This year’s edition of the GSA’s Christmas Card is the film ‘Fair Land’ created by BDes Sound for the Moving Image graduate Michiel Turner. The film debuted last night at a special screening in the Reid Auditorium, accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra.
View ‘Fair Land’ HERE (duration 4mins 14sec)
Michiel Turner is an artist with German heritage who has grown up by the Morayshire coastline. Graduating in 2023, Turner recently won ‘Most Outstanding Creative Work’ at the ‘Nomad 2023: A Living Land International Film Festival’ hosted by our partner institution The University of Central Asia (UCA) on their Naryn campus in Kyrgyzstan.
In Turner’s lyrical film, two figures move through a still and wintery Scottish scene, rich with the colours of autumn and dazzled in winter sunlight. The figures embrace in a dance of celebration, laying gifts in the slumbering landscape, blessings for the coming promise of springs renewal.
“We are delighted to share our 2023 Christmas Card, a now annual tradition which demonstrates the imagination and innovation for which Glasgow School of Art students and graduates are celebrated,” says Professor Penny Macbeth, Director of The Glasgow School of Art.
“Partnership is core to our values at the GSA, and this year’s film showcases not just the imagination and skill of graduate Michiel Turner, but also illustrates the value of collaboration between students and staff, the GSA and the wider creative community of Glasgow”.
‘Fair Land’ explores the ceremony of winter solstice via a fairytale-like narrative” says Michiel Turner,
“The film playfully experiments with organic materials and the passage of time through Dawn Kelso’s crafted costumes and crowns, intertwined with a collage of visual mediums. Marios Ento-Engkolo and Vika Buharova, portraying two characters, honour an oak tree as it sheds its leaves—a departure from the pagan tradition of celebrating the pine tree by bringing it indoors each winter. Written dialogue in Scots Gaelic, followed by English translations, serves as a reflection of time’s interconnectedness. These thematic elements combine to underscore the film’s overarching concept—the joy of regeneration.”
The soundtrack was created in response to a loose score initially produced by Turner, who is also a jazz & folk musician. This was then improvised by Dr. Jessica Argo, Programme Leader BDes Sound for the Moving Image, and selected members of The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, an ensemble of around 20 musicians from diverse artistic backgrounds.
For further info please contact Alan Miller – Press@gsa.ac.uk
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Film Credits
Film & Concepts – Michiel Turner
Dancers:
Via Buharova
Marios Ento-Engkolo
Marios Ento-Engkolo
Costumes & Design by Dawn Kelso.
Soundtrack by Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra:
Soundtrack by Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra:
Jessica Ango – Cello, Voice
Gerry Rossi – Synth, Piano, Percussion, Voice
Gerry Rossi – Synth, Piano, Percussion, Voice
Eliona Cassidy – Voice
Recording Engineer – Ronan Breslin
Recorded At La Chunky Studios
Score Arranged and Produced by Michiel Turner
Recorded At La Chunky Studios
Score Arranged and Produced by Michiel Turner