Greenbelt 2011 - Ikon

Giving Ikon a post of their own because I thought their 'event' was fabulous - ‘Based On A True Story’.
They bring together music, poetry, prose, movement, costume into a total immersive experience - you are lost in the encounter. And yet some of the power is that they don't take it too seriously - and are willing to puncture an intense moment with a witty twist or yet a cheap pun.

Ikon have a reputation for a certain level of shock value - one Greenbelt event, I am told, included a prolonged sequence in which a Bible was torn page from page (perhaps it is a game to see if you can break that Greenbelt liberal - find the spot where they turn Pharisee and draw a line) - but this event was not in your face in quiet the same way and yet it was full of challenge.

It opened with the following:

Every Story Is Made Up

Every story is made up. Have you read ‘The BFG’? Roald Dahl? Yeah, it was made up. It’s a good story though. Every story is made up. Did you ever hear the one about the Moon Landing? 1969, man on the moon and all that. Yeah, it was made up. I’m not saying it didn’t happen. But the story you know is just a story that was made up. Just words… about an event. And I bet Neil Armstrong has a different story to you. It’s a good story though.

This really was 'the' point of the event - and as I have said I am a good post-modernist and so it is a point that falls easily into my ears.  When this is applied to conflicts it becomes an opportunity for liberation - Ikon applied to their native Belfast - conflicts, particularly those between neighbours, find much of their energy because the two sides tell different stories about the same event.  Greenbelt always has a lot going on about Palestine - and there is a conflict between people who have been telling stories for thousands of years and the power of the stories overwhelms any attempt to get to 'facts' or 'truth'. What is needed is a way to acknowledge that stories can be inreconsilable even when they speak of the very same event.