About The Re-Enchantment

A national project July 2010 – July 2011

The Re-Enchantment is an investigation of ‘place’ and its accrued layers of meaning in the twenty first century - whether personal, aesthetic, social, historical, political, ecological or spiritual - through a number of artistic commissions in a variety of media, contexts and environments across the UK.

The Re-Enchantment seeks to lead to a ‘re-enchantment’ of a place/s through the intensity of the work created in response to it, both at the moment of encounter and in its after-effect. ‘Re-Enchantment’ refers to a heightened, renewed, re-invigorated sensibility of the particular attributes and histories of the site in question for all concerned (artist, audiences and those already familiar with and committed to the site).

Four acclaimed and innovative artists, all of whom have demonstrated a significant, empathetic and enduring engagement with place as a primary element of their work, will create striking new works in diverse media across the UK.

The fifth commission, the book Towards Re-Enchantment (published November 2010) offers an opportunity for some of Britain’s finest writers and poets to reflect on the meaning of ‘re-enchantment’ in reference to a particular place or region. Contributors include Jay Griffiths, Kathleen Jamie, Richard Mabey, Robert MacFarlane, Jane Rendell, Iain Sinclair, Sukhdev Sandhu and Ken Worpole, with poems from Elizabeth Bletsoe, Lavinia Greenlaw, Alice Oswald and Robin Robertson.

The Re-Enchantment commissions are:

England Revisited by Simon English

Patience (After Sebald) by Grant Gee

January 2011
A multi-layered film essay on landscape, art, history, life and loss by the award-winning documentary film-maker, Patience is an exploration of the work and impact of German writer WG Sebald (1944 – 2001), told via a walk through coastal East Anglia tracking his most influential book The Rings of Saturn. 


Fissure by Louise Ann Wilson

May 2011
Working with an award winning team of artists and scientists, local individuals and organizations, site-specific theatre-maker Wilson will create a unique theatrical experience in a remote Yorkshire Dale using the lives, legends and music of the locality.

Cillein by Steve Dilworth

June 2011
A unique artwork on the Isle of Harris by the leading sculptor, Cillein draws on the most enduring sense of place imaginable to create a “hidden artwork”. A totemic human figure interred in a glacial boulder will found a legend spread through rumour, gossip, story telling and social networking on a global scale. 


The Re-Enchantment is conceived and produced by artevents (Gareth Evans, Di Robson and Niloufer Sagar) and core funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s pioneering Breakthrough Fund (www.phf.org.uk) and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England (www.artscouncil.org.uk); PRS for Music (www.prsformusic.com) the UK Film Council (www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk), Screen East and Screen South.