Block Universe
Performance Art Festival London
8–14 June 2015
Locations across Central London
www.blockuniverse.co.uk
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Block Universe brings together a new wave of cutting-edge performance art at the cross-section of visual art, dance and music, activating major institutions and venues throughout London over the course of a week. Venue partners include Fig.2 / ICA, Royal Academy of Arts, Somerset House and unique off-site venues such as Stationers Hall and the Art Workers Guild amongst others.
Block Universe’s goal is to create a long-term, sustained engagement with performance art through commissioning and creating opportunities to present performance in London. We aim to support growth within the UK, whilst inviting an exciting selection of artists from abroad, some showing in London for the first time. To help achieve this international outlook, Block Universe has partnered with The Kitchen, New York’s historic venue for experimental performance. In the first iteration of this ongoing exchange, we will show the work of Ellie Ga, also her UK premiere. Block Universe will also extend its life through a series of performances at the Medellín Museum of Modern Art, Colombia in the fall.
Theme
Each edition of Block Universe will be themed and for this inaugural year we focus on legacies of performance, looking at how to sustain an engagement with this time-based medium. Performances will activate archival documentation, such as Brittany Bailey’s embodiment of Louise Bourgeois & Gary Indiana’s book To Whom It May Concern, whilst others will focus on the concept of the body as archive, exploring how acts of rehearsal, choreography and song operate as a means of keeping performance alive. Cecilia Bengolea & François Chaignaud’s new commission represents a layering of cultural references located in the body through dance, coupled with the animation of characters from George Condo’s paintings. Other performances reference the ways in which personal, social and cultural memories are reinforced and shared with audiences through dance and oral histories.
Six new commissions are included in the programme from Alex Baczynski Jenkins, Brittany Bailey, Cecilia Bengolea + François Chaignaud, Jenny Moore, Joe Moran + Eva Rothschild and Florence Peake. Block Universe will also present works by Nicola Conibere, Lina Lapelyte and the first UK solo presentations from Brittany Bailey, Ellie Ga and Ieva Misevičiūtė. A public seminar will also be held by curatorial research group Consonants, a branch of Vision Forum.
Programme
Monday 8 June
6-8pm: Joe Moran & Eva Rothschild screening, Fig-2 at the ICA Studio
Tuesday 9–Sunday 14 June: 11-6pm
Tuesday 9 June
7pm: Brittany Bailey, Goodenough College
Wednesday 10 June
2pm: Nicola Conibere, Royal Academy Courtyard
8:30pm: Alex Baczynski Jenkins, Kachette
Thursday 11 June
6-9pm: Joe Moran & Eva Rothschild, Fig-2 at ICA Theatre
7pm: Ellie Ga, GBS Theatre, RADA
8:30pm: Ieva Misevičiūtė, GBS Theatre, RADA
Friday 12 June 7pm: Jenny Moore, The Art Workers Guild
Saturday 13 June
12–6pm: Joe Moran & Eva Rothschild, Fig-2 at ICA Theatre
2:30pm: Lina Lapelyte, Stationer’s Hall
5pm: Florence Peake, Somerset House, New Wing
7:30pm: Cecilia Bengolea & François Chaignaud, Stationer’s Hall
Sunday 14 June 12–6pm: Joe Moran & Eva Rothschild, Fig-2 at ICA Theatre
12:30pm: Florence Peake, Somerset House, The New Wing
2:30-4pm: Curatorial seminar with Consonants, Somerset House, New Wing
4:30pm: Nicola Conibere, Royal Academy Courtyard
7:30pm: Cecilia Bengolea & François Chaignaud, Stationer’s Hall
Full programme details can be found at www.blockuniverse.co.uk.
Block Universe is made possible thanks to the support of Arts Council England, Institut Français, Lithuanian Culture Institute, Vision Forum, Violette Editions, Hauser & Wirth and with the further patronage of a number of other supporters.
For further information and images:
Juan Sanchez, Rhiannon Pickles PR, juan [at] picklespr.com
