new work in the public realm and interim spaces
new work in the public realm and interim spaces
Public Realm ProjectsThe Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea invited us to produce new work in the public realm and interim spaces from 2011 onwards. This project represents a real bread and butter site-specific work by the company, taking place in the disused Commonwealth Institute, which was eventually rebuilt as the current Design Museum.
The building’s original purpose was to celebrate the commonwealth, which laid the contrasting ground for much needed discussion around decolonising the UK’s position in the world. Sound and movement artists were paired to create a collection of commissioned pieces, imagining they were the original museum curators who were locked inside when the building closed its doors in 2002.
The audience were sometimes guided, sometimes let free to roam the crumbling corridors for the first time in a decade. The collection included movement inspired by people observed in public transport stations (Mari Frogner and Exquisite Corpse), 53 plates (one for each commonwealth member state) with images of the queen made by local community members in workshops at Kensington Palace (Kay Aplin) and a production of Harrison Birtwistle’s Orpheus Elegies, with London Contemporary Orchestra and Rambert Dance.
See full list of commissions here.
