Rural BlissBody and the Black Maze they rode on
In a welcome lull from the January storms myself, Craig and little Robin took the Maze out to west Wales and delivered it for a bit of tlc prior to its Budapest trip next month. Mark Blissbody (who had a big hand in building the maze) and family made the break from city life 18 months ago and have settled near the centre for alternative technology in Machynlleth. Good on em I say.
Doing the round trip in a day you realise it's not so cut off as you might think. You start to wonder just how important for career city dwelling is. A peaceful like-minded community in a beautiful landscape seems like a pretty good trade-off and Blissbody's 'what's he building in there?' fire and sound art can develop in a riverside workshop without constantly needing an audience as a dedicated perfomance company would. Having said that it sounds like Mark gets more visitors to see what he's up to than he did in the city.
It certainly rang true as we arrived and a small crowd had gathered to check out what the ominous looking truck was about. Turns out the Maze's reputation stretches far and wide, one of the onlookers remembered not being able to get to go in at a queue heavy London gig. Sounds like Mark will have plenty of guinea pigs to check the Maze after the maintenance work.
The whole trip reminded me of the epic journey to Thessaloniki i made with the maze a couple of years ago. For a report have a look here
http://www.stanscafe.force9.co.uk/helpfulthings/theblackmazeingreece.html
For a bit of history on the very fine Blissbody (who will be making a spectacle for the re-opening of the Artsadmin offices in Toynbee later this year) look here
http://www.blissbody.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/home.html