Orange tents encircle British isles calling for peace during Olympics

Source:Xinhua Published: 2012-7-21 13:58:49

When dusk falls, the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle became a mere black silhouette, in front of which more than 450 camps turned bright, warming up the bleak seaside with orange light.

The installation artworks, namely Peace Camp, popped up in eight coastal sites across the UK. A total of 2,000 glowing tents appear from dusk until dawn from Thursday to Sunday calling for peace as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad celebrations.

"Primarily this is a celebration of coastal astonishing landscape right around the British isles including Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland," said Deborah Warner, director of the Peace Camp.

"The idea is directly inspired by something that lies at the heart of the Olympic Games, which is the Olympic Truce," she told Xinhua. The United Nations Olympic Truce called on all nations worldwide to lay down their arms for the duration of the Olympic Games.

Recorders were placed inside the tents, so that as visitors roam around, they could hear love poetry and peaceful music, accompanied with the sound as waves lashed against rocks.

"The poems were all about love, and they were read in different accents -- the Scottish accent, Welsh accent and Irish accent," she said.

According to Mel Mercier, who created the soundscape, the music and reading of poems were "stitched together so as to invite people to contemplate and listen deeply".

Dunstanburgh Castle, on the border of England and Scotland, is the first site chosen by Warner among the eight. "I didn't know it (before)," she said. Located at a remote and less-visited site, the castle couldn't be seen from trains or buses. "But I saw the photos, and it was too good," she said.

The castle was built in 1313, and fell into decay after Wars of the Roses. As the biggest ruin in England, it gave inspirations to famous painter William Turner, who painted it in several of his works.

The rest seven locations were chosen for their particular relations with the sea as well. "If you took a photo of this island, you could see the ring of the eight sites, each of them about 600 miles from the other." she said.

The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. It is purported to have ordinary people across the UK involved in the Olympic gala.



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