2016 Wales Arts Review

2016 was an extraordinary year.

A giant peach appeared in the centre of Cardiff

and Roald Dahl's City Of The Unexpected

drew record-breaking crowds.

Later in the programme, we'll be back to explore

the unexpected delights of Roald Dahl,

but first, let's look back at some of the highlights of the arts

in Wales in 2016.

Coming up, with Huw Stevens, we'll take a trip around Wales'

eclectic series of music festivals.

We'll remember the tragedy at Aberfan

with Sir Karl Jenkins' powerful tribute, Cantata Memoria.

We'll step into the weird and wonderful mind

of one of Wales' most imaginative artists.

And an award-winning French photographer discovers the Valleys.

2016 was an extraordinary year in Wales

and not only for the arts.

This summer, the Welsh football team unexpectedly reached

the semifinals of the Euros,

and even the creative community was swept up in the drama.

MUSIC: Bing Bong by Super Furry Animals

Football fanatics the Super Furry Animals set the celebratory tone

for the summer with Bing Bong,

a football chant in their own inimitable style.

Originally written for the 2004 Euros,

the song lay buried in the Furries' archive

after Wales missed out on qualifying.

It was the success of this year's team that brought the song

bouncing back to life.

With some of Wales' best-loved bands backing the team,

even The Barry Horns were thrust into the limelight

as a blissful summer came to a fitting end

when the Manic Street Preachers welcomed home the team.

# Let's set the world alight

# When Gareth Bale plays we can beat any side

# So come on, Wales!

# So come on, Wales! #

Capturing the agony and ecstasy of it all,

the photographer Faye Chamberlain

has throughout the year been taking portraits of fans...

-Yes! Have it!

-Got it.

Oh, my word.

..as artist in residence for the Football Association of Wales Trust.

One of my major projects that I photograph people watching

World Cup football matches on TVs,

so I photograph people getting impassioned about watching football.

The Football Association of Wales Trust

saw that work and thought that I might be the perfect fit for them.

Part of the way that I've been getting people to be excited

is to ask them about the best match they've ever seen

and the worst match they've ever seen, or played in.

It was us and Iceland.

-We were the great team.

-Exactly, yeah.

They just put their hearts and souls into it

and everybody was behind them.

They go through the entire remit of emotions,

from thrill, passion,

grief sometimes as well, sometimes people,

they remember moments, it's almost like it happened to them.

It happened to 22 men on a pitch

but it becomes so real for the people watching as well.

Photography is about milliseconds in people's lives and if you can

catch it right, you get such wonderful emotions,

you get just joy or despair and everything in between.

It's brilliant.

Faye's photographs will go on display across Wales next year.

Details to be announced by the Football Association of Wales.

# I wanna stay here

# Drink all your beer

# Please don't Please don't take me home. #

Football chants and photographs may have been expected

but even the new National Poet of Wales got in on the action.

Caernarfon's Ifor ap Glyn became the fourth National Poet of Wales

when he succeeded Gillian Clarke in May.

A passionate football fan and double winner of the Crown

at the National Eisteddfod,

his appointment sees the role switch back from English to Welsh.

Some of the things I've been writing about in my role

as National Poet of Wales this year, one could have expected.

Some of the things that I've written about have been rather more

unexpected, in particular Wales' success at the Euro Championships.

And I think for a while that transformed the country

and if we can hold on to some of the confidence that I think

that championship engendered within the Welsh people,

I think that will be a great legacy for 2016.

TRANSLATION

The poem tries to just capture a bit of the excitement that

surrounded, you know, the fans who went out, and the experience

of watching the three last games here in Caernarfon

was in its own different way just as thrilling.

TRANSLATION

One aspect of the Euro '16 campaign which pleased me a lot,

you could see the players embracing their identity

and at times embracing the Welsh language as part of that identity,

given that only a few of the players in the squad speak Welsh.

In the sort of balance to that, as Wales did better and better,

some of the London press began sort of sniping around the team,

saying, "Oh, yeah, but you know...

"half of them were born in England," you know.

So what? You know, so was I.

I'm National Poet of Wales, you know, deal with it.

TRANSLATION

2016's been another busy year for the visual arts in Wales,

the calendar bursting with major anniversaries and exhibitions,

gallery reopenings and prestigious international competitions.

