Brouhaha faces prosecution for inflatable sculpture death

Feb 13 2008

Dreamspace inflatable artwork by Maurice Agis _320

LIVERPOOL-BASED arts group Brouhaha is to be prosecuted following the death of two women in an inflatable sculpture which took off.

Durham Police today confirmed that Brouhaha International Ltd was being prosecuted under health and safety legislation following the fatal accident last year, in which 27 people were also injured.

Claire Furmedge, 38, from Chester-le-Street and 68-year-old Elizabeth Collings, from Seaham, died while they were exploring inside the artwork which was on a national tour.

Another 13 visitors were injured, among them Rosie Wright, then aged three, whose life was saved by a passing anaesthetist and the prompt action of an air ambulance crew who flew her to hospital.

Liverpool arts organisation Brouhaha International was responsible for managing the event when the exhibition came to Merseyside.

The company sent employees to Chester-le-Street to run the display and it held public liability for the event. No one from Brouhaha was available today to comment.

Brouhaha is run by Giles Agis, whose father, Maurice, was the artist behind Dreamspace.

Maurice Agis, 76, from Bow, east London, who conceived the multi-coloured Dreamspace sculpture, was charged following a lengthy police investigation into the tragedy in Chester-le-Street, Co Durham, in July 2006.

The plastic inflatable flipped into the air on a hot afternoon when Riverside Park was busy with visitors.

Inflated by large fans, the panelled 50m x 50m PVC structure was big enough for people to enter and explore its confines, experiencing changing colours and sounds.

It slipped its moorings, reared up and tipped over, hitting a CCTV camera close to the River Wear.

The artist was seen vainly trying to grab on to a rope to stop the inflatable taking off.

Dreamspace received £60,000 from the Arts Council for a UK tour, and had already visited Liverpool.

The remains of the structure were taken away by police and subjected to rigorous testing.

They will all be summonsed to appear before Peterlee Magistrates' Court on February 26.

The families of those killed and the people injured have been informed of today's developments.