As I write this, the curtain closes on what may well have been the best attended Spectra Aberdeen ever.
It is quite the achievement for a festival which was hugely popular prior to the pandemic and had to endure a year of forced recuperation as large scale events were cancelled left, right and centre.
I remember the 2018 edition as being the year where Spectra seemed to create an explosion of life in the city centre. This is not to say that the prior incarnations hadn’t been popular – they very much had. Union Terrace Gardens and Marischal Square were always packed out.
I have, however, this very particular memory of being on Schoolhill in 2018 and being flabbergasted by simply how many people were roaming around the place.
As someone who works on Belmont Street, I can attest it is not often that, on a Thursday night in one of the darkest months of the year, there are hundreds of people exploring the town. It was quite striking to watch, as I queued to get into St Nicholas’ kirkyard to see the lighting displays in the graveyard and the church.
Here comes the sun! David Henckel's The Sun at Night is immense in St Nicholas Kirk. #SpectraABDN #OnlyInABDN pic.twitter.com/4kStSHmag9
— SPECTRA Festival (@SPECTRAaberdeen) February 8, 2018
There were lots of folk you don’t often see out on dark nights – families with young kids having the time of their lives. To boot, that night was, as I recall it, freezing.
Spectra was slightly in advance of the official start of the Beast from the East, but February was cold throughout and the temperature was likely a few degrees under zero on opening night.
I also remember that edition well as it featured, until this year, probably my favourite Spectra installation – David Henckel’s The Sun at Night. High definition footage of the sun made into a 30-minute film and with a soundtrack based on solar activity. Very much up my street, and deeply impressive when visited in the reflective surrounds of the Kirk of St Nicholas.
It has now been surpassed in my mind by Together, which we’ve all just seen at the Castlegate.
Together coaxes longevity of attention
My job at Belmont Filmhouse means I’m occasionally lucky enough to get invited along to art launches and the like. The Spectra production team also has offices within our building.
Together is a testament to what can be achieved and transformed if ideas are carried to their rightful end
Because of this, I was able to totter down to the Art Gallery and see Gaia while Curated Place launched the festival, and then get a wee tour which culminated at Castlegate and with Together. It is the finest piece of public art I have seen in Aberdeen.
When rounding the corner, I was first struck by the sheer scale of the piece. It is huge. So many public landmarks, though, deceive with their size and fail to leave a lasting impression beyond that first gasp – not this.
Together coaxes longevity of attention from folk who surround it. Every time you turn toward it, a different angle captures a different Aberdonian expression, framed against the Citadel, or the Town House.
The curves and the points run in a line, from the 17th century Mercat Cross, through Together and back to The Archibald Simpson – the old North of Scotland Bank – its rounded frontage and pillars reflected in the sculpture.
Every time the light shifts and the soundscape changes, you might decide that you have to spend just another five minutes with it to take it all in. It’s a testament to what can be achieved and transformed if ideas are carried to their rightful end.
Our recent collective experience has been overwhelmingly negative
I must commend the teams at Curated Place and Spectra when, in another pandemic year, it would have been easy to just do something manageable rather than spectacular.
I had an inescapable feeling that I was just getting a sneak peek, while thousands of people had already passed by as they went about their day, including a few hundred Dons fans who had congregated earlier that night. Perhaps a few punters who had been in the Castlegate bars had nipped in before the piece was erected and exited to find it there.
I thought about the tens of thousands who would go on to see it over the coming days. It’s a real shame Together can’t stay for longer.
The spectacle of this installation is quite something, but what I think will stay with me is the sense that, at a time where our recent collective experience has often been negative – be it due to the pandemic or political turmoil, Storms Arwen or Corrie – Together was something we could view and interpret and feel a positive effect from.
The good feeling prompted by seeing it in our space, displaying our words, contributed by local people and poets, will stay with us and will resonate as we continue to redesign our city.
Colin Farquhar is head of cinema operations for Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen
