2015 commissions
Sanya Kantarovsky in collaboration with Ieva Misevičiūtė
17 April–7 June 2015
Preview: Thursday 16 April, 6:30–8:30pm
Performances: Thursday 16 April & Saturday 18 April, 7:30pm
Studio Voltaire
1a Nelsons Row
London SW4 7JR
Ahmet Öğüt
29 April–31 May 2015
Opening performance: Thursday 23 April, 7pm (doors open 6:30pm)
Public discussion: Saturday 25 April, 3pm (booking essential)
Chisenhale Gallery
64 Chisenhale Road
London E3 5QZ
Wendelien van Oldenborgh
29 April–20 June 2015
Preview: Tuesday 28 April, 6:30–8:30pm
The Showroom
63 Penfold Street
London NW8 8PQ
Three of London’s leading public galleries—Chisenhale Gallery, The Showroom and Studio Voltaire—launch three major new artist commissions by international artists for their shared project How to work together. Together, over three years, the organizations are producing a thematic commissioning and research programme around the subject of “how to work together,” comprising a series of exhibitions, events and an online Think Tank.
Sanya Kantarovsky (b.1982, Moscow, Russia), whose practice encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture and the occasional film, has brought together his own work with that of Lithuanian-born artist Ieva Misevičiūtė.
Kantarovsky has taken Michael Bulgakov’s seminal novel The Master and Margarita as a point of departure. Misevičiūtė has choreographed a movement and language-based performance incorporating characters in the novel. Kantarovsky’s gesture studies of Misevičiūtė’s movements formed the basis of five large paintings. These expansive paintings of theatrical scale evoke both the sumptuous backdrops of the Ballets Russes and religious Mannerist painting.
Kantarovsky will collaborate with Stuart Bailey on an extensive monograph due to be released in autumn 2015, published by Studio Voltaire and supported by Casey Kaplan, NY; Marc Foxx, LA; Tanya Leighton, Berlin; and Modern Art, London.This commission has received additional support from Yana and Stephen Peel.
Ahmet Öğüt‘s (b. 1981, Diyarbakir, Turkey) ambitious new commission includes an exhibition, performance and public discussion, bringing together people of various professions and nationalities with whom he has previously collaborated. The gallery has been transformed into a TV studio for the duration of the exhibition with a specially constructed set. The project opens with a performance of Reverb, a concert by the artist in collaboration with the band Fino Blendax, to welcome the collaborators to Chisenhale.
This commission is supported by Mondriaan Fund, SAHA Association, Maya and Ramzy Rasamny and Yana and Stephen Peel. With special thanks to Panalux and Acre Jean. Chisenhale Gallery’s exhibition programme 2015–16 is supported by Nicoletta Fiorucci.
Wendelien van Oldenborgh‘s (b. 1962, Rotterdam, Netherlands) commission is an experimental film production through which a number of seemingly unconnected players, places, events, subjects and histories, drawn from The Showroom’s neighbourhood, meet. Five people, three locations, and the different subjects and forms of knowledge they bring with them such as urban tensions, new feminist and racial theories, music videos and 1960s idealist architecture, come together in a concentrated two-day shoot, leading to a film installation specially conceived for The Showroom.
This commission has received additional support from the Mondriaan Fund and the Embassy of the Netherlands. A monograph of van Oldenborgh’s work will be co-published by The Showroom, If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution and Sternberg Press in autumn 2015 in association with the artist’s receipt of the Heineken Award.
How to work together Think Tank
The Think Tank is an ongoing online library of new research building over the three years of the project. Artists and practitioners from varied fields, including journalism, technology and social policy, have been invited to join an open exploration of “how to work together.” All commissions can be seen here.
Further information
How to work together is supported in 2015 using public funding by Arts Council England; and by Bloomberg, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, and the How to work together Artist Commissions Production Fund.
info [at] howtoworktogether.org
