This week I’m in residence at Tate Modern, London, for the opening of Tate Exchange, located on Level 5 of the new building, Switch House. My programme consists of separate but overlapping events that run from Thursday 29 September until Sunday October 2nd.
Bunched under the name The Give & Take my residency explores the idea of exchange in different spheres of life, work and society; the complex processes by which we teach and learn from each other, the systems we are caught in that both frustrate and make possible our connection. The work itself is constructed as an exchange – a framework of events that’s built to encourage conversations, meetings, arguments, encounters between members of the public, artists and thinkers.
The work has four elements and starting at 12pm each day is a full menu of performances, talks and conversations.
The Give & Take Talks provide a key element of the residency. It’s a series of events in which a great list of speakers make presentations and dialogues each day, all focused on some approach to or experience of ‘exchange’. With talks about economic systems, intercultural exchange, exchange between humans and animals, exchange between family members, friendship, exchange with landscape and so , you can find the full schedule at the bottom of this post. The talks run in the Southwark Room on Level 5, Switch House, from 4pm to 8pm Friday and Saturday, and to 2-6pm Thursday and Sunday.
Three Tables is the second major element of my Tate Exchange project – a long interactive performance in which three performers (the amazing Debbie Pearson, Harun Morrison and Season Butler) exchange stories and have other interactions with the public on topics ranging from work and money, love, friendship and ephemeral things. This work runs every day in the main space on Level 5, Switch House, from 12 to 8pm Friday and Saturday, and to 6pm Thursday and Sunday.
Also present is Ten Purposes, a set of instructions distributed on cards for the public to pick up and activate in Tate, private and not-so-private performances which respond to the collection. Meanwhile the final element of my residency is Further Provocations, an ongoing performance manifested by Andrew Stevenson, in which a series of texts are endlessly painted, painted out and then repainted on the longest wall of the Level 5 gallery.
Do drop by in the next few days if you can. Take time to give and take and take and give and take in this great new initiative at Tate.
The Give & Take line-up
Thursday 29 September
14.00 Edna Weale, Retired conference interpreter and Jen Calleja, Literary translator
14.45 Laura Godfrey Isaacs, Artist and midwife and Anna Lyons, End of life doula
15.30 Kami Saedi, Retired psychiatrist and Matt Blacker, Mentoring Project manager, Hope for the Young
16.15 Sarah Sparkes, Artist and lecturer
17.00 Susan Steed, Co-founder, The Brixton Pound and Tom Hockenhull, Curator: Modern Money, The British Museum
17.45 End
Friday 30 September
16.00 Tim Etchells, Artist
16.45 Paolo Viscardi, Curator: Grant Museum of Zoology and Luke Harding, Herpetologist
17.30 Grace Gelder, Photographer and Aphra Lucesa Smith, Medical student
18.15 Diana Damian Martin, Mary Paterson and Maddy Costa, Department of Feminist Conversations
19.00 Oliver Lang, Mobile photographer and social media consultant
19.45 End
Saturday 1 October
16.00 Reni Eddo-Lodge, Journalist and writer
16.45 Augusto Corrieri (aka Vincent Gambini), Performance artist and magician
17.30 Sanderson Jones, Co-founder, Sunday Assembly and Chloe Dyson, Co-director and Tom Mansfield, Co-founder, League of Pragmatic Optimists
18.15 Fiona Gabbert, Professor of Applied Psychology
19.00 Matt Locke, Founder, Storythings
19.45 End
Sunday 2 October
14.00 Pedro Machado, Co-artistic director, Candoco Dance Company and Performers (BSL interpreted)
14.45 Graeme Miller, Artist and theatre maker
15.30 David Easton, Investor in Africa and South Asia, CDC Group and Faiza Shaheen, Director, Class, Centre for Labour and Social Studies
16.15 Lara Pawson, Writer and author, Audrey Brown, Journalist and Vânia Gala, Choreographer and researcher
17.00 Sue Maclaine and Nadia Nadarajah, Theatre-makers and performers (BSL interpreted)
17.45 End