Dunfermline's Outwith Festival secures international talent

Fire Station Creative will host talent from London, Berlin and Bilbao, with gallery curator Ian Moir hoping to launch the city into the "premier league of contemporary art".

Mañana Inciertos, which means Uncertain Tomorrows, is a network of artists and curators formed in 2021 as a response to the challenges of Brexit and the pandemic.

A series of events organised for Outwith is the third collaboration of the group.

Ian said: “We want to show that the City of Dunfermline can operate in the premier league of contemporary art.

"I visited London and Bilbao last year to work with these outstanding people.

"There’s going to be a wide range of art, performances and workshops taking place at Fire Station Creative.

"It’s a privilege to host such talent from abroad."

The exhibition, sponsored by Visit Dunfermline and Fife Council, will open on Thursday, September 7, at 7pm and will run until October 31.

Liane Lang, who is co-curating the event and also performing at the preview, said: “I am excited about the line up of shows and the buzz of the festival.

"It’s a really amazing opportunity for us to collaborate with international artists on an experimental new project, so we’re really grateful for the invitation."

Txema Agiriano, one of the artists from Bilbao, added: “We, artists from Bilbao, were very happy to be invited to participate in the Outwith Festival.

"We’re pleased to be able to show what artists are creating in Basque Country, in Scotland; a country with which we share many things.

"Meeting the public in Dunfermline will be very beautiful experience for us."

Liane Lang, Philipp Schlotter and Monika Öchsler have developed their live performance Aggregate from its last iteration at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao specifically for Outwith.

It includes video projection, live sound on an ancient zither using horse hair and a stint of live body casting.

The work explores the difference between natural and artificial, a distinction separating humans from their environment.

There will also be a performance by circus-trained Miren Barrena Rebe.

Working in video and sculpture, she uses material such as gypsum, plaster and found objects.

Finally, Javier Rodríguez Pérez-Curiel is a performance artist who will create a sound poem using the smartphones of attendees.

On Friday, September 8, at 8pm there will be a live performance by KeyMpi, an experimental electronic music group from Berlin.

They are a feminist, antifascist and pro-choice band and their first sessions are devoted to Beat Generation Women.

Band members Kim Rosario, Dayton Fred and Blue Betty said: "None of these define our noise.

"It is the experience that makes sense.” say band KeyMpi will be followed by Shiski Disco, a community disco organised by artist Alan Grieve, at 9pm.

On Saturday, September 9, at 11am, artist Coral Rose will be running a special class called ‘Learn How to Build Your Own Analog Oscillator’.

In this LGBTQ+ friendly workshop, the artist and musician will lead you through the process of wiring together a handful of basic electronic components to create a working sound-maker which can be tuned to different frequencies.

She said: "We will also explore a few different ways of changing the pitch of this oscillator; including using graphite (pencil lead) to draw our own resistors, and light- dependent resistors to make the pitch change with different levels of light.

"You will be taught some fundamentals of electronics and sound, and will each leave with a working circuit which is also a leaflet explaining all the concepts covered in the workshop."

Tickets for events can be bought from Eventbrite or from the cafe at Fire Station Creative.

More information about all the events taking place throughout Outwith can be found on the festival's website.

The six day festival will run from Wednesday, September 6, until Sunday, September 10, and offers a huge variety of events with music, film, visual art, and classical music as well as food and foraging events.