Fire Garden, a performance delivered by the French performance group Carabosse at Battersea power station on the theme of fire
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Contributor:
Barry Lewis / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
E788H3File size:
63.3 MB (3.9 MB Compressed download)Releases:
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5760 x 3840 px | 48.8 x 32.5 cm | 19.2 x 12.8 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
6 September 2014More information:
The Fire Garden, a performance delivered by the French performance group Carabosse, commisioned by Totally Thames, was an illuminating, artistic tribute, delivered on a monumental scale, to Battersea Power Station before it is closed for redevelopment. This was fire alchemy at its very best: the smell of wax, the hiss of steam, and the heat and glow of the multiple fires acknowledging and celebrating this iconic site's gritty, smoke belching, industrial past. Globes of fire and thousands of points of flickering flame illuminate the Power Station as musicians play a mix of old style Parisian music with moody improvised sounds. Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned (1983) coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Battersea, an inner-city district of South West London. It comprises two individual power stations, built in two stages in the form of a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built in the 1930s, with Battersea B Power Station to its east in the 1950s. The two stations were built to an identical design, providing the well known four-chimney layout. The station is the largest brick building in Europe and is notable for its original, lavish Art Deco interior fittings and decor. However, the building's condition has been described as "very bad" by English Heritage and is included in its Heritage at Risk Register. A series of failed redevelopment attempts have been interspersed with frequent pop-culture references—including being featured on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals, and in the 2008 Batman film The Dark Knight. It is now to become one of the largest redevelopment projects in Europe. A group of Malaysian investors backed the project, at an estimated cost of £8 billion ($13.17 billion), in 2012. Their aim is to keep the power station's outward facade intact, while filling it with offices, retail, and high-end homes.