Michael Pinchbeck will invite the public to sit on 2012 benches at exactly the same time every day – 12 o'clock midday for 20 minutes, for one year. Each bench will bear a plaque engraved with the words ‘Sit with us for a moment and remember’. Inspired by public acts of remembrance, the project is an invitation to remember, to create a community of memory and to invoke a response to 2012 and a living legacy of the Games. The project will take the form of an installation and a site-specific performance at 2012 locations chosen by the public via an online poll. Communities will be involved in the installation of the benches which will remain in situ long after London 2012. The project will encourage health and well-being and a trail embracing the Olympic movement values of excellence, respect and friendship will link the 2012 sites across the region.
Location: Across the East Midlands
See the shortlisted entries for this region and read about the judging panel
Michael Pinchbeck is a writer, live artist and performance maker based in Nottingham. He co-founded Metro-Boulot-Dodo (MBD) in 1996. MBD won the Total Theatre Best Newcomer award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999. He left MBD in 2004 to embark on a five- year live art project, The Long and Winding Road, supported by Fierce! and The Bluecoat. In 2005, he was commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse to write The White Album, which won the 2007 Nottingham Creative Business Award. In 2008, Michael was selected by Arts Council England to represent the UK at the Biennale for Young Artists in Italy. In 2009, his work was selected for the British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase. Michael studied Theatre and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. He has an MA in Performance and Live Art from Nottingham Trent University and lectures at the University of Chester. Project documentation: Julian Hughes