MUTANT DANCE

A HTV Documentary that aired on 02/06/1997 documenting the UK based Mutant Dance Party Collective and Bristol Free Party Crew gearing up for a free party they realized on 14/09/1996.

Introduction to Mutant Dance in their own words;

"MUTANT DANCE is a Bristol based collaboration of party people and artists specializing in UV performance and decor. Founded in 1991, Mutant Dance have been involved in the renowned Bristol party scene since the early days of Acid House parties. Now taking that vibe all over England and Europe we bring our free party roots to clubs and festivals wherever we go. We also put on regular free parties in the South West of England.
(Note to PC Netplod: We are making all this up, we know nothing about illegal warehouse raves or anything else for that matter.)
The Mutants have performed extensively in the UK and Europe, appearing at Glastonbury, Ashton Court Festival, Tribal Gathering, Megadog (Lizard), Trance Buddha (Amsterdam), Munich, Out There (Normandy), most major UK clubs and festivals, and various free parties throughout Europe.
enter Mutant Dance can add a unique live element to any club environment or party. With our mix of freaky costumes and boundless energy we guarantee to liven up any event. Our UV performers, costumed dancers, or outrageous environments, provide an extra dimension of scene setting and sensory stimulation. Mutate and survive..."

MUTANTE DANCE @ Stonehenge UK 20/03/1999  (source)

From: "Chelfyn Baxter" chelfyn@harmony.force9.net
To:
Subject: They let us in!!!!!
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 19:47:43 -0000

I thought it might interest you that Bristol ravers Mutant Dance staged a
free party at Stonehenge last Saturday night/Sunday morning for the equinox.
We set up a Fluoro geodesic dome behind the visitors centre, lit with UV and
partied all night 'til the druids arrived. Come sunrise they let not only
the druids, but 150 or so assorted free party people into the circle for an
hour. Even the solitary copper was chilled.....

Report of a party goer on a busted Mutant Dance party near Stonehenge on 18/06/1999. - http://www.urban75.com/Rave/stonehenge2.html

EYES BY ICH BIN KONG

by ICH BIN KONG

ROBIN HOOD TAX

Mutate Britain On The Robin Hood Tax

MUTONIA SCULPTURE PARK - PART THREE

Part one - Part two 

"RECYCLE, MUTATE & LET ONE SELF BE MUTATED"

That is the password to Mutonia Sculpture Park near Alberrie Creek. Because of his Celtic roots Robin Mutoid has been celebrating summer solstice in Stonehenge. In the winter everyone is invited to celebrate the winter solstice at Plane-henge.

I uploaded a video of a broadcast on ABC News in Australia featuring Robin Mutoid and his park. I hope the video doesn't get deleted due copyright. Copyright who? This gives you a better idea on the size of some sculptures.

Also in WMV format from source.

On with our tour. After the relocation of the Ghan Railway in 1980 the original track was abandoned. Robin Mutoid mutated an old railway bridge crossing Alberrie Creek. Using a 58 seater white bus an aeroplane tail fin bolted to the roof to create the worlds first 'Ghan Hover Bus Service'. A travel service free of charge including the Ghan Hover Bus Library. Where anyone can borrow or deposit a book for travelers passing by.

GHAN HOVER BUS SERVICE

GHAN HOVER BUS LIBRARY

WINDMILL FLOWER

 

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

 A LOCAL

And so on...

THE END.

But remember, as Robin Mutoid said..

 

MUTONIA SCULPTURE PARK - PART TWO

Welcome back on are tour trough Mutonia. If you missed part one you can find it in our archives on your right. By juxtaposing old aeroplanes, old cars or pieces such as a VW beetle shell, washing machines, motorbikes, parts from an old railway and many more so called garbage, Robin Mutoid mutated the Australian Outback.

The year after the 'Dream Catcher' was born a new sculpture was created under the name of 'Spinning Car'. Take a wild guess..

SPINNING CAR

The next winter the Time Tree popped out of the desert sand. 

TIME TREE 

But it gets better, one of the main pieces in this recycladelic diaspora is Dotty the Dingo. Using a huge water tank, which was used in the past to refill steam trains, as a body. And a rusty old Chrystler who got a second life as a dingo head. It is so big that it can be seen from miles away. Travellers passing by from all wind directions are attracted by this giant, because it is nearly impossible to ignore. Locals named it 'Big Dog' and since then it goes by that name.

 BIG DOG

By time the park keeps growing, become more popular over time. Since his first visit in 1997 during his travel to protest against uranium mining the park has been evolving. Every year Robin Mutoid returns to the Outback.

To be continued... 

MUTONIA SCULPTURE PARK - PART ONE

Every year in the winter the co-found of Mutoid Waste Company (MWC), Robin 'Mutoid' Cooke, returns to his Mutonia Sculpture Park to build a new sculpture providing a rich visual backdrop to his ideas and work. It is located in the outback of South Australia at Alberrie Creek somewhere near the historical Oodnadatta Track near the Old Ghan Railway. I tried locating it on Google Maps, but even with instructions from Robin Mutoid I was unable to locate the exact location, so I went for the area where it should be. If you are interested you can also find a review on a trip trough the Oodnadatta Track on Travelingoz.com.au, which is also the source of most pictures below. This is one of those places I am dying to visit, really looks awesome.

