#3: Cors Crymlyn

Sownd [ar safle] is a sequence of three site-specific live events on peatland sites across Wales – an invitation to get stuck in to wet and unsteady ground. The programme is presented as part of Sownd, a project for the 61st Venice Biennale, and is organised by artists Manon Awst and Dylan Huw in collaboration with Sownd’s curatorial team and invited artists.

Sownd [ar safle] invites artists and audiences in Wales to sink deeper into Sownd’s themes and materials, and to participate in this ambitious international project’s continued sited development. For both the Venice exhibition and the site-specific programme in Wales, Manon Awst and Dylan Huw have drawn on research in Welsh peatlands: sticky and unstable environments that both conceal and reveal vast scales of material history. These sites, layered with organic matter and cultural memory, become a terrain from which the artists navigate sedimented histories of language, culture, and ecology. The collaboration between Awst and Huw invites connections between disciplines and across borders, informed by Wales’ celebrated history of site-specific collective practice and oral poetic tradition.


The third and final Sownd [ar safle] event will take place at Cors Crymlyn, near Swansea, on Saturday 12th September 2026 between 2-4pm. It will feature specially-commissioned live responses to the site and the themes of the project, by Sownd artists Manon Awst and Dylan Huw, performance artist Eddie Ladd, and author Carwyn Graves.

Free shuttle buses will provide transport to the site from Swansea Train Station; we ask that all audience members please take the bus unless otherwise arranged to avoid strain on the site. The shuttle buses will run from Swansea Train Station at 1:30pm and 1:45pm.

Please note:

• The event will take place entirely outdoors. Please check the weather forecast ahead of the event and wear appropriate clothing and footwear.

• There are toilet facilities available on site at the Crymlyn Visitor Centre

• The performance itself will take place between 2-4pm.

Please contact lily.cymruynfenis@gmail.com with any questions.

Sownd [ar safle] #3: Cors Crymlyn contributors

Eddie Ladd is a performer based in Ceredigion, who creates political and personal work using dance, text, technology, and music. Renowned for her dynamic and physical multi-platform performances, she has been a significant figure in Welsh theatre for over thirty years. She worked with Brith Gof for a decade and has toured internationally with her own work, with shows on Miami gangsters, Bobby Sands, Maria Callas, Caitlin Thomas and, mostly, her own square mile.

Carwyn Graves is an author and ecologist living in Caerfyrddin. He is the author of Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, which was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year, and Cynefin: Wisdom from a Thousand Years of Welsh Nature Poetry, published in April 2026. He is a founding trustee of the Welsh charity Cegin y Bobl (The People’s Kitchen).

Manon Awst is an artist living in Caernarfon, Wales, whose sculptural and performative practice is rooted in specific sites. A recent Henry Moore Institute Research Fellowship and Future Wales Fellowship allowed her to develop creative research on peatlands. Her work is part of the National Library of Wales, the UK Government and Welsh Parliament art collections.

Dylan Huw is a writer and artist who works collaboratively across languages and disciplines. Recent projects have been supported by Jerwood Foundation, Artes Mundi, LUX and Mostyn. His critical writing has been published with Frieze, e-flux and Art Monthly, and he has been twice-shortlisted for the International Award for Art Criticism.