Potential Architecture

11 March – 19 April 2015

Potential Architecture fuses art and architecture in four site-specific commissions for Ambika P3 by international artists/architects Alexander Brodsky, Sean Griffiths, Joar Nango and Apolonija Šušterŝič. Utilising recycling, craft, and low-tech processes as well as performance, video, sculpture and installation, the works explore the social and material aspects of living environments during the unprecedented large-scale transformation of cities and towns globally.

Potential Architecture draws on the interconnected histories and cultures of renowned practitioners from Russia, Slovenia, Norway and the UK working at the increasingly diverging interface of art and architecture.  Each has an interdisciplinary practice that enables heightened responses to ideas of how communities evolve, how social spaces are used and buildings made.  Cultivating new ideas and alternative approaches around the built environment, their commissions for the exhibition indirectly respond to a growing critique on the negative effects of property speculation.

Potential Architecture is a collaboration between Ambika P3, the University of Westminster’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Faculty of Media, Arts and Design and guest curator David Thorp. 

An iteration of Potential Architecture will take place at Tromsø Kunstforening during 2016.Tromsø Kunstforening is one of the premiere arenas for contemporary art in the circumpolar north.

This exhibition is supported by Arts Council England, Hobs Reprographics, The Norwegian Embassy, Overbury and Ambika P3, The University of Westminster.
 

Talks and Events Programme

Sunday Afternoon Talks

Joar Nango in  conversation with David Thorp
Sunday 15 March, 3pm. Free, no booking necessary

Joar Nango recently returned from Mongolia where he produced his work Nomads Won't Stand Still for Their Portraits. Nango is an ethnic Sami whose home is in northern Norway high above the Arctic Circle. In conversation with guest curator David Thorp, he discusses how his nomadic heritage has had a profound effect upon his thinking and approach as an artist.

Focus on Apolonija Šušteršič
Sunday 22 March, 3pm. Free no booking necessary.

Taking place within the installation, participating artist Sean Griffiths and P3 Director Katharine Heron will continue the Underground Discussion Club discussing the architectural development of London. 

Focus on Alexander Brodsky
Sunday 29 March, 3pm. Free, no booking necessary.

Talk by Robert Mull who has known Brodsky since the days of Paper Architects and regularly meets him in Moscow. Robert Mull is Professor of Architecture and Spatial Design at The Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design.  He was a co-founder of NATO (Narrative Architecture Today).  

Sandie Macrae in conversation with Sean Griffiths
Sunday 12 April, 3pm. Free, no booking necessary.

Sandie Macrae is Director of ROOM Artspace where an installation by Sean Griffiths has recently been on show.

Evening Events

Creative Practitioners: A look at the Medium of their Practice
Monday 30 March, 6:30pm. Free, no booking necessary.

Talk and discussion with Potential Architecture Guest Curator, David Thorp; Ambika P3 Curator, Michael Maziere; Ambika P3 Director, Katharine Heron and Visiting Professor Leon van Schaik.  

Wayward Geometry
Monday 13 April, 7:30pm. Free, to book please email p3.exhibitions@westminster.ac.uk

Curated by Dissolve Specific Objects, a London-based event series promoting improvised electronics and computer music. Set within the exhibition itself, Wayward Geometry explores the intersection between architecture, space and sound. Features a site-specific performance of The Geometry of Sentiment by saxophonist John Butcher, as well as a programme of acousmatic and computer music diffused over an 8 channel loudspeaker system. 

Artists Close to Architecture - Architecture Close to Art
Tuesday 14 April, 6:30pm. Free, no booking necessary.

Potential Architecture, Artes Mundi 6, 2015 and last year’s Sensing Spaces at the Royal Academy all included artists and architects whose work exists in the mid-ground between art and architecture. The curators of these three exhibitions; David Thorp (Guest Curator, Potential Architecture), Karen Mackinnon (Artes Mundi) and Kate Goodwin (Royal Academy), discuss their approaches, the issues explored in the exhibitions, and the artists and architects involved.

Action Space Film Project

Thursday 9 July 2015 

An inflatable cinema will be built at Ambika P3 as part of a film and installation project about the radical group 'Action Space' and their ideas surrounding play, education and the arts. The inflatable will be touring around the UK during the filmmaking process; but before the newly minted structure leaves the gallery we invite you to celebrate its creation and send it on its way!. 