"People's reaction when they come past here is a mixture of amazement and amusement, fascination, as there are plenty of questions floating around in their heads, I think, as to why and what all this is about. But, basically, it's all positive, they love it, they jump out of their cars and run around, and they bang on the xylophone and have a look at various pieces from various different angles, and it's very, very popular. It's a positive reaction, yes, it's great." - Quote by Robin Mutoid in an interview on ABC News featuring his Mutonia.

CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE

If you do find the exact location, feel free to let me know (bluzark[at]gmail[dot]com). You can find the instructions here, the rest is up to you. Explore!
Edit: So I did find the exact location after all, -29.623129,137.542775, confirmed with a geotagged picture. So I could have been smarter and searched Panoramio and save me some time, but of course I chose the hard way and tracked it down myself not knowing there was an easy way. I should have known..

Marking the entrance of Mutonia Sculpture Park is the Kombi-Gate. The Kombi is a classic VW van that became a symbol of outback travel over the years. It was mutated many times in sculptures by MWC all over the world. Such as in this famous car-henge setup below. The first car-henge was built by Robin Mutoid when travellers were told they could not visit stone henge, so built a version of it using scrap cars.

"KOMBI-HENGE"

You should recognize this picture since it was taken from FreeNRG: Notes From the Edge of the Dance Floor edited by Graham St John. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to give it a peak, it won't hurt you. Not all books are boring.

 "KOMBI-GATE"

Directly behind Kombi-Gate you will find one of the first sculptures by Robin Mutoid at Alberrie Creek. Using a couple of Beechcraft Baron light aircraft, American-made light aircraft from Moorabbin Airport, he created Plane-Henge. The aircrafts were lifted by hand by a group of about 50 people. Must have been one hell of a lift but a great achievement to treasure.

 

 "PLANE-HENGE"

Behind Plane-Henge you will find his next work which was named the Dream Catcher. Utilizing waste materials or recycling rubbish, the Mutant way.

 "DREAM CATCHER"

Some pieces of railway elements were used with their characteristic whimsical touches mutated in figures which were spread over the park. Such as these below.

To be continued..

ANDREGONZAGADALATA

Rotterdam '09

by andregonzagadalata

MUTATE!

More of his mutations can be found here.

TRASH CITY

Mutoid waste company holds a major exhibition each year on Glastonbury Festival, called Trash city.

Trash City: An apocalyptic dream-world straight from the pages of a 2000AD comic; an intergalactic red-light district, where space pirates, bootleggers, illegal aliens and all the scum of the universe come to party the night away…

Mind-boggling interactive venues featuring white-hot performance and music from some of the UK's most talked-about underground acts.

Starring: Mutoid Waste Co., Ruby Blues' Dragstrip, The Arcadia Installation, The Laundrettas, Rubbish Fairy's House Of Doll, NYC Downlow and much, much more...

 

 

 

More on mutoid waste company here

SPIRAL MUTOID TRIBE SOUND WASTE COMPANY

Spiral tribe soundsystem & mutoid waste company have always gone hand in hand. Calling what they did "organising some party's" is an understatement: they started a revolution that made the autorithies shit their pants.

Both renegades from their homecountry after some trials & police violence (or better said: police attacks), all because of what they believe in. Did that stop them? Hell no. They just did the same thing on the mainland. They forwarded the revolution through entire europe. Mutate & survive! Music, party's & art with a REAL message that influenced thousands, even still today.

Watch the movie here

MUTATE & SURVIVE

"mutating the refuse of modern culture into the Marvelous"

Notorious Tankhenge built by the mutoid waste company guys, from German Panzers. You see it framing the Reichstag in 1992, after the collapse of the Wall in Berlin.

In 1986 the police put a violent stop to a free festival at Stonehenge. Stonehenge became heritage listed and was fenced off as we know it today. Mutoid Waste Co. responded accordingly.

"If you want the Stones, you can keep them... We'll build our own!" and in 1987 at Glastonbury Festival a set of three 'Carhenges' were built, the ethos 'Mutate and Survive' was born.

"The 'Henge' theme has run through our work ever since that day in 1986.  Mutoid Waste made a rapid departure from the UK (runnin' from the authorities). They left Engeland to live in Berlin (Tacheless), but took their art with them. As they worked their way across Europe thousands of people encountered the characters of Mutoid Waste's world.

More on mutoid here!

MUTOID WASTE COMPANY

The Mutoid Waste Company was a performance arts group founded in the United Kingdom by Joe Rush and Robin Cooke in the early 1980s which continued until the 1990s, when it was based in Italy.

 

Influenced by the movie Mad Max and the popular Judge Dredd comics, they specialised in organising illegal parties in London throughout the 1980s, driven at first by eclectic assortments of fringe music such as psychedelic rock and dub reggae, but then embracing the burgeoning acid house music movement by the late 1980s. They were probably also influenced by the TV show Blake's 7, which featured Mutoids, reconditioned humans who had had their personalities removed.

The group became famous for building giant welded sculptures from waste materials and for customising broken down cars, as well as making large scale murals in the disused buildings where they held their parties.

In 1989, after a number of police raids on their warehouse in King's Cross, they left the country and travelled to Germany where they became notorious for building giant sculptures out of old machinery and car parts, one of which was a giant human figure, with a Volkswagen Beetle for its chest, doing a 'V-sign' over the Berlin Wall. They had a collection of scrap military vehicles including a Russian MiG 21 fighter aircraft!

These pioneers of art, performance and partying are still at it, based in Rimini (Italy) they continue to put on parties, transform environments, make sculptures and generally mutate anything they can get their hands on!

More here.

Expect a closer look into their work very soon.