Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Sam Taylor-Wood are just some of the artists with whom Beck's have worked in the past, and Beck's Futures, organised with the ICA, was once modern art's richest prize. The beer brand have long supported contemporary art and are now also celebrating music. Following on from last year's event with the Chemical Brothers in Trafalgar Square, Beck's Fusions 2008 will take place in Manchester being headlined by United Visual Artists and Massive Attack. This is one of only three UK shows for the Bristol band this year and it's completely free.
An esteemed panel including Peter Saville, John Squire and our very own Francesca Gavin will curate an exhibition of works by budding young artists for the three day event in September. Submissions can be made right here on Dazed Digital from next week and three of you could have your work displayed at the event with special prizes also on offer. The theme is "Collectively Individual" and this should be interpreted through an image that you create. We are also giving away tickets to the event.
The Fusions launch event took place on Wednesday at the Urbis in rainy Manchester where we were drinking responsibly with performers The Whip.
Dazed Digital: This project is based on "fusions" and the intersection between art and music. Do you feel that the concept of fusion is important to making good music?
Bruce Carter: Definitely. The media moves so fast; kids are just used to seeing things thrust at them from different angles and it's rubbing off on music in the sense that people can just listen to bits and bobs of things thrown together at the same time. A mish mash of stuff thrown together seems to be the future. People are open minded and as a band we listen to absolutely everything.
DD: Are here any local bands that you are enjoying at the moment?
BC: There are a lot of bands coming out of Manchester at the moment like the Courteeners and the Ting Tings, who have done unbelievably well, and everyone's just supporting each other. It's a strong scene but it's not genre specific, it's just a good collection of Manchester bands. The Ting Tings actually asked us to produce some stuff for them ages ago but we didn't have time.
DD: You've worked with Kitsune, who are based slightly further afield, with "Divebomb" released on 12 inch and a compilation. How was that connection made?
BC: Gil, who runs the label, literally just sent us a MySpace saying "We want to get involved". Since then we've done nights together. We had a really good Korean barbeque with Gil in Japan! It was top.
DD: Do you think the idea "Collectively Individual" reflects what you guys are doing? That there's a musical collective around the world but you're still very much individual?
BC: That's good, yeah. It's nice to feel that bit of unity even though it doesn't matter where you're from. Geography's not as important anymore and it's getting harder to find a scene coming from a town because it's just so international.
DD: Beck's Fusions judge Peter Saville obviously exemplifies the link between art and music. How important is he to you?
BC: Peter Saville is a total legend. All the artwork that he used to do for Factory Records is brilliant and it was just so iconic. We'd love to find someone like that, contemporary to us, who can tie the imagery in with the music.
