The contemporary art aspect of Concrete and Glass is being curated by Flora Fairbairn and Paul Hitchman. Details of the exhibitions are as follows:

Heart of Glass is an eclectic exhibition. The works have been selected via open-submission in conjunction with 20 Hoxton Square Projects, murmurART, Adam Waymouth and the Contemporary Art Society.

A panel of art experts will select a “winner” who will be offered a solo show at the following year’s festival. This year’s panellists include John Kieffer, Creative Director Sound & Music, Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, and Sabine Unamun, of the Arts Council, as well as other representatives from the world of arts and music – names to be confirmed.

The winner from the first Heart of Glass was Kate MccGwire, who has since exhibited at a number of shows in London, Holland, Berlin and most recently at the Age of the Marvellous exhibition produced by All Visual Arts. Kate will be presenting a unique installation of her work at this year’s Concrete and Glass using feathers that she has been collecting especially for this show for the past 12 months (with support from All Visual Arts).

Shop & Office calls attention to the distinct art of Tom Saunders and Idéfix Bloc. The works in this exhibition appropriate the language and methodologies of advertising, business and retail to ask important questions about that which we make, display and sell today.

The Emerging Artist Derivative Contract is a conceptual artwork by Tom Saunders developed in reaction to the space, the idea of the emerging artist and the artist’s dissatisfaction with his own work. Idéfix Bloc is a pseudonymous collective identity adopted uniquely for the purpose of this exhibition. Operating between a collective and a cell, Idéfix Bloc aims to offer alternative models for the conception and production of cultural objects. In its deindividuating, collegiate method of practice, Idéfix Bloc seeks to develop a more direct critique of the process of cultural production in contemporary society. After the show, Idéfix Bloc is redundant and will disband.

The show is a collaboration between the artists and murmurART, Hannah Barry and Guy Gormley.

Lumin has been invited by Concrete and Glass to commission two new collaborative performances and sound installations. Both pieces take a traditional instrument and deconstructed it. The two are using mechanical sources and through digital tools elevating them into something new, unique and contemporary.

The first piece, Techno Harmonium, is a collaboration between Felix Thorn and digital visuals artists Weirdcore. Used to doing reactive live visuals for cutting electronic acts and bands, Weirdcore have been asked to focus their attention on Felix’s new machine, the Harmonium. The piece will open with an improvised live visual and audio performance on 13th May followed by a weeklong installation.

Felix’s Harmonium as a kinetic musical sculpture. Characteristics of electronic synthesizers can be traced back to mechanisms in early organ designs. The Harmonium make use of these pre-existing mechanisms by automating them for performance. The design of this machine aims to not only to match, but also to surpass the human performer by enhancing the machine with LEDs and movement that creates a truly multi sensory performance on the demand. For concrete and glass Lumin has invited visual artists and programmers Weirdcore to create video response for the piece. This will add a truly digital dimension both as a performance and visual installation. The Harmonium will then become the ultimate performer.
www.felixsmachines.com 
www.weirdcore.tv

The second commission is for a variation of Kathy Hinde’s Piano Migrations series: Piano Migration II – Video responsive instrument. The inside of an old upright piano, rescued from destruction, is transformed into a light activated instrument. Video projections move across the surface of the piano strings, triggering small machines to twitch and flutter causing the strings to resonate. For one night, this installation becomes a site for performance. Video projections activate the piano strings, and simultaneously provide a graphic score for improvisation. Audio-visual artist Kathy Hinde is joined by laptop musician Matthew Olden, cellist Simon McCorry and multi-instrumentalist Nahum Mantra to present a performance where image through a series of transformations realised through acoustic sound, live sampling, automata and projections.
www.kathyhinde.co.uk and www.pianomigrations.co.uk http://iamthemightyjungulator.blogspot.com

‘SEEN’ at Hoxton Square / a collaboration between the artist Martin Sexton & musicians BONINGEN ‘SEEN’ at Hoxton Square is the continuation of the ‘Seen’ series from The Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery, of Redchurch Street, that fuses a radical music performance with the curation of a ‘show’ by an inspirational artist. More details of this event will be announced shortly.

The chosen artists are:
Alexander Baynes 
Alice Anderson 
Ben Long 
Brass Art 
Charlotte Warne Thomas 
Claire Morgan
Clarisse D’Arcimole 
Lilah Fowler 
Matt Clark
Oliver Beer 
Paul Westcombe 
Robert Montgomery 
Suki Chan 
Tamsin Snow 
Thomas Lindvig 
Tim Phillips 
Tyson Howard