On Thursday 27th September 2012 we went to see "ECHO WATCHET - Portrait of a Harbour Town". At the end of the summer two grey shipping containers appeared on the east arm of the harbour, across from the trademark lighthouse. In here performance artists and film makers setup their venue for this performance art presentation for the last week of September. We met fellow "passengers" by the statue of the Ancient Mariner on the Esplanade and were led by a handsome young fellow with long blond hair and a naval overcoat to the forbidding metal boxes. The captain welcomed us aboard for our voyage to Watchet past, present and future.
As promised, the performance delivered a colourful portrait of Watchet as seen through the eyes of the people who lived there, captured in film, sound and live performance. There was an air of nostalgia for loss of employment from traditional local industry such as the dock yard and the paper mill, but a sense of optimism for the future with a budding youth club and trendy new artist galleries opening in the town. The conclusion was that Watchet was open to modernisation as long as the atmosphere of the town was not adversely affected.
No comments:
Post a Comment