As part of our Confluence programme, we’ve been thinking about how artists move through, respond to, and shape the changing city. One idea has stayed with us throughout: flow.

Early morning on Friday 14 July 2006, a jack-knifed lorry shed its load of 25,000 flowers onto the harbourside in Bristol. As the day wore on, passers-by began taking the flowers, until they were dispersed across the city. Heather and Ivan Morison’s I lost her near Fantasy Island. Life will not be the same… was an “un-announced and unexplained” commission by Situations for British Art Show 6. A one-day intervention into public space.

Through our Confluence residencies, we have been exploring Bristol as a changing, transient place. As part of this, we’ve been thinking a lot about the differences between ephemerality and permanence – how these differences are felt and where the tensions sit.  

What stories do our bodies carry as they move through the city?

This week we’re on location with Ramelle Williams, capturing something special for Confluence.

Last week, I attended an event called The Good City—a conversation about what makes a city not just functional, but truly good. The kind of place that supports wellbeing, fosters culture, and creates resilience in the face of crisis. A place where people, communities, and ideas can thrive

What are you holding on to? What are you letting go of? These questions were the framing of Theatre Replacement’s festival HOLD ON LET GO in Vancouver earlier this month.

For this blogpost, we spoke to Esther May Campbell, founder of Kitchen Table Photo Club and lead artist on MAYK’s upcoming live art and photo show 378,432,000,000 Seconds of Exposure alongside Chiz Williams.

How do young people in Bristol access nature? Earlier this year, artist Esther May Campbell and the Kitchen Table Photo Club undertook a residency as part of Mayfest called Anything Moving and What Remains, roaming Nightingale Valley in St Anne’s to explore themes of nature, magic, and play. The residency highlighted an important tension: how do we ensure that young people growing up in urban areas have the chance to experience untamed, wild spaces? And what happens to that connection as we move closer to the city centre?

Wrap your eyes around this new trailer from Kitchen Table Photo Club in anticipation of their exhibition at St Anne’s House this December.

What happens when the city itself seems to be undergoing a transformation? Over the next 10 years, large parts of Bristol will change beyond recognition. Loved spaces will disappear, new streets will appear, new ways of moving around the city, and new ways of living, working and playing.

Cast your mind back to the cold, dark days of December. We filled an empty shop in Redcliffe with wonderful sounds, words and images that explored how Bristol is changing as part of a new residency called Confluence.

Verity Standen is an award-winning artist, composer and choir leader who works with trained and non-professional singers to create rich, beautiful soundscapes and performances. She likes to play with vocal music in ways that ask us to listen differently, gathering people together to sing, and exploring different ways that people can experience music.

Travis is an award-winning writer, performer and theatre maker. Born in Bristol and recently relocating back to the city, Alabanza is fascinated by how the city is changing and about the things that will never change. Whether creating theatre, live art, or poetry, the performer’s work shows those with marginalised identities deserve to be both seen and heard.