“If I were to describe what FAILSTONE is,(…) it was a
continual learning and experimenting with how to make space for something unexpected.”
Rhiana Bonterre, Folkestone Fringe
After initially being part of the pilot phase of the Cultural Bridge funding programme in 2021 FAIL and Folkestone Fringe continue their collaboration under the title FAILSTONE.
FAILSTONE opens up spaces for encounters and creative exchange beyond the institutional framework and plays the results back to these places by questioning the idea of public space and notions of art – in collaboration with local communities in Germany and England.
In July, FAIL spent a month-long residency at Folkestones Urban Room, a space centred on the history, present and future of the small coastal town. In a complete departure from the usual layout, FAIL transformed the Urban Room into a golden, gleaming cave of infinite possibilities and sensory overstimulation. Inviting Folkestone residents and visitors to contribute their ideas for events and their space needs, FAIL and Fringe hosted film screenings, karaoke and bingo nights, parties, jam sessions, artist talks and discussions, dinners, games, trips, talks with locals and strangers and on the radio….
In November, Folkestone Fringe and FAIL met for a weekend in Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. For the finissage of FAIL EASY at the Kunstverein Ludwigshafen in the Rhein Galerie, the Fringe artists put on a colourful programme of film screenings, drawings and movement sessions and a live DJ set, that invited the public to participate and take a break from the bustling environment of the shopping mall.
Folkestone Fringe is an artist-led organisation committed to creating opportunities and projects which connect across communities, inviting people to be visible, celebrate diversity and make place together. They believe in the transformative power of art – both in a personal sense, and also as a way of highlighting societal issues and driving social change.
Cultural Bridge is funded by the British Council, Fonds Soziokultur, Arts Council England, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Wales Arts International, Creative Scotland and the Goethe Institut.
