The Happy Sad-sack - Storytelling & Collaborative Practice with Array Collective

CAMP is a residential arts facility in the French Pyrenees. It's a place where great art is made, new movements are formed, new ideas are explored and groundbreaking people are nurtured. CAMP is located in Aulus les Bains, the last village before the France/Spain Pyrenean frontier chain. The location is spectacular - we are nestled at 750m above sea level, surrounded by snowcapped peaks over 3000m high, ancient forests and cascading waterfalls. There are eagles, lammergeiers, vultures, ibex and bears. Walk out of the residency, and within ten minutes you are completely alone in one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes in Europe. Aulus les Bains is also a spa village - there are hot water springs, and a thermal spa in the village to take advantage of the healing and relaxing properties of the water.
    
Workshop dates: 24/05/2023 - 2023-05-29
    
Array Collective artists Jane Butler, Emma Campbell and Clodagh Lavelle will facilitate a five-day workshop drawing upon ancient mythology and folklore as a way to reflect stories about contemporary human conditions. Through site-specific drawing sessions, worldbuilding from found ephemera, collaboration and performance, we'll develop characters that will allow us to consider our own stories, and reflect issues that we care about within our communities.

Array Collective are a group of eleven artists rooted in Belfast, who create collaborative actions in response to socio-political issues affecting Northern Ireland. The collective has been working together since 2016, galvanised by the growing anger and momentum in local movements advocating for human rights. Array Collective reclaim and questions traditional identities in the North of Ireland using humour, storytelling, and DIY approaches. They playfully merge performance, protest, ancient mythology, photography, installation and video.

Array Collective are the first Northern Irish artists to win the Turner Prize - they were awarded the prize for their work "The Druthaib's Ball", presented in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry (UK), in 2021.