by people who’ve overcome incredible adversary and also taking pride in what people have achieved here in this city.”
The giant catwalk will be assembled across the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House and viewers can stand beside it or sit on the Opera House steps. It’s free to attend but you’ll need to register.
October 1
Sydney Opera House forecourt
www.sydneyoperahouse.com
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