Råängen launch

After a year of talking, travelling and plotting, my project in Sweden has now launched!

Råängen is a platform for discussion about what happens on Lund Cathedral’s land in Brunnshög. It’s a radical rethinking of the way that urban centres are expanded and developed; the commissioning programme will become a tool for conversation, critical debate and engagement which will, in turn, inform the future development programme.

Talk at Skissernas Museum, Lund

I’m giving a talk with Nathan Coley at the incredible Skissernas Museum in Lund, Sweden on 16th September 2017. The event is part of the Råängen programme of art and architecture commissions for Brunnshög that I’ve been working on over the past year with Lund Cathedral and White Arkitekter.

This Skissernas event will take place during ‘Kulturnatten’ - Lund’s annual programme of culture-related activities. Nathan will present a selection of current and past projects, outlining his interest in belief systems and how the values of a society are articulated in the architecture and public spaces it produces.

Image: Nathan Coley, ‘Wisdom and Courage’, 2015

House Taken Over

Artists Eduardo Padilha and Harold Offeh have invited me to edit a book documenting discussions taking place over lunch at Eduardo’s flat in Balin House, south London. The project has received ACE Grants for the Arts funding and will include invited participants’ responses to the concept of the house as a site for artistic practice; the point at which domestic and public worlds collide; conviviality and art as a social tool.

Project partners: Freelands Foundation; Wysing Arts Centre; Matt’s Gallery; Bankside Open Spaces Trust, Tate Exchange.
 
Image: Launch party of Martin Cordiano’s installation, Balin House, 2017.

#DoingItInPublic

Happy to be taking part in a discussion with Helen Nisbet and Liza Fior about public art, democracy and control, organised by RCA Curating students on 6 May at Beaconsfield Gallery.

The focus will be on current developments in Vauxhall and Nine Elms (London), the biggest development site in Europe. We’ll consider what it means to make and commission work in ‘public’ and ‘private’ spaces; art as an income generating tool; and the power of art to pose questions and agitate.

Image: Performance of Paloma Proudfoot’s ‘belittle’, a commission for #DoingItInPublic, Beaconsfield, May 2017.

Murdered with Straight Lines exhibition

The Architecture Centre in Bristol is to mount an exhibition of Garth England’s drawings of Bristol.

England’s drawings were published in a book I co-edited with Theresa Bergne for our Future Perfect programme, which was published last year (not many copies left!). Here’s an article on the book by Tim Burrows writing for the Guardian.

Gary Hume commission for Dean Street

Gary Hume’s marble relief work for Dean Street in London is nearing completion. It’s currently being fabricated in Suffolk by Kim Meredew and will be installed in June 2017.

The work has been commissioned by developers GPE in collaboration with architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.

Photo: Kim Meredew’s studio, Suffolk
© Thierry Bal, 2017

Marginal Activity: Twins Talk

I was delighted to be invited to take part in the Twins Talks programme on 2 March to talk about my marginal position in the world of architecture.

Organised by Charles Holland and Robert Mull at University of Brighton, the programme is a new series of architecture talks exploring ‘difficult alliances, strange bedfellows and new relationships’.

Photo: Dalston Boys Club, London / talk location.

New project in Lund, Sweden

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been appointed by Lund Cathedral and White Arkitekter to devise a long-term art / architecture commissioning programme for Brunnshög, a neighbourhood 5 kilometres north east of Lund town centre.

Beginning with temporary commissions in winter 2017 and spring 2018, leading on to a pavilion project that houses events, performances, conferences, talks and workshops, the programme will engage residents, establish a platform for critical discourse on urban expansion and inform the long-term development of the neighbourhood.

Photo: Brunnshög
© Petra Bindel 2017

History Rising at CCS Bard, NY

Work by Marjolijn Dijkman, made for our History Rising project, is currently on display at the Hessel Museum of Art, NY, as part of the exhibition ‘We are the Center for Curatorial Studies’.

The Museum of Dark Places

I curated an evening of night prowling in hidden spaces around the Museum of London on 2 Nov involving mythical creatures, experimental choirs, a talk on apocalyptic literature, a thought experiment on night walking, a tour of night sounds, and a performance called ‘In the darkness they swing their manes like pendulums’.

Hundreds of people came; we drank night-themed cocktails, wore blue visors and sung a score by candle-light in an 18th c. church.

View a short film of the night here.

Photo: Musarc, performance in the delivery bay, Museum of London, Nov 2016.
© Yiannis Katsaris