I hadn't given up. This Saturday (Nov 1st) I met up with a friend, and we started at The 'Stute on Wood St., the festival's social centre.' It is a public space, a gallery, a library, a meeting place, a reading room, a games room, an information point, and a conversation.' The staff were incredibly helpful. We walked over a deep-pile cream shaggy wall to wall carpet to enquire if we could get a cup of coffee, as we could see through the plate glass window people sitting round with cups in their hand. It seemed that it was the Breakfast Club that was just finishing, but were advised that we could get a free cup of coffee at Free Mountain/Goat Major Projects a few doors down. I worried about the impact of all those visitors on the cream shaggy pile, but noted Jemima Brown's clever and beautifully made piece, called, 'Peace Camp' (small latex dolls based on real characters from Greenham Common, and artefacts used at the time, such as lamps, camping stoves, towels and blankets.) I wanted to look at the exhibit in more detail,but caffeine's call was stronger and off we went to Free Mountain.
As we entered a friendly man, snuffling with a cold, clutching a lap top, asked us if we'd come for 'the casting.' It seemed harsh to say we'd come for the free coffee, but were up for an adventure. He explained what was happening while he sniffed and tasted the milk, and poured us each a big cardboard cup of a hot brew.
'Free Mountain is a place to escape the rigours of the city, open to all as a place of relaxation, contemplation and community activity, with the mountain as a backdrop for a programme of activity in its foothills'...' to explore the idea of a mountain-ecologically, spiritually and as a metaphor.'
Richard told us that for example, it would give bus drivers a chance to chill out and try something new.
Richard introduced us to a sculptor who would help us make our own plaster cast mountain, with our aspirations written on a post-it note and buried in its heart. It would be something we could paint or decorate at home. After we'd made our mountains, more the size of mole hills, we sat on bean bags, gossiped, drank our coffee, gazed at the mountain on the wall, and waited for our casts to dry. We loved the experience. As we left Richard was telling another group about the bus drivers.
Next stop was 'Outcasting Fourth Wall,' a couple doors down in a renovated shop. It is the first artists' moving image festival for Cardiff. We needed more time to appreciate the video we saw about what goes onto the cutting-room floor in the making of the news, in this case a programme about the NHS. Also, we didn't want to miss Leona Jones' The Baroque Cello Project.' But more about that in the next episode.
There are events all this week at Free Mountain til the 9th of November 2014.
See www.goatmajorprojects.com
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