In October, the UK's biggest contemporary arts prize

returned to Cardiff.

Artes Mundi is a biennial exhibition held in the

National Museum of Wales and Chapter Arts Centre,

where six internationally celebrated artists,

whose work explores the human condition,

have been chosen to compete for the prestigious £40,000 prize.

What's really interesting is the conversation that you see emerging,

politically, socially, culturally,

across those installations and pieces of work.

And the way that relates to Wales and our position in a global world.

This year, Bedwyr Williams from Caernarfon

is amongst the shortlisted artists.

In previous shows, the internationally acclaimed

conceptual artist has wowed judges with his surreal and playful

works that deal with the anxieties inside his head.

For Artes Mundi, he's produced a work about an imaginary city

that's popped up on Cadair Idris,

the iconic mountain in the Snowdonia National Park.

The folklore around Cadair Idris is that there's this thing that

if you spend the night on top of the Penygadair, the highest peak,

that you either come down a poet or a madman.

With this work, I think it's a bit of both.

Tyrrau Mawr is a 20-minute film,

a sped-up loop depicting a day in the life of the city.

Visitors are encouraged to lie on beanbags

and listen to a voice-over narrated by Bedwyr himself.

"I will build a city here where we stand," a man standing

at the edge of the lake had proclaimed some decades earlier,

nodding silently to himself.

What would it be like, you know, if this happened in Wales, if, like...

you know, turbo capitalists honed in on a weird mountain in mid-Wales

and they found some weird metal there, what would...

What would it be like? I guess.

"I love it when architects are allowed to play,"

someone says in a very good fish restaurant.

"Not me," replies the poet.

"I'm scared of architects.

"I think they have just the right quota of power as it is."

These cities in China and the Middle East that just pop up

almost overnight, like mushrooms or something.

There's no thought given to the mental implications

for the people that move there.

"I have fillings in my teeth that are older than this city,"

a prominent music writer wrote.

A few thousand people in apartments and houses

are in a shared, similar trance,

listening to the city.

Part of my thinking with this film was that whilst these kind of

hyper-cities are horrendous,

there is something quite stunning about it as well.

Say Aberystwyth became like the new Seoul or something like that,

I mean...

on one level, that might be great,

but then it would also destroy it, I guess, as well, I don't know.

Wales is this country that is about singing and poetry and rugby,

and the visual arts gets short shrift.

There's not many spaces in Wales to show contemporary art,

so I think Artes Mundi is a good power in that climate, really.

Just hanging pictures in the lobby of the Millennium Centre

isn't good enough, is it?

In the country that gave birth to, like, Gwen John and people,

you know, it's not good enough.

Artes Mundi is on in Cardiff until 26th February.

Will Bedwyr become the first Welsh winner?

Well, the prize is announced at the end of January.

The lack of spaces for contemporary art in Wales surprised

BBC arts' editor Will Gompertz when he attended

his first National Eisteddfod this summer in Abergavenny.

-Shwmae?

-Shwmae?

-Bore da.

-Da iawn!

The arts pavilion at the Eisteddfod, Y Lle Celf,

is an important exhibition for contemporary artists in Wales,

but is only open for the duration of the festival.

The show is fascinating because it's so broad.

There's sculpture, painting, photography,

installation, there's film.

It is, like all these things with contemporary art, hit and miss.

There's some work in here, I have to say, I like a little less.

There's some naive paintings

which take a naive concept a little too far.

But I think it is fantastic that there's an environment like this

where contemporary artists with some sort of connection to Wales

and the Welsh language can show their work.

I find it staggering, absolutely staggering,

that there is no national museum of modern art

or contemporary art in Wales. And this kind of...

for the period of the Eisteddfod, for six or seven days, is that thing.

That seems to be short-changing the public a bit, to me.

JAZZ INSTRUMENTAL

One much-missed arts space did return this year.

Swansea's Glynn Vivian Art Gallery reopened in October,

following a five-year redevelopment.

Friends of the gallery took to the streets

to celebrate the return of this adored institution.

-TANNOY:

-Are you ready to enter into the wonder

of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery?

CHEERING

Based on the collection of paintings,

ceramics and sculptures that Richard Glynn Vivian

left to the city of Swansea,

the gallery includes work by old masters, like Caravaggio...

