A NEW ICON FOR THE NORTH
A STUNNING new artwork set to become a new icon for Middlesbrough, Tees Valley and the North of England ‘awakens’ today.
Temenos was officially launched by its creators Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond who spoke of their love for the area and satisfaction with the finished sculpture.
From today members of the public will be able to experience Temenos to the full. Having watched it emerge from the ground at Middlehaven Dock - in the shadow of the Transporter Bridge - they will be able to walk around it and stand beneath it for the first time.
Temenos is the first of the Tees Valley Giants, a proposed series of five installations by Anish and Cecil instigated by Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU) – as a sign of the organisation’s ambition for the area.
Anish and Cecil are two of the most respected names in the art world and to attract them to the Tees Valley was a huge coup for TVU.
TVU focuses on regeneration, inward investment and place-making activities to help the five boroughs that make up Tees Valley (Middlesbrough, Stockton, Darlington, Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland) achieve social, economic and cultural success.
And the organisation’s ambition for world class art works is clear in its collaboration with Anish Kapoor, internationally acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest living artists and pioneering structural designer Cecil Balmond.
Temenos represents a definitive statement of confidence in, and aspiration for, Tees Valley and will enhance the way in which the area is viewed and experienced.
Anish said: “I am delighted that we are celebrating the launch of Temenos which is one of the most exciting commissions that I have ever undertaken and I am particularly grateful to Cecil Balmond who has been a wonderful collaborator on the project.
“I hope that the work will become a much loved landmark in the region and will contribute to the renaissance of this wonderful area.”
Cecil said: "Temenos transforms the landscape and I hope it will shape its own iconic power, along with the Transporter Bridge, to be a signal for a renewed Middlesbrough.
The work has the language of the industrial with its mighty steel rings and precise steel net and then much more - a form that keeps changing depending on viewpoint and light. Temenos will change as the seasons change, just as I hope the regeneration it signifies will keep progressing the town and its environs.
The landscape, culture and spirit of the people of Middlesbrough all played an important role in the creative process, while the engineering expertise and flair of the local workforce who've fabricated and erected this unique structure, has been outstanding.
I hope the people of Middlesbrough will come to feel the same passion for, and pride in, Temenos that they experience for their other world famous landmark, the Transporter Bridge, and that it will come to represent the town's aspirations, vitality and imagination."
Richard Buckley, Director of Delivery at Tees Valley Unlimited, said: “The early vision for Temenos was rightly ambitious – a real statement of what we felt Middlesbrough, the Tees Valley and wider north deserved. Thankfully for us, Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond shared our ambition.
“Public art has such an important role to play in the regeneration and growth of this area and nowhere is that more evident than Middlehaven – the home of Temenos.
“Temenos is quite simply stunning and I’ve no doubt it will become the postcard image for this area, proudly standing alongside Middlesbrough’s expanding portfolio of iconic buildings and structures which includes Middlesbrough College, the Transporter Bridge and mima.”
Temenos was presented to the people of Middlesbrough by Steve Gibson, chairman of Middlesbrough Football Club in the presence of Ray Mallon, Mayor of Middlesbrough.
Temenos was secured for North East England by Tees Valley Regeneration (now Tees Valley Unlimited) with funding from government initiative, The Northern Way, Regional Development Agency One North East, the Homes and Communitites Agency and key partners, the Arts Council England, Northern Rock Foundation, BioRegional Quintain, Middlesbrough Football Club and Middlesbrough Council.
For more information contact Leanne English, Marketing Manager at Tees Valley Unlimited, on 01642 632013, 07725 602824 or email leanne.english@teesvalleyunlimited.gov.uk; or June Kelly at Cool Blue on 01642 351011 or email june.kelly@coolbluebrand.com.