Looking Sideways premiered our first live event in Tignes, France, from 14-18th March 2011 during the week of the 2nd European Winter X-Games and was a great success with public and media alike.
Conceived as a project to promote and celebrate the creativity that surrounds & defines boardsport culture, L.S. aims to explore the fringes of the snow, surf and skate scenes – to showcase the art, photography, music and diverse creative culture which elevate our sports into lifestyles – and our first event sought to do just this alongside the mega-comp that is winter X.
Reporting on the X-Games, Transworld Snowboarding’s European correspondent wrote “…the most interesting thing so far about this event, other than the predictably mind-blowing riding, has been a little fringe event called Looking Sideways.”
The opening night private view and party kicked things off and attracted a who’s-who of European and worldwide snowsports industry and media, as well as X-Games organisers, broadcasters and competitors to our pop-up gallery at the Loop bar.
Upstairs at the Loop ‘Waiting for Clouds’ was a photo retrospective by respected European photographer James McPhail. It featured a dozen prints selected by McPhail and printed in large format exclusively for the Looking Sideways exhibition. The images, taken over a 10 year period that saw McPhail travelling the world shooting some of the world’s best riders, were chosen to showcase the pure joy and fun of snowboarding outside the competitive environment, which James especially wanted to highlight in the face of what he sees as the increasing movement of the sport towards big business and competitions.
above: rider Mark Ruparelia / location Mt. Baker / photo by James McPhail
To see the full selection of images exhibited see the gallery page at jamesmcphail.com.
Meanwhile, the downstairs area of the Loop bar was totally transformed by the LS crew into a gallery space to present Schoph Schophield’s ‘Down Too Long In The Midnight Sea’ art show which drew a constant stream of visitors throughout the week from the 75,000 people in town for the X-Games.
A rising star in the art world, with appearances in group shows in the UK, Europe and the US over the last eighteen months to his name, Schoph is a brand ambassador for Lib Tech snowboards, Dragon eyewear and the founder of snowboard brand Dalikfodda. With his connection to Tignes (he spent many seasons living and riding in the area) and status as one of the most talked about new boardsport artists he was the perfect choice for the launch of the Looking Sideways project, and was stoked to be a part of it: “I love seeing folk getting amped on art and having a good time, I think its great to create a buzz around art, and it’s nice to know people have rocked up at a show and had a great night.”
As well as the art shows, the LS program was packed with music throughout the week with DJ sets from Gallows, The Yard, GPSY Feelin’ and Looking Sideways DJ. But the highlight of the week however was undoubtedly the live music lineup, which began with a real coup for the LS team as they opened the week with an exclusive intimate show from Island Records recent signing Ben Howard and his band.
As you’ll undoubtedly know Howard’s career has since exploded, with sell out tours, major festival appearances and debut album ‘Every Kingdom’ going gold, so we were stoked to get him and the band to do such an intimate gig. Ben, India and Chris stayed for a couple of days, managing to get a little time on the snow, and also recorded and filmed an exclusive live acoustic version of ‘A Hand To Hold’ for us:
The live sessions also included amazing beatbox/vocal percussionists Duke and finished in style with the Dalikfodda rock night featuring 80s rock/metal revivalists Jettblack and an amazing amp exploding set from Swedish fuzzrock legends Truck Fighters.
Jenny Jones, 3 times X-Games slopestyle gold medallist, said “I visited the Looking Sideways event in Tignes this year and was super impressed by the combination of art and photography. The atmosphere was lively and fresh, and the music was awesome which is the complete opposite to a lot of events like this…”
To complement the events at our venue, the Looking Sideways creative crew were also busy around town and in the mountains, shooting photo and video action with Vans, Burn, GPSY Feelin’ and Dragon Lodge riders, producing some great freeride and urban shredding shots as well as stunning portrait projects.
above: rider Gavin Leaky / photo James McPhail
above: rider Mark Ruparelia / photo James McPhail
You can check out more images in the exclusive HUCK digi-mag created at the event.
To download the full Looking Sideways review PDF click here
For web quality images click here
For more info, images or press inquiries contact info@wearelookingsideways.com