..and Welsh greats, including David Jones and Ceri Richards.

With its new exhibition spaces, cafe and shop,

90,000 visitors are expected every year.

Oh, it's very good to be back.

I mean, the Glynn Vivian, when it wasn't open, where did you go?

90% or more of the friends in Swansea I've made

because we met at the Glynn Vivian.

So to me, it's a very special place.

As a partner of London's Tate Gallery,

the walls of the Glynn Vivian currently boast world-class art,

with Picasso and Turner on loan.

Also showcasing contemporary art,

Lindsay Seers' video installation, Nowhere Less Now,

is projected in an upturned boat.

How it got in here, I don't know.

And the gallery reopens with a stellar centrepiece attraction,

ten drawings by Leonardo da Vinci

on loan from the Royal Collection until January 8th.

Although we have 17,000 old master drawings, there are almost

a million works of art in total in the Royal Collection.

Nonetheless, the Leonardos stand out for their world importance.

And the exhibition here in Swansea is a selection

of ten of the very finest of those drawings.

So what we're bringing here to Swansea is

a group of some of the most important drawings in Europe.

It's very exciting, actually, and it's such a coup for Swansea

to have these drawings.

Very exciting. Very good. Well done, Swansea.

2016 brought major anniversaries for Welsh artists to commemorate.

400 years since the death of England's most famous writer,

William Shakespeare was everywhere this year.

Of Wales' tributes, Russell T Davies'

A Midsummer Night's Dream certainly stood out,

the Welsh writer behind the Doctor Who revamp

imaginatively reinterpreting this classic play.

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this and all is mended,

That you have but slumbered here

While these visions did appear.

Shakespeare was also the inspiration behind

a whole season of productions by Welsh National Opera,

with Kiss Me, Kate, the musical adaptation

of The Taming Of The Shrew, the standout show of the autumn.

There were also works and exhibitions dealing with

the 100th anniversary of the Somme

and, in particular, the Battle of Mametz Wood.

David Jones' In Parenthesis formed the basis of a daring new

WNO opera commissioned to mark the company's own 70th birthday.

In Parenthesis, the opera,

is the right work at absolutely the right moment,

because a national opera company has a cultural obligation

to the people from which it has grown.

As with any new work, there are elements of risk involved,

but it has to be that way, it has to be a living art form.

In Parenthesis counters the horror of war

by evoking the humanity of the fallen,

with composer Iain Bell working traditional Welsh songs

into the score.

# Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tan

# Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr

# A'r gath wedi sgrapo Jonni bach. #

The Battle of Mametz Wood was also commemorated

at the National Museum of Wales,

where the "War's Hell!" exhibition

brought together Wales' artistic depictions of the battle

and its aftermath.

On loan from Caernarfon

was Christopher Williams' powerful painting,

a work commissioned by David Lloyd George in 1916

and designed by the pacifist painter to depict the terrors of war.

# We're here because

# We're here because

-ALL:

-# We're here because we're here... #

It was, however, an original piece of performance art

that most poignantly commemorated the Battle of the Somme.

We're Here Because We're Here

saw volunteers organised by National Theatre Wales take to the streets,

stations and skate parks of Wales,

acting as First World War Tommies.

Part of a UK-wide event,

each volunteer represented a soldier killed

on the first day of the Somme,

when nearly 20,000 men from across the UK died.

2016 was a memorable year for one of Wales' most exciting writers,

Thomas Morris, who won Wales Book of the Year

with his debut publication, We Don't Know What We're Doing.

The Caerphilly-based writer recently returned home from Dublin,

where he'd been living for ten years.

We spoke to him about the importance of his hometown in his work.

We Don't Know What We're Doing is a short-story collection,

set in my hometown of Caerphilly.

I really wanted to write about people as I knew them in real life.

I've felt for a long time there's a kind of conspiracy against

my part of the world and people I knew.

I never saw them in film, I didn't read about them in books,

and I wanted to somehow put on the page life as I knew it.

"The barmaid asks to see ID. You hand over your passport.

"'25?', she says. 'Well, it'll catch up with you eventually.'

"'What will?', you shout over the noise.

"'Time,' she says,

"though she might have actually said, 'Wine'. It's loud.

"It's hard to tell."

