INTERZONE - CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF WILLIAM S BURROUGHS
Who are Guerrilla Zoo and what do you do?
Guerrilla Zoo is an arts organisation that feature established artists, performance, music and sub-cultures from around the world, and provide a platform for new talent. We specialise in experiential environments, live events, festivals, immersive theatre and art exhibitions.
What is Interzone?
I'm producing this event with the blessing of his estate to celebrate the life and times of William S Burroughs, a few days after what would have been his 100th birthday. Events are taking place in America, Paris, Morocco, London and many other countries.
London is the only place that this particularly special event will be taking place, for one night only. The event is loosely based around the strange and seedy surreal "metaphorical stateless city" of 'Interzone' inspired by the cult beat writer whilst in the north Moroccan city of Tangier during 1950s, where he wrote his acclaimed influential nonlinear novel Naked Lunch (published almost 55 years ago).
The event, which takes the world of Burroughs' writing and brings his characters to life with an experiential hybrid party - an immersive spectacle, combines promenade theatre, live music and DJs, performance, films and art installations. Meet Dr Benway for a botched operation, drink something intoxicating from a Mugwump, watch out for Government Operatives and Double Agents and many others amongst a huge cast from one on one interactions to site specific theatre. We will be collecting our audience from a location and transporting them to Interzone, if they manage to pass the disorienating militant check points, they will thrown and let loose into this imaginative Burroughsian world where anything could happen...
Why have you decided to pay tribute to Burroughs like this?
I want to bring the Burroughs legacy to a new generation and engage our audiences in memorable ways that get them experiencing the power and creativity of his writings. Films such as The recent release of John Krokidas' "Kill Your Darlings" which saw Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe portraying Allen Ginsberg and Ben Foster as Burroughs, are helping open the flood gates to an entirely new and young audience to discover the work of the revolutionary work and words beats.
In his time, Burroughs was informed by a lifetime of dialogue with provocative and penetrating thinkers. Often these interactions sparked new directions in writing, film, sound, and visual art. Notable collaborators include Antony Balch, Ian Sommerville, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, Kurt Cobain, and John Giorno.
Why, in your opinion, is Burroughs so important and why should this anniversary be celebrated? What's your own personal response to his writing and what are your memories of reading him?
I remember picking up a copy of Naked Lunch when I was travelling around East Asia in my early 20s. It was like nothing I'd ever read, it had no beginning, middle or ending, just a nightmarish world that had pangs of dark comedy and bouts of paranoia as well as serious issues that switched me on to the Burroughs universe and his other very powerful and varied works. His words helped in part inspire my direction in life. From then to now: I'm currently in Lawerence, Kansas for the opening of 'Creative Observer' an impressive show of Burroughs visual art and collaborations. Last night I stayed at Burroughs house in his room and have met a lot of his close associates and friends. It's clear through his multiple creative outputs his work has an enduring and continuing social and political relevance bringing to light some very important issues that are still in tune with the times today.
There is a cultural shift in the way we are seeing the world, the governments, the big industries and how we engage with them and each other. Writer's like Burroughs helped shine a bright translucent light at how the 'Control Machine' operates, and with Edward Snowden's 'politically backed spying' revelations that far surpass George Orwell's dystopian glance at the future, perhaps we need a little reminder that one person is all it takes to throw a spanner in the greasy cogs to disrupt the system and instigate a change.
Buy your ticket to travel, pack your Passport and step into a microcosm of all the world by moonlight. The world is a lot stranger than you might have been told...
SOURCE : ONLY IN PRINT