The Voices of A Tempest | Act I: Release

Wed 07 Dec 2022

19.00-21.00

£8

Act I in a three-part event programme curated by A---Z (Anne Duffau) accompanying their Gallery 31 show The Voices of A Tempest, featuring film screenings and live music.

Release: To give freedom to someone, to feelings, to movements, to materials. A release as an incantation to a brighter time to come.

The first event in the A---Z programmed series The Voices of A Tempest in Three Acts sees Babeworld introduce Derby Day, a new film as part of a commission produced for Gallery 31 show The Voices of A Tempest. Babeworld’s Derby Day collaborator utopian_realism follows – a meditative state that artist Mohammed Rowe builds on, introducing faster BPMs to close out the series’ first act.

Expanding the Gallery 31 show’s emphasis on storytelling and fictional activism, The Voices of A Tempest in Three Acts furthers the exhibition’s alignment with modes of resistance, resilience and alternative futures through a series of evening events taking place across The Voices of A Tempest’s duration.

About the artists

Babeworld

Babeworld is composed of Ash Williams (she/her) and Ingrid Banerjee Marvin (she/her), Gabriella Davies (she/her) and Caitlin Chase (she/her).

Babeworld seeks to create a more representative art world through the creation of art, fundraising and creating grants, and facilitation of events - for those who are marginalised in the arts. With an emphasis on collaboration and co-creation, Babeworld’s practice focuses on themes of political and societal identity, specifically disability/access, neurodivergence, sex work and race. Their interactions with the communities they create and infiltrate consists of oversharing (otherwise known as attention-seeking) on the internet and through their events - and you best believe they'd overshare at a round table, and probably also cry. Babeworld is committed to bringing their ideas and networks to institutions and organisations in the art world, whether they want to hear it or not.

utopian_realism

utopian_realism (aka Alessandro Moroni) was born and raised in Italy and is currently based in London. Unfolding through long-term research-based projects often starting from internet-native music genres and their aesthetics and communities, his practice focuses on concepts of nostalgia cycles, controlled escapism, commodified utopian narratives and collapsing myths of progress.

Mohammed Rowe

Mohammed Rowe is an artist born and raised in London, who uses sound as a medium of expression and communication. His works include elements of found sound, experimental and improvised music, and his compositions tend to draw from the immediate environment. He uses an array of processes and recording techniques in order to capture and mould different forms of composition. His approach has also incorporated his sound into interactive installations, moving image, theatre and performance through collaborations with artists from different disciplines which continue to enrich his own approach.

A---Z

A—Z presents works that focus on unbuilding systems of oppressions in terms of gender and racial identities. They are interested in empowerment in deconstructing racist and sexist structures and generating alternative (hi)stories in exploring personal experiences and non-linear, re-enacted storytelling. In line with this proposition, language and other forms of expression, from the bodily to the non-descriptive, are given a platform to create new ways of thinking and working together. The emphasis is placed not only on the audiences’ relation to the works, but also how various means of presenting politically-engaged work can become an activist practice, looking at practices that align with modes of resistances, resilience and positive/alternative futures.

Anne Duffau is a cultural producer, researcher, and founder of A—Z, an exploratory/nomadic curatorial platform. A---Z aims at opening up to audiences by sharing discursive practices in order to challenge preconceived ideas on race, gender identities and the so-called history in terms of power relationship. Anne was the interim curator at Wysing for the Polyphonic Festival 2020/2021 Editions, & a Tutor at the Royal College of Art’s Contemporary Art Practice Programme. She is part of the collective Transmissions.tv and Décalé. She produces live music under Alpha through several projects and collaborations (Décalé, MAENADS, Polisonics).

Image credit: Mohammed Rowe, Oort Cloud, 2022