My research of Caerphilly had been living there for 25 years,

and having a life and having family there,

and kind of knowing the texture of the place,

and sometimes just I'd be walking around the supermarket,

and I would just hear one line, and whole stories would come from there,

whole lives, whole families, would just kind of emerge.

"I'd known it was love when Jessica confessed that she wanted to

"have a black friend.

"I, too, had known this feeling

"and wanted to prove myself in our small, white town."

Small towns aren't represented in the way I understand them,

in the way that people who live there actually live life,

and it can even be a kind of overly romantic representation where

there's a community, and everybody knows each other, or it's a

lonely place where people just need to get out, or they're going to rot.

Caerphilly's kind of like an in-between place,

and I think an in-between place is particularly useful when you're

writing short stories, and I think for a lot of the characters,

they're kind of in-between places as well.

"You haven't been back in a year,

"and you've forgotten that these places even exist.

"Your father once asked, 'What are you running away from?'

"You told him you weren't running away from anything.

"He said, 'You what? You're running away from reality.'

"For your father, 'reality' means living in South Wales,

"working a job you hate."

In Wales at the moment,

I think it's a good time and a good place to be a writer.

There's new voices emerging, and I have a feeling now that, so often,

people were telling the stories they thought they had to tell.

They were representing a kind of Wales that they thought

people wanted to see and hear, but there's now, I think,

a bit more confidence, and actually, it's not like that.

It's not...

male-voice choirs and ex-miners crying into their pints, you know?

There's other stuff going on here,

and I think there's a new confidence in what we're trying to say.

Thomas is currently working on his second publication

for Faber & Faber.

In the last few years,

music festivals have become something of a national speciality.

At this year's Swn Festival, we caught up with Radio 1 DJ

Huw Stephens, who gave us his take

on the festival scene in Wales in 2016.

Music festivals - they mean a lot of different things

to a lot of different people.

Essentially, what you need is some music, some people,

and good times will be had,

but here in Wales, I think we do things a little bit differently.

From the historic National Eisteffod Of Wales,

to little festivals in towns and villages,

to newer, bigger ones, like Festival Number Six and Green Man,

there's been a whole load going on.

Even Wrexham and Cardiff have their own festivals,

without a field in sight.

An ambitious new festival stood out in June.

Wales Millennium Centre's Festival Of Voice saw international

and home-grown stars like Charlotte Church and John Cale

prove just how versatile the human voice can be.

The Festival Of Voice celebrates the voice and singing in

all of its glory across all genres, and that is what makes it unique.

It's the most direct form of artistic expression,

and it cuts across every culture that we know.

The thrill of it, and having someone else receive what you're feeling,

is just so epic.

So I know what I'm going to do - I'm going to sing it out!

For those seeking the full-blown festival experience,

Green Man was the highlight of August.

This fiercely independent festival in the Brecon Beacons

is a family-run affair, with real personality,

no advertising, and no sponsorship.

I go every year, and wouldn't miss it for the world.

Or, if you'd rather something a bit more boutique,

check out Festival Number Six in Portmeirion,

possibly one of the most beautiful festivals in the world.

This year, cruelly,

it was battered by a storm that left some visitors stuck

in a very muddy car park,

but don't let that put you off - it's a truly unique festival,

in an incredible setting, and a bit of rain

- well, it's all part of the experience.

And after the summer festivals are done,

I get to pack away my wellies, come back to Cardiff, it's October,

and it's Swn Festival all of a sudden.

Now, unbelievably, this festival is ten years old now.

It's close to my heart, as I set it up with my friend John,

and even though I'm no longer involved,

I still love coming here and seeing some incredible bands playing live,

some artists, and the atmosphere here is always very special.

# Can you cradle me and tell me that I'll sleep tonight?

-# Can you hold my hand... #

-Swn is an intimate, multi-venue

festival that makes imaginative use of the city's clubs and spaces,

and is perfect for getting up close and personal to bands.

For, like, three days,

everybody's talking about music and small bands and new bands and

Welsh bands and Welsh language, and that's the bit that I love the most.

It makes a point of booking exciting, local Welsh bands

early in their careers, like one of this year's headliners,

Bangor's Casi, who this year signed to Chess Club Records.

