GEORGE Square has witnessed countless celebrations, ceremonies, protests and rallies throughout the decades. Intended as private gardens for the merchants who owned its surrounding town houses, the square became a public space for the people of Glasgow in the late 19th century after its railings were subjected to repeated attacks of vandalism.
In recent months alone thousands of people have gathered there, from council workers demanding equal pay for women in February, to a huge All Under One Banner rally for independence in May, to last month’s anti-Trump protest.
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On Thursday, August 2, Turner Prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon curates Citizens Of Everywhere, a free event in George Square which draws upon its role as the city’s civic heart. Taking place as part of Festival 2018, the cultural programme of events which run alongside the inaugural European Championships, the event will see the Glasgow-born artist join forces with Scotland’s Makar Jackie Kay (below) and the country’s national orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), for a one-off performance of classical and contemporary music and voices.
Family friendly and open to everyone, the event features the RSNO making their debut performance of a re-working of a Mogwai composition entitled Music For A Forgotten Future (The Singing Mountain).
Written at around the time of Mogwai’s 2011 album Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will, the track was originally conceived to accompany an art installation by Gordon and German artist Olaf Nicolai.
The graceful, 23-minute instrumental will no doubt haunt some as Brexit looms over the Championships, which are held in Glasgow (and Edinburgh, which hosts the diving events) at the same time as parallel events are held in Berlin.
Festival 2018 invited Gordon to focus his ideas for Citizens Of Everywhere on Glasgow’s geographical position on the river Clyde as well as the city’s social history. Such themes will also inspire the new poem Kay will debut at the event before the RSNO perform a version of Paul Robeson’s Ol’ Man River.
Robeson, a key voice in the civil rights movement, visited George Square almost 60 years ago in 1960, when he led the city’s May Day parade.
Kay, who succeeded Liz Lochhead as Scotland’s makar in 2016, says: “A river is a city’s soul. I’ll be thinking about connections between rivers, how the soul runs deep in them, and thinking about the richness of Paul Robeson’s voice, how a presence like that becomes part of a city, joins in its freedom.
“I’m very excited about working with Douglas Gordon again and seeing what comes of our many ways of connecting.”
Bill Chandler, the RSNO’s director of artistic planning and engagement, describes Citizens Of Everywhere as promising “to make an emotional statement that should resonate with everyone”, whether its with residents of the city or visitors to the sporting events.
Gordon says he took inspiration from his upbringing for Citizens Of Everywhere, which marks an end to the first full day of sporting activity at the Championships.
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“I grew up looking at rivers, the Clyde, the Forth, the Leven – I grew up in Maryhill and in the shadow of the Kilpatrick hills in Dumbarton,” he says. “Watching the movement of the river – taking you away and bringing things and people in – always fascinated me. This, compared to the magical monumentality of the mountains, means in some way that this is in my DNA.”
Gordon adds: “I wanted to try and work with the dual nature of one’s DNA. To explore the dual nature of a city caught between the wonderful Clyde and the stoic nature of the magical mountains that surround us.”
Aug 2, George Square, Glasgow, 8pm to 10pm, free, no ticket required. www.glasgow2018.com
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