Enter Gallery has been part of Brighton’s furniture for over 30 years, and for every single one of those years, we’ve proudly showcased the work of Brighton’s best artists. As a business, we’ll always jump at the chance to celebrate the creativity of our beautiful city. For that reason, we’re delighted to support Brighton Digital Festival (BDF) – a 10-day extravaganza of events celebrating the rich and innovative creative and cultural industry of Brighton.
If you’re planning a trip to Brighton, or regularly pass by our Bond Street gallery, be sure to wander our way between October 29 – November 7, when the Enter Gallery shop front will be transformed into an art installation as part of Brighton Digital Festival.
In today’s blog, we’re revealing a little more about the festival, and how Enter Gallery will be involved…
Celebrating Brighton’s Creativity
For our business, one of the major things that lockdown taught us was the vital role that digital technology plays in connecting people to culture. Although thankfully it feels like a long-distant memory, back in the dark days of lockdown, being able to attend virtual performances or visit digital galleries kept us connected and afforded us a much-needed people a dose of normality. This insight helped all of us at Enter Gallery to understand the importance of offering opportunities to connect to us digitally, and the ways that digital technology can enrich our lives and our thinking.
Celebrating its 10th year, Brighton Digital Festival takes place over 10 days. For the duration of the event, you can enjoy an exciting programme of online and in-person events including installations, exhibitions, talks, seminars, workshops, musical performances and much more. You can explore the full programme here.
Who’s in charge?
The festival is organised by Lighthouse – a Brighton-based arts charity who specialise in connecting new developments in art, science, technology and society. Also in operation for over 30 years, the charity has been at the forefront of finding new ways to present artists and the creative industries, and exploring how art can cross boundaries, disciplines and be used as a way of enhancing digital technology and its place within society.
The purpose of the festival is to support, encourage and enlighten people across the city to experience and explore digital technology in all its forms. The festival celebrates Brighton’s creativity, its innovative digital economy, and top-level arts scene, and provides space for meaningful critique of the role of digital technology in reshaping life and culture.
What’s happening at Enter Gallery?
As part of the festival, every evening from 6:30pm to 6am Enter Gallery will be showing a digital piece by Amaal Said, entitled, If I Could Get To You. The gallery itself will be closed, but the artwork will be projected through the gallery window.
Said’s installation is an audio-visual piece that uses film, photography and interviews to explore the process of knowing our personal histories and documenting our experience of them. Wander by Enter Gallery at night to experience projected visual collages and a series of soundscapes that you can access via QR code.
Brighton Digital Festival tell us a little more about the installation:
‘The work seeks to address the distances between people and places and speaks to the idea of not being close enough to the histories we’re told. Centring on memory, what kinds of stories are told, and how those stories are passed down, it’s about what keeps us connected to family with entire lives abroad, and knowing them only through fragments.
Through projection, the ghost-like figures in the family archive gain a physical presence, and the sounds of notes, diaries, recipes, and voice memos collide to turn fragments into something whole again.’
Be sure to pass by to see the piece for yourself. You can read all about Brighton Digital Festival here.