You have yourself and Gwenno and Cate Le Bon, who are touring the

-world and making music in both Welsh and English, in some cases.

-Yeah.

And it's getting a worldwide audience.

What's happened to make that happen, do you think?

You know, I think, as someone from Wales,

there's so many stories within our culture, literature, poetry,

and I feel quite passionate in sharing that, and making it quite...

bringing a universal sound to something that, you know,

belongs to a minority culture.

Not only are Welsh festivals hugely significant musically,

they're also important economically, and to the culture at large.

This year, Cardiff University is exploring the significance of

festivals, with a pop-up museum made of donated memorabilia,

and a research group led by Jacqui Mulville.

Festivals are really interesting.

If you talk to people, they...

There's a sort of a series of cultural norms that are

associated with being at a festival,

and I wonder whether it offers people a space to move outside of

the sort of anonymous modern society,

and actually link with whole new groups of people,

and if you're not you, then somehow you can change your behaviour.

Perhaps you become a better person, or the person you want to be.

The reason Swn Festival was started ten years ago was to make

something happen in Cardiff,

to celebrate the scene that's already here,

to celebrate Welsh and international music,

so to look back at what Swn's done, it's been fantastic, and it's made

a lot of music be heard, which was the point of it in the first place.

After all, the Welsh word "swn" means "noise",

and there's been a lot of it.

In classical music, Cardiff's Charlie Lovell-Jones reached

the final of the BBC Young Musician Of The Year competition in May.

Still only 17 years old,

he's one of the most promising virtuosos in the UK.

2016 also saw Xian Zhang unveiled as Principal Guest Conductor of the

BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, the first woman to take on that role.

She'll conduct the orchestra in Wales and at the BBC Proms

for the next three years.

I'm very honoured to be one of the first, which, in a way,

brings me more pressure,

in the way that I really want to set a really good record.

And in October, to mark 50 years since the tragedy at Aberfan,

Wales Millennium Centre premiered Sir Karl Jenkins' Cantata Memoria.

Commissioned by S4C and performed by Sinfonia Cymru, it featured some

of Wales' most celebrated artists, including harpist Catrin Finch

and world-renowned bass baritone Bryn Terfel.

The work is music and a poem. It's not a documentary.

It was a genuine attempt to depict the tragedy

and express some hope, and celebrate childhood.

With a mixed choir of over 150 singers

and a children's choir of 116,

the same number who died in the school,

this extraordinary, haunting work managed to honour Aberfan

and celebrate childhood, without pulling any punches.

# Buried alive by the National Coal Board

# Buried, buried, buried, buried

# Buried, buried, buried, buried

# Bu...

# ..ried. #

As the year drew to a close, Abertillery-based photographer

Clementine Schneidermann found herself the winner

of one of Europe's most prestigious arts prizes -

the Leica Oscar Barnack Newcomer Prize For Photography.

Originally from Paris,

the 25-year-old moved to Blaenau Gwent last year,

on a residency with Arts And Minds, a novel regeneration scheme

partnered by Tai Calon Social Housing

and the Arts Council Of Wales.

Clementine's photographs aim to depict the region

in a light not commonly seen.

From what I've read on the internet,

what I've read about the valley, it was always very pessimistic,

always very negative, and I was just interested to see if there

would be a different way to show this region,

which is not all about poverty and people on the dole.

So this is a picture I took for the first time I did

a fashion shoot, and it was raining and windy,

and you can see the shape of this.

It's only when I saw the image I realised the perfect

combination between the wall and her outfit,

and when I saw the image, I was like, "Wow! I can't believe it."

It was such a big surprise, and for me this picture stays...

I think it's the most important picture of the project,

the juxtaposition between the person and the environment

and how suddenly everything collides.

Heads Of The Valleys is a project I started specifically

for the residency, and it's about these children,

and it's them growing up in this environment.

I told the children it was going to be a fashion shoot.

I showed them fashion magazines, and I said,

"This is the kind of image I'm interested in,

"but it's about real people, it's not professional models.

"It's about having fun, it's being outside,

"and it's different kind of images."

I love this community centre. It's so beautiful.

You can feel the warmth of this place.

They all made their outfit,

and she is wearing my grandmother's dress that I brought, and for me,

it's beautiful that she's wearing my grandmother's dress.

-Like that?

-No!

