On selected Fridays, Serpentine Pavilion transforms into a site for encounters in art, cinema, theatre, performance and music.
Practitioners in the fields of art, music, film, philosophy and technology have been commissioned to create new, site-specific work in response to the Serpentine’s renowned annual architecture commission, offering unique ways of experiencing architecture and performance.
This year’s Park Nights will see artists and other practitioners respond to Francis Kéré’s Pavilion, which is inspired by the role of the tree in the landscape. Kéré’s structure encourages gathering under shelter and fosters a connection with nature. In response, each Park Night evening will examine the flow and movement of people, both in the space and in wider social contexts.
Park Nights 2017 begins with cinematographer and artist Arthur Jafa, who will host an evening in response to his summer exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions (8 June-10 September 2017).
Other participants for 2017 include dancer and choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen and Company, whose piece Corbeaux is an intense performance that interrupts and takes possession of public spaces, and is inspired by 9th-11th century Persian literature. Artist Tamara Henderson enlivens her anthropomorphic sculptures in a filmed choreography incorporating costume, scents and potions. Black Quantum Futurism investigate ways that marginalised communities can survive in a high tech world. Artist Shen Xin presents a live interpretation of her films, examining individual and collective emotion, judgment and ethics. Pioneering performance artist Eleanor Antin makes a rare London appearance with a solo reading and performance exploring concepts of the body. Deaf artist and writer Joseph Grigely presents an evening focused on language and speaking without sound.
PARK NIGHTS PROGRAMME
Fridays, 8pm (unless otherwise noted)
Serpentine Pavilion 2017
Booking essential via ticketweb.co.uk
Friday 30 June
Cinematographer and artist Arthur Jafa hosts an evening in response to his summer exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions.
Friday 14 July, 8:00pm and 9:30pm
Choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen’s Corbeaux is performed by ten women from Morocco and ten from London, brought together in a series of workshops. Presented in partnership with the Shubbak Festival 2017.
Friday 21 July
Tamara Henderson’s Seasons End: Out of Body is a choreography for film and celebratory plot, one in which costumes, animated by each character’s own breath, embody a language that the artist has conceived to build an understanding of what it means to mourn.
Friday 18 August
Black Quantum Futurism is an interdisciplinary collaboration exploring the intersections of futurism, creative media, DIY-aesthetics, and activism in marginalised communities. BQF focuses on developing practices and temporal technologies for survival in a “high-tech” world dominated by oppressive, fatalistic linear time constructs.
Friday 25 August
Artist Shen Xin presents a live interpretation of her film, Provocation of the Nightingale, that investigates moving image and performance through the scripted and the informative, examining how emotion, judgment, and ethics circulate within individual and collective subjects.
Friday 15 September
Eleanor Antin presents a new performance reading based on three of her books: Conversations with Stalin, An Artist’s Life: Eleanora Antinova, and Being Antinova. Her one-woman exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and her retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As a performance artist she has appeared in venues around the world including the Venice Biennale and the Sydney Opera House.
Friday 22 September
Deaf artist and writer Joseph Grigely presents Blueberry Surprise, a play for three voices that is based on written conversations with hearing people, ranging from the ordinary to the obscene.
| Duration | 30 June 2017 - 22 September 2017 |
| Times | 8pm |
| Cost | Tickets £5/£4 (concessions). Booking required. Tickets available at the Serpentine Galleries (020 7402 6075) or ticketweb.co.uk |
| Venue | Serpentine South Gallery |
| Address | Kensington Gardens, London, W2 3XA |
| Contact | / information@serpentinegallery.org / www.serpentinegallery.org |