Tag Archives: Block Universe

Magic art, where fantasy and reality collide

20 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in Art and Design, Little Black Book

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This week I finally reconnect with the world of art and guess what, I am a lot happier for that. It all started in a very corporate way, attending a conference in Munich where I heard catastrophic predictions about the Trump administration and the Titanic act that Brexit will represent for the UK. Luckily the balmy weather, the sunshine and the good company I was with tempered these feelings of fear and negativity. On my way back in London, welcomed by November rain, I headed to the South Kensington club for the presentation of Block Universe, London’s international performance art festival running, which is about to start in a week. And I am genuinely excited about the programme and the performances that will see in few days.

Performance followed in the other part of town, in trendy and not so grungy anymore Shoreditch, at STRUCTURED MAGIC, an exhibition of visual and performing art where fantasy and reality collide. IMG_5498

If Block Universe makes references to the world of Physics and the notion of time, “the Structure of Magic” is a psychotherapeutic term, which involves offering new models of being in an imaginary context. This is a method intended to transform a person’s perception of the world and their place in it, on a fundamental level – literally expanding their reality, by demonstrating that there are always more choices than initially perceived. Hence making the invisible visible.

All humans experience the world differently and each of us creates a different model and therefore a different reality. In this exhibition, dominated by the great work of my friend and talented artist Robina Doxi, the artist invites the viewers into her inner world and experiences the magic of her fantasies and dreams. Her pieces take you on a journey that seems to tell you a story, sometimes a fairy-tale, sometimes a dream, sometimes a sci-fi narrative, condensed with abstraction and dystopian imagery.

During the exhibition, I had a chat with Madame Echo, a performer who gifted me of a little bottle of champagne, with a wish of happiness protection. The magic is going to happen after the election in the UK, on the 8th of June. I would never say no to happiness and champagne. In fact, they often go hand in hand. Merci Madame E. IMG_5518

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.blockuniverse.co.uk

http://www.southkensingtonclub.com

www.doxi.org

 

A new wave of cutting edge performance art – Block Universe

08 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in Art and Design, Lifestyle

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Over the last few months I spent my Tuesday evenings at the Sofitel hotel in Pall Mall. I wasn’t meeting my lover – as my husband was insinuating. Instead I was meeting an amazing group of people, predominantly young women, working towards the launch of the city’s first-ever performance art festival.

Titled ‘Block Universe’, the event will be a return to midcentury performance values with a contemporary spin. A bunch of artists will be speaking, wriggling and dancing from the ICA to Somerset House, from RADA to the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts. 04-Block 05-Block 08-Block

 

‘We’re seeing an increasing interest in it, despite the way it’s being programmed in London,’ says Louise O’Kelly, the festival’s director and a Goldsmiths grad, ‘but a lot of artists working in performance find they don’t have a home.’

A devotee of the artform, O’Kelly was roused when Tate Tanks opened in 2012 with a 15-week festival heavy in performance art. Then… nothing. It is remarkable that the creative capital of the world has kept for so long performance art in the margins, at a time when Marina Abramovic enjoys rock star status and is escorted by bodyguards whenever she performs or attends the preview of Frieze.

 

On the other side of the pond, New York has a dedicated performance art space called the Kitchen and a biennial called Performa.

The intersection with contemporary art is what gives Block Universe contemporary freshness. We will see Jenny Moore performing a feminist manifesto at the Art Worker’s Guild, surrounded by portraits of the Guild’s forefathers. Conrad Shawcross’s installation ‘The Dappled Light of the Sun’ in the courtyard of the Royal Academy will provide the background for Nicola Conibere’s performance, when she will wrap two bodies in swathes of fabric and send them rolling around the courtyard.
‘Performance art in the Sixties was very much about moving away from an object-space practice to something more intangible,’ says O’Kelly. ‘Now there’s a lot of crossover between dance, painting and sculpture. Those conversations are opening again.’

 
Find out about the festival at www.blockuniverse.co.uk and help with the
Kickstarter campaign