All right, look at me, John.

When I moved to the valleys, I...

I didn't know what to do, and then the more time I spent here

- it's been a year I live here -

for me, there's an incredible story everywhere.

So I feel like I will never leave.

Unexpected - it's a fitting summary for 2016.

From Wales' success at the Euros, to Brexit and Donald Trump,

nobody quite saw this year coming.

But did anybody expect so many people to turn out for

City Of The Unexpected?

September's centenary celebration of Roald Dahl was the biggest

arts event Wales has ever seen. I went to have a look around.

I'm here in Cardiff, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the

birth of the city's most famous storyteller, Roald Dahl.

The details of today's event have been kept top secret until now.

Instead, we've been told to walk the streets,

as unexpected moments arise.

Good afternoon to the people of Wales.

Members of the public should not, at this stage,

ingest the peach juice which appears to have been deposited on streets,

and please show due care and caution.

Born in Cardiff 100 years ago, Roald Dahl's stories are of course adored

the world over, famed for their fabulous fun and surreal invention.

Inspired by his mischievous mind, City Of The Unexpected turned

reality on its head, as if Dahl himself was in control of the city.

Well, the streets are packed,

as everybody's enjoying this sight of the giant peach.

This is a big spectacle, but in every corner of the city,

there are other events, truly unexpected.

You just don't know what you're going to come across today.

With nearly 6,000 volunteers,

City Of The Unexpected was a project of jaw-dropping scale and ambition.

A weekend-long event,

it included not only street theatre and spectacle,

but unexpected happenings, invoking the spirit of Dahl.

Well, people are just joining in.

They're being called up from the crowd.

I don't know if they know what they're doing.

They all seem to be pretty good.

I just hope they're not going to pick on people - certainly not me.

That was fantastic. That wasn't just spontaneous, was it?

Er, not entirely, no.

It was slightly unexpected, but it wasn't spontaneous.

So what's it like, being part of an event that's this large?

It's exhilarating.

It's fuller here than on an international rugby day.

It's great that people come out en masse to see an arts event,

rather than a sporting event. It restores my faith in humanity.

So we're in one of the arcades.

I have never seen it this full of people, and up on the balcony,

a Roald Dahl-inspired foxes string quartet.

Course there is.

APPLAUSE

Most of the weekend was entirely free to attend,

-but tickets to a few secret readings were sold in advance.

-Are we ready?

-Can you hear me at the back?

-Yes.

-Brilliant.

All right, so this is The Twits, by Roald Dahl.

I found myself listening to Game Of Thrones actress Gemma Whelan,

who delighted audiences with her reading of The Twits.

"What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays."

You're the only one. You're going to get it all.

I did read a lot of Roald Dahl as a child,

and going back to it now, you really,

really recognise in a different light just how brilliant they are

at getting children to read, because they're so compelling,

they're full of imagination, and they're full of all worms and

squigglies and all that kind of stuff that children are into.

"Mr Twit was one of these very hairy-faced men.

"The stuff even sprouted out in revolting tufts from his

"nostrils and earholes. 'What's the matter with you?', Mr Twit said.

"'Help!', screamed Mrs Twit, bouncing about.

"'There's something in my bed!'"

Did you think that Gemma did a good job of doing the characters?

Definitely. She was very animated.

She sounded literally exactly like the real people.

Produced by Wales Millennium Centre and National Theatre Wales,

City Of The Unexpected drew a record number of people to Cardiff.

Running it was a daunting prospect, and for the new head of

National Theatre Wales, one of her first tasks in the job.

Kully, this is your first year in the job,

but not too far into the first year. It's a bit of a baptism of fire.

Were you expecting the sheer numbers?

The police have said to us it's had the biggest response ever

in terms of people coming to the city,

even bigger than any of our international games

that have happened here, so it just shows you the appetite for culture.

Can anything on this scale ever happen again?

Well, you should never say never.

Our ambition is to be bold, is to be radical, and to be relevant,

and now more than ever

to kind of take the world to Wales and Wales to the world.

City Of The Unexpected was a breathtaking event

- ambitious, bold, and a fitting close to a remarkable year.

For 2016, we leave you with highlights from its beautiful

evening finale at Cardiff City Hall.

MUSIC: Flower Duet from Lakme by Delibes