The Action Space film project explores the history and contemporary relevance of 'Action Space', a radical collective who were ground-breaking pioneers of art in public, laying the foundations for arts in the community during the 1970s. Founding members of Action Space and volunteers will spend 7 days building a new air structure which will both feature in, and be used as a venue for, the resulting artists' film. 

Find out more about the project: http://hctwahl.com/as/asproposal.pdf

John Walter - Alien Sex Club

24 July – 14 August 2015

Alien Sex Club is a major multimedia project by British artist John Walter, which will explore the relationship between visual culture and HIV today. Alien Sex Club will use the spatial device of the cruise maze to bring together works that address the complex subject of contemporary sexual health. The exhibition will consist of a large-scale installation based on the shapes of cruise mazes, found in sex clubs and gay saunas. It will comprise sculpture, painting, video, performance and installation. Visitors will be immersed in a multisensory world in which they can watch videos and live performances, get lost in the maze and have food and drink in the performance bar. 

Alien Sex Club will use popular forms including hospitality, fortune-telling, comedy and the aesthetic of carnivals and festivals to introduce issues to a wide audience and make the subject palatable, interesting and fun, while grounding it in cross-disciplinary research. The project is part of Walter’s AHRC funded PhD at the University of Westminster and will be shown at Ambika P3, the University’s exhibition space in central London. His research in epidemiology is grounded in a collaboration between Walter and Dr Alison Rodger, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases and HIV at University College London, supported by a Small Arts Award from the Wellcome Trust.

Alien Sex Club will involve artists, activists and HIV specialists, clinical academics and scientists in collaborations for a public programme of talks and performances that will provide audiences with a new vocabulary for understanding and talking about HIV and the factors contributing to its transmission. The public programme will be free to visitors. The architectural installation will also offer visitors free rapid HIV testing facilitated by Terence Higgins Trust.

Curated by Ellen Mara De Wachter

Supported by The Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England, Ambika P3, University of Westminster, Homotopia, Sabir House, Dean Street Wellbeing Programme, MAKE Aberdeen, Terrence Higgins Trust, Pasante, i-Base.

MA Documentary Photography & Photojournalism 

In our Time

21 - 29 August 2015

In Our Time is an exhibition of work from MA Documentary Photography and Photojournalism students studying at University of Westminster. 

Featuring photographic and video works by 16 graduating and 2 interim students from 12 countries, this wealth of backgrounds creates a diverse range of visual practices and techniques which explore timeless issues of human existence: conflict, cultural identity, community, health and other pertinent themes are approached with new contemporary perspectives.

For more information about the exhibition

Symposium: Interpreting Photography

Saturday 29 August 3:30pm - 5:00pm. Free, open to all. 

To close the exhibition, a symposium chaired by course leader Ben Edwards will be held inside the exhibition itself. This event will feature a panel at the forefront of contemporary British documentary practice: Mark Neville, Lisa Barnard, Edmund Clark and Hilary Roberts.

This exhibition has been kindly supported by Metro Imaging, DrinkSupermarket.com, Hogs Back Event Hire and Getty Images.

MA Photographic Studies

The Pensive Image

3 - 8 September 2015

The Pensive Image is the 2015 University of Westminster MA Photographic Studies exhibition. The show gives an opportunity to view the work of the eleven visual artists who have completed a period of intensive study on one of the leading photography courses in the UK. The course has established itself as a launch pad for many successful photographers, artists and curators and is proud of its well-structured yet open framework incorporating both academic study and photographic practice. 

The participating students, who originate from backgrounds as diverse as Japan, Greece, Switzerland, China and the UK apply different perspectives and modes of expression in their exploration of a range of subtle yet vital themes. These themes lie beneath the surface of contemporary society and raise questions around body and space, wellbeing, illness and feeling, possession and capitalism.

The Pensive Image has been adopted as the title of the show in order to promote further discussion in this area. The notion of ‘The Pensive Image’ has been addressed by a number of leading theorists including French thinkers such as Roland Barthes, Jacques Ranciere and the British film theorist Laura Mulvey. Dedicated essays written by scholars from the field of photography will be included in the show's catalogue.

More details can be found on the official exhibition website www.maps2015.co.uk

Lecture: Mark Cousins (Director of History & Theory, Architectural Association) 

Friday 4 September, 5 - 6pm. All welcome.

