Steve McQueen. Photo © John Russo Turner Prize-winning artist and Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, together with Tate Britain, Artangel and A New Direction, today announced one of the world’s most ambitious contemporary art projects: a portrait of an entire age group of Londoners, capturing tens of thousands of Year 3 schoolchildren from across the capital. Over the next nine months, each and every one of London’s 2,410 primary schools with Year 3 pupils is invited to have those classes specially photographed for the project, with the resulting artwork going on display at Tate Britain and around London in autumn 2019.
This month 115,000 seven-year-olds are beginning the new school year in a new class in London. This is a milestone year in a child’s development and sense of identity, when they become more conscious of the world beyond their immediate family. McQueen’s project will capture this moment of excitement, anxiety and hope through the traditional medium of the class photograph, depicting rows of children sitting or standing alongside their teachers and teaching assistants. In bringing together so many of these class photos from a single year, the work will embody the diversity of the city in which the artist grew up, as well as the potential of the next generation who will shape London’s future. Working with creative learning specialists A New Direction, Tate Britain and Artangel today invite every London primary school to register their school at tateyear3project.org.uk. Here they can choose a date and time for a Tate photographer, briefed by McQueen, to visit their school and take their Year 3 class photo. Specially created learning resources will also allow pupils to further explore the work’s key themes of belonging, identity and citizenship within the curriculum, while a live-streamed lesson will be staged in spring 2019 for primary school classes across the country to watch and engage with the project. From November 2019 to May 2020, the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain will be taken over by a vast installation of the photographs, free for all to visit. It will be a celebration of the tens of thousands of young people who will make London their own in years to come, and a meditation on the social forces and personal developments that shape our lives. Artangel, who are renowned for producing extraordinary art in unexpected places, will also create an outdoor exhibition of class photographs across each of London’s 33 boroughs, giving passers-by a glimpse of the future of their city. Tate Modern will then stage a major survey exhibition of McQueen’s work to coincide with the project, open from February to May 2020.
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The London Design Biennale showcases some of the world’s most exciting designers, innovators and curators to demonstrate how design impacts every aspect of our lives. This year’s Biennale at Somerset House explores important political, social and environmental issues, with the pavilions providing a place where visitors can engage with these subjects in a fun and interactive way. The theme ‘Emotional States’ encourages artists to examine the global and political shift towards understanding a country’s overall happiness and well-being. At a time when there is now a Gross National Happiness Index, the United Arab Emirates has a Minister for Happiness, Venezuela elected a Vice Minister of Supreme Social Happiness and Theresa May appointed a Minister for Loneliness, exploring emotion has never been so timely. Ideally, you need a full day to explore all 37 pavilions at the Biennale. For those with limited time, I’ve highlighted the most exhilarating ‘must-see’ exhibitions. Greece: ‘Disobedience’ Set in the forecourt at Somerset House, visitors are invited to walk through the walls of this 17-metre-long kinetic structure. As you take your first step, the floor moves down and the walls expand out like a skeleton breathing. The shock of this makes you either hurry through, relieved to come through the other side, or inspires an excitement and curiosity where viewers would lean into the sides of the wall and look in wonder at the structure. To further bring the structure to life, there will be dance performances that will run throughout the Biennale. Puerto Rico: ‘Soft Identity Makers’ This dynamic exhibition explored the concepts of nation and identity, which is particularly interesting in Puerto Rico where residents are American citizens but don’t have voting rights. Visitors are invited to select five images of different textures, colours, flavours, sounds and attitudes, which are translated into symbols through a specially designed algorithm to create a unique identity, which gets printed onto a T-shirt that you can keep – brilliant! Saudi Arabia: ‘Being and Existence’ This beautiful meditative exhibition uses mirrors and slow-moving circular, mandala-like images to create a sense of infinity. As you look closer, you notice the circles are comprised of a complex series of white light symbols. These symbols or ‘codes’ are based on Arabic calligraphy and Islamic geometry and use the Vedic Square – the hidden language of creation – to create the symbols. Dundee: ‘Shpeel’ As you walk into a darkened room, you become immersed in a techni-colour light show, with light cast onto the walls and loud music playing in the background. In the centre of the exhibition is the ‘avatar’ that lets you control the colours and lights by pressing different buttons. You soon learn that the buttons relate to different emotions with which you can explore and interact with other visitors. This clever piece of design has been developed to help young people explore their emotions when language can be prohibitive. USA: ‘Face Values’ This interactive exhibition looks at alternative uses of facial recognition technology, typically used for security and behavioural profiling. Visitors are invited to sit in front of a camera and asked to express an emotion and hold it for 30 seconds. The computer then creates a profile detailing your age, ethnic background and how successful you were in creating that emotion. All images taken during the exhibition will be archived throughout the duration of the Biennale. Israel: ‘Exposed Nerves’ Here visitors will find a live rapid response design studio, with an artist, architect and designer working towards a different design brief each week. This is just a snap shot of the wonderful exhibitions on offer for all to enjoy. With only two weeks to go, ensure that you make the time to visit this fabulous creative event.
The details The London Design Biennale is on at Somerset House from now until 23 September 2018. http://www.londondesignbiennale.com Elinor Seath |
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