Evening of Performances
at Ministry of Sound
The 2019 edition of the annual Evening of Performances takes place at Ministry of Sound, London. Guest curated by Louise O’Kelly (founder of Block Universe), for the first time in its twelve years, an Evening of Performances seeks to explore the importance of alternative subcultures and London’s nightlife as a space for freedom of expression in an era of rising conservatism. A range of international artists working across music, installation, performance, poetry and dance were invited to present new works that dealt with questions of representation, identity politics and self-expression, weaving club culture into the socio-political context of the UK in 2019.
The programme features the following artists and performances:
Jimmy Robert bridges the gap between the art fair and the context of a club by working with a photograph by Valie Export (Body Sign Action 2, 1970), borrowed from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Robert’s performance explored how we position ourselves in relation to works of art, and how the environment of a club can be used to disrupt the politics of spectatorship, objectification and representation within the canon.
Haroon Mirza, Jack Jelfs and GAIKA presented a new reimagining of The Wave Epoch, originally conceived during a residency at CERN — the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and home of the iconic Large Hadron Collider. Incorporating multiple video channels, live performance, incantation and musical instruments built from discarded scientific equipment, the work brought belief systems, speculative futures and club culture together for a performative installation, with a live set by musician and rapper GAIKA (Warp Records).
Hannah Perry, debuts a new commission where the sculptural meets the ephemeral through the use of smoke and sonic components, accompanied by a live score. Scripting for the first time, Perry wrote based on research into tropes of masculinity and representations of class culture in a divided Britain, with a performance seeking to test the limits of physical exertion.
Performance duo FlucT produces visceral choreography against a soundscape of manipulated pop music, bringing a raw energy that aims to draw attention to and destabilise imposed systems of power and control.
In Marijke De Roover’s new operatic performance, Live, Laugh, Limerence, the artist questions the impact of how we choreograph and culturally organise the performance of love through heteronormative structures.
Kai-Isaiah Jamal’s poetry offers a personal perspective on the difficulties faced in particular by trans black bodies. Jamal uses his poetry to reclaim and reimagine safe spaces where ‘realnessʼ and ‘realityʼ — words that we also find in ballroom voguing and queer subcultures — can collide.