Symposium: On Pensiveness and Photography

Saturday 5 September, 3 - 5pm Free, open to all. 

To mark the exhibition, an afternoon symposium chaired by course leader Professor David Bate will be held inside the exhibition itself. Guest speakers include Dr Patrizia di Bello (Birkbeck), Professor Mark Durden (University of South Wales), Sarah Jones (RCA), David Moore (CSM) & Richard West (editor of Source Magazine).

UNDER by Martina Amati

26 September - 11 October 2015

Ambika P3 and the Wellcome Trust present UNDER, a multi-screen film installation on the art of freediving, in this immersive work the artist and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Martina Amati returns to her artistic roots to express her passion for freediving: the act of swimming deep underwater on a single breath of air without artificial aid. 

Amati combines her fascination for the water with her art and film background in Under, capturing herself and other freedivers performing beneath the water's surface. Inspired by the relationship between the physical and the spiritual which lies at the core of freediving, Amati pushes her limits in order to hold her breath for longer and discover new 'depths'. With a freediving camera team, she films each underwater performance on a single breath of air. In Under these are projected onto large-scale screens in the vast, subterranean space of Ambika P3, evoking the experience of being suspended in time and space, submerged beneath the surface.

For more information on Martina Amati’s Under, see www.under-installation.com


Talk: Martina Amati in conversation... 

Thursday 1 October, 7pm. Free, booking essential.

Martina Amati in conversation with filmmaker Sophie Fiennes and record breaking freediver & coach Liv Philip.  To book a place email p3.exhibitions@westminster.ac.uk

SUNDAY Art Fair 

14 - 18 October 2015

SUNDAY Art Fair is an annual contemporary art fair held in London that focuses on new and emerging artists and galleries.

Now in its 6th edition, SUNDAY is London's emerging art fair. This year 25 international galleries will exhibit solo or curated presentations, alongside 4 UK institutions displaying artist's editions in a new section of the fair.

Taking place at Ambika P3, less than a ten minute walk from Frieze Art Fair,  SUNDAY  is an opportunity to discover the next generation of artists and galleries in a relaxed and open plan environment. Entrance is free of charge.

A new editions section will feature as part of the fair this year. With artist’s editions presented by: Spike Island, Bristol; S1 Artspace, Sheffield; Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea and Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge.

This year also sees the launch of the SUNDAY Art Fair Print Portfolio. With new editions from young London based artists: Steve Bishop, Kate Cooper, Eloise Hawser, Yuri Pattison. Which are available from the SUNDAY Art Fair website and at the Fair.

Among the artists presented at the fair will be: Darja Bajagic, Jesse Benson, Catherine Biocca, Kim Seob Boninsegni, Michal Budny, Bonnie Camplin, Benjamin Carlson, Giulia Cenci, Lea Cetera, Andrea Crespo, Bryan Dooley, Laurent Dupont & Lucy Mckenzie, Elif Erkan, Cécile B Evans, Louisa Gafliardi, Daiga Grantina, Rubén Grilo, Jan Kiefer, Jiri Kovanda, Talisa Lallai, James Lewis, Alexander Lieck, Daniel Lipp, Maxim Liulca, Jimmy Merris, Daniele Milvio, Matthew Musgrave, Steven Parrino, Harsh Patel, Joanna Piotrowska, Hayal Pozanti, Zak Prekop, Alex Rathbone, Charlie Roberts, Matt Siegle, Eric Sidner, Brad Troemel, Yannick Val Gesto, Jack Vickridge, Ulrich Wulff, Norman Zammitt.

For more information: www.sundayartfair.com

Chantal Akerman - NOW 

30 October - 6 December 2015

Ambika P3 and A Nos Amours are proud to present a major exhibition of work by the internationally celebrated filmmaker and artist, Chantal Akerman. Entitled NOW, this will be the first large scale exhibition in the English-speaking world of Akerman’s installation work and will coincide with the UK premiere of her new film, No Home Movie (2015), on Friday 30 October at Regent Street Cinema, London. None of the works in the exhibition has been previously exhibited in the UK.

‘Comparable in force and originality to Godard or Fassbinder, Chantal Akerman is arguably the most important European director of her generation’ J. Hoberman 

There will be seven installation works at Ambika P3: the centrepiece will be NOW (2015), a powerful multi-channel video installation with surround sound originally commissioned for the Venice Biennale 2015. For this work, Akerman collected images from desert regions, specifically violently contested regions in the Middle East, her aim to present the current condition of violence and conflict as lived experience. 

