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Somerset House Studios celebrate 5 years with AGM event on 14 October featuring DJ N**** Fox, Saul Nash, Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S), Latent Joy (with Paul Purgas & Vivienne Griffin + more)
Celebrating five years of supporting boundary pushing creative talent, Somerset House Studios will open its doors for the first large-scale event post-pandemic with their annual AGM event on 14 October. Since its inception in 2016, Somerset House Studios has welcomed 116 artists as residents, with an additional 12 undertaking short term residencies from Finland, Germany, Canada, Peru, Mexico and beyond. The theme this year will celebrate the return of community, after over a year of displacement and isolation due to the pandemic.
AGM 2021 will traverse the Studios’ ground floor and for the first-time, partner with neighbours St Mary Le Strand, located across the newly-pedestrianised Strand Aldwych. The baroque church will host performances of ‘Latent Joy’, a one-off music collaboration within the Studios community, led by artists Paul Purgas and Vivienne Griffin plus invited guests.
Back in the Lancaster Rooms within Somerset House, fashion designer, choreographer and Studios’ resident Saul Nash presents a new movement piece that continues the story of his Spring/Summer '22 runway show, 'Fragments', and a live set from the defiantly experimental Lisbon producer DJ N**** Fox. In the River Rooms, the QTIBPOC led sound system, B.O.S.S, takes over the decks with friends and family for the night.
There will also be a late opening of the current Gallery 31 exhibition Create, Capture, Organise, Pluralise as well as installations revisiting highlights from the 2020 digital programme.
AGM is a multi-room event with artists performing across different spaces throughout the night. Access to any given space will be on a first come first served basis.
Gallery 31: Temporary Compositions | 11 Nov 2021 - 27 Feb 2022 | FREE
From 11 November, Gallery 31 - the space dedicated to platforming work by Somerset House Studios’ resident artists and work developed through residency programmes - will showcase video, sound, sculptural and textile works by Abbas Zahedi, Phoebe Davies, Joe Namy and Sonya Dyer. The show titled Temporary Compositions locates itself in the temporary synchronicity between people, bodies, sounds and signals. Exploring these interrelationships and the rhythms and patterns that form within them, the show reflects on different approaches to being and being together, in ways powerful and complex. Supported by the Foyle Foundation, this will be the first Gallery 31 show enabling an artist to make a new work in residence at the Studios, with Abbas Zahedi joining the community for four months this autumn.
Rene Matić: following the light of the suns | 11 Nov 2021 – 6 Feb 2022 | FREE
Taking up a short-term residency at Somerset House Studios, a new commission by London-based artist and recent Central St Martins graduate Rene Matić will explore ideas of preservation, protection and cultural property, taking the relationship between Somerset House and The Courtauld (which will reopen in Somerset House’s North Wing in November after a significant modernisation project) as the starting point. Sponsored by Morgan Stanley and located in different parts of the building, the work speaks to a determination to widen perspectives, including the development of independent intellectual traditions that might subvert, displace, or resist the powers of the dominant culture.
Rene Matić will also present a new commission as part of the upcoming exhibition Beano: The Art of Breaking the Rules, observing the way that Beano character Dennis is always perceived as trouble, often before he has done anything at all, resonating with the experience of many who grow up Black-British.
Studios Editions 21 | £125 available from 14 Oct via somersethouse.org.uk
The Studios also share the news that the limited-edition print series Studios Editions will return following its success in 2020, featuring a new selection of works by resident artists and alumni including Hannah Perry, Majed Aslam, Phoebe Davies, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and more. Studios Editions 21 offers the opportunity to purchase a specially designed print from selected members of the artist community, available for a limited time, between October 2021 and January 2022. 50% of all profits go directly to the artist with the remaining 50% going to the Somerset House Trust Young Talent Fund, supporting the next generation of early career creatives and artists to fulfil their potential.
New residents and residencies
This Autumn, the Studios will welcome Turner Prize winning artist Tai Shani as a new resident, and host short-term residencies from interdisciplinary artist Abbas Zahedi, Finnish artist Artor Jesus Inkerö, New York poet, activist, DJ and artist Juliana Huxtable as well as Rene Matić.
Residencies are supported by the Foyle Foundation (Abbas Zahedi), the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland (Artor Jesus Inkerö) and Goethe-Institut London (Juliana Huxtable).
Sónar CCCB | 29 Oct 2021 | 15:00 BST | Online | FREE
Somerset House Studios partner with Sónar CCCB to present an exclusive video performance by Singapore-born London-based painter, musician and performance artist, Yeule with an appearance from 4AD affiliate Lucinda Chua, created specifically for the event.
Sónar CCCB 2021 is a return to Sónar's roots with programming focused on the most innovative and exciting voices in contemporary music. As part of the full programme, Sónar CCCB will also host a number of video performances created in locations around the world, and spanning a range of genres and disciplines, including Yeule from London and JASSS b2b Cem featuring Harriet Davey from Berlin, in partnership with Factory Berlin.
Images:
1. Majed - Studio Editions 21
2. (L) DJ N**** Fox and (R) Saul Nash - AGM
3. Rene Matić
4. Tai Shani
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