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Special Projects at 1:54 London 2017
Thread, Sinthian, Tambacounda, Senegal. Photo: Iwan Baan
Launched by 1:54 in 2014, Special Projects champions the work of nonprofit cultural organisations and art centres with the aim of realising unique projects and collaborations during its fair editions.
For 2017, 1:54 introduces a new performance programme and a guest-curated film series by Goodman Gallery. The edition will further build on its site-specific installation programme with two new art commissions by Pascale Marthine Tayou and Emeka Ogboh, incorporating The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court and Somerset House’s interstitial spaces into the main exhibition.
Hassan Hajjaj, Kesh Angels, 2010/1431, Photographic print. Courtesy the artist and Vigo Gallery
Hassan Hajjaj
1:54 has partnered with Somerset House to present Hassan Hajjaj: La Caravane(until 7 January 2018), the first UK solo exhibition of the British-Moroccan artist in seven years, showcasing new and celebrated works. The collaboration follows on from the success ofMalick Sidibé: The Eye of Modern Mali, which ran concurrently with the fair in London last October. Read more…
Patrick Joel Tatcheda Yonkeu, visiting artist at Thread. Tambacounda, Senegal
Thread
Established in 2015, Thread is an artist residency and community hub located in Sinthian, a rural village in the Tambacounda region of Senegal. Thread’s exhibition at 1:54 shares some of the creative results from bringing together arts, community and agricultural practices in Sinthian, alongside work by contemporary artists who have visited Thread. Read more…
Hana Tefrati, Desire Path, 2017. Performance duration: 3 hours. Courtesy of Mint Works
Mint Works
Hana Tefrati will perform Desire Path, a durational work transforming a corridor in the West Wing of Somerset House into ‘desire path’, to call attention to the marginal spaces that the queer community occupies in Morocco. Read more…
Adejoke Tugbiyele, Shifting the Waves: The Mask, The Boat, The Broom, The Box, 2017, Durational performance. Courtesy the artist
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Adejoke Tugbiyele presents Shifting the Waves, a new work exploring the liberating and transformative powers of movement in decolonising institutional and religious structures between Africa and the West. Read more…
Tabita Rezaire, Deep Down Tidal, 2017, Video still. Courtesy the artist and Goodman Gallery
Goodman Gallery
Goodman Gallery (Cape Town and Johannesburg) presents a film programme entitled History is Not Mine, which variously considers overlooked and suppressed histories. The daily film programme will feature works by Hank Willis Thomas, Tabita Rezaire and Kiluanji Kia Henda. Read more…
Pascale Marthine Tayou, Summer Surprise, 2017, Wood, spears and cobbles, Dimensions variable, digital render. Courtesy the artist and Galleria Continua
Pascale Marthine Tayou
In The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court of Somerset House, Pascale Marthine Tayou presents Summer Surprise, a site-specific work conceived for 1:54 and produced by Galleria Continua exploring ‘togunas’ – public structures native to Mali that facilitate debate and exchange at the heart of a community. Read more…
Emeka Ogboh, The Song of the Germans, 2015
Emeka Ogboh
A pioneer of sound art, Emeka Ogboh works with sound, video and photography by way of investigating the historical, economic and social infrastructure of cities. Commissioned by Modern Forms and presented at 1:54, Ogboh presents a new work combining the serenading properties of the Ọja (Igbo flute) with spoken or sung words into a sonic ode to African renaissance. Read more…
Hamedine Kane, Inhabiting the World – On a sidewalk, 2016, Diptych of two videos HD 16/9, 14’33’’. Courtesy LE 18
LE 18
Independent arts space LE 18 will present I Screen, a programme focused on video art, short films and the documentary form from both regional and international artists, that will explore ideas around movement, exile, migration and identity. The programme further aims at examining heritage and the socio-cultural and artistic modalities by which it is reactivated and humanised. Read more…
Larry Achiampong, PAN AFRICAN FLAG FOR THE RELIC TRAVELLERS ALLIANCE, 2017. Courtesy the artist
Larry Achiampong
In the first of a new series of flag commissions by artists responding to the cultural programme at Somerset House, Larry Achiampong’s commission explores Afro-futurism and African diasporic identity. The flag is an extension of Achiampong’s new multidisciplinary science-fiction project based around his character of the Relic Traveller, a Pan African Unionist of the future whose quest is the collection of fragmented data that has been strewn across the planet. Read more…
Marlise Keith, I will save my ribbons for thee I, 2017, Mixed media, 33 x 48. Courtesy the artist
Nando's
Nando’s, 1:54 Silver Sponsor, will present works by four Southern African artists: Henk Serfontein, Marlise Keith, Patrick Bongoy and Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi. In partnership with Spier Arts Trust, Nando’s will also present works from the Creative Block programme, available for sale at the 1:54 Bookshop. Read more…