Other works in the exhibition span from 1995 and investigate a variety of emotive themes such as issues around the border of Mexico and America (A Voice in the Desert, 2002), the atom bomb and Hiroshima (Maniac Summer 2009), woman reclaiming images of herself (In The Mirror), the dichotomous relationship between presence and absence (Maniac Shadows 2013), the Eastern bloc countries before the fall of Communism (D’Est 1995) and the sublime (Tombée de nuit sur Shanghaï 2007).

Chantal Akerman (born 6 June 1950, Brussels, died 5 October 2015, Paris) was one of the most unpredictable, farsighted, indefinable, rigorous and playful film artists of her generation. While showing the troublesome complexity of human existence, Akerman’s works are filled with beautiful imagery, music, magic of chance, yearning and hope, yet she also investigates hot-button themes such as racism in the American South, illegal immigration, and terrorism in the Middle East.

Chantal Akerman NOW is jointly curated by Ambika P3 (Michael Mazière) and A Nos Amours (Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts) and presented in association with Marian Goodman Gallery. It is supported with funding from Arts Council England, Marian Goodman Gallery and the University of Westminster.

London Contemporary Music Festival 

11 - 17 December 2015

'The capital's most adventurous and ambitious festival of new music' (The Guardian) returns for its third year. In association with COS, LCMF 2015 offers a week of multi-disciplinary events exploring the best new music and performance from around the world in the epic surroundings of Ambika P3.

One major thread weaving its way throughout LCMF 2015 is a celebration of the American West Coast. They welcome three legends of the Californian scene - Pauline Oliveros, Otis O'Solomon and Morton Subotnick - in a night dedicated to the experiments of this musically fertile state. Elsewhere, we encounter the work of Los Angeles and San Francisco-based artists and musicians, Ryan Trecartin, Ellen Fullman andJames Ferraro. 

From their opening focus on London's collectives to the UK premiere of Stockhausen's Pieta to their exploration of Post-Internet Music, from their excavation of a forgotten modernist opera by Ezra Pound to the live set from Cairo's electro-chaabi virtuoso Islam Chipsy, LCMF 2015 promises to be a bold and broad look at the musical state of play.

Tom Corby & Gavin Baily -  Floating Points

19 - 21 December 2015, 12pm - 6pm

We are pleased to announce a new exhibition by Gavin Baily and Tom Corby consisting of 3 screen-based projects and an installation set within Ambika P3’s underground galleries. 

The Northern Polar Studies (2015) and Minima, Maxima (2015) are premiered, while The Southern Ocean Studies (in collaboration with Dr Jonathan Mackenzie 2010), and Cyclone (2005 – 2015) are uniquely shown together for the first time. All 4 works employ various forms of climate or meteorological data to visually and physically condense the aleatory, hidden and the systemic aspects of sites and landscapes as large-scale data animation or installation.

Art has long found ways to make tangible the Earth’s exhalation of atmospheres and climates. This exhibition can be seen as part of this tradition, but breaks from it by bringing contemporary scientific technologies, data and institutions to bear to show how universal concepts of human relations with landscape are still  pertinent in a contemporary context of accelerating climate change. 

Additionally, the complex entanglements of the social, material, atmospheric and geographic explored throughout these works, extend our feel for landscape and also our sense of how time functions in it. Landscape through its laminations, layering and morphologies, is conceived in this work as a recording device that tracks the Earth’s changing energy signatures. This movement of time and matter reimagines environmental terrains as extended temporal forms resultant from long-term changes; which we might propose of as ‘deep time landscapes’.

This work has been made in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey, and special thanks goes to Nathan Cunningham, Dr Clare Tancell, Professor David Walton, Dr Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley, Professor Mike Meredith, and Pete Bucktrout. Funding for this work has been by Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council, and the Centre for Research in Education, Art and Media at the University of Westminster. 

Tom Corby and Gavin Baily have been working together for nearly 20 years exploring intersections of data, geographies and environmental systems. Their work has been exhibited in over 20 countries and has been the recipient of numerous awards. Reviews include Art Review, La Repubblica, Art Monthly and El País amongst others.