Taking residence throughout the Barbican's brutalist warren for the next month, the American artist and film-maker Doug Aitken's 'Station to Station: a 30 day happening' is a multifaceted arts event best described as a 'living exhibition' and an 'experiment in spontaneous artistic creation'.
Sounds nebulous? It is – but in a good way. Until 26 July, the centre will host 50 performances, 20 residencies, rehearsals, workshops and talks involving more than 100 international and UK-based artists from the world of contemporary art, music, dance, graphic design and film.
The range of participating artists working in and responding to the complex's galleries, concert halls, cinemas and terraces is almost laughable in breadth and scope: from immersive yurts by Kenneth Anger and Urs Fischer, to a smoke installation by Olaf Breuning and a new interactive laser commission by the digital artists Aaron Koblin and Ben Tricklebank; through residencies and performances by Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller and Anri Sala; cinema installations and screenings featuring work by Raymond Pettibon, Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth, Simon Armitage and Aitken's own Station to Station feature film; and a plethora of performances from London-based community bands and choirs, talks, workshops and design interventions.
Perhaps most intriguing of all is the event's musical offering, which features a Boredoms-led 88-cymbal-players performance and the presentation of six new modular synth pieces by Mica Levi (as well as performances and happenings by Carnet de Voyage (Rosey Chan and Mimi Xu), Charlemagne Palestine, Demdike Stare, J Spaceman and The Vinyl Factory).
To say this only scratches the surface of the programme is something of an understatement – pulling off such an unwieldy and sprawling event will be an achievement in itself.
Despite this, the Barbican's staging of Aitken's festival-cum-happening is just the latest iteration of a project that has already travelled the breadth of North America, taking in both major cities and off-grid locations in a 24 day, 4,000 mile Atlantic-to-Pacific jaunt in 2013.
''Station to Station' is a platform for progressive culture and new artistic experimentation,' explains Aitken. 'It will be amazing to see [it] come to life in London in such a unique, multi-arts environment as the Barbican. This is a living exhibition with artists of all mediums, creating unique works and unpredictable encounters every day.'
''Station to Station' is a platform for progressive culture and new artistic experimentation,' Aitken explains. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
The interior of Kenneth Anger’s yurt, featuring the films Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, 1966; Invocation of My Demon Brother, 1969; Lucifer Rising, 1980
The interior of Ernesto Neto's yurt installation. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
The Rajasthan Heritage Brass Band perform
at 'Station to Station'. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
Olaf Breuning's smoke installation. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
The event features performances by hula hoop group Marawa the Amazing and her Majorettes. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
LA-based digital artists Aaron Koblin and Ben Tricklebank present a new installation, Light Echoes.
The Barbican's Curve is transformed into a dark, immersive environment for the installation; the vistors' movements are tracked and revealed as abstractions. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
Martin Creed rehearses a new performance piece including painting, music and choreography
Marcus Coates is resident in the Art Gallery five days a week throughout the event's duration.
Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard will create a new film inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost, capturing the architecture and atmosphere of the Barbican, with rushes presented alongside a Q&A during the closing weekend.
Design Marketo host four hands-on workshops focusing on handmade incense, alcoholic preservation, using grains to make music and looking at how bread can be entertaining. (Pictured: 'Food Marketo', 2010.)
The film space at 'Station to Station' Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
New Movement Collective, with ScanLAB Projects and cellist Oliver Coates, take over the Art Gallery for a week.
Terry Riley will be writing music for an ensemble featuring brass, toy pianos, percussion, prepared piano and children’s choir, culminating in a Concert Hall performance of new material. (Pictured: Riley performs as part of Doug Aitken’s 'Altered Earth', 2012.)
Japanese noise rock troupe Boredoms will lead an 88-cymbal-players performance in the Concert Hall
Composer and musician Mica Levi will work on six new pieces for modular synth
Ed Ruscha’s cactus omelette dinner will apear at the Barbican iteration of 'Station to Station'. (Pictured: Ruscha's fare at the Winslow happening, 2013.)
A number of new music and live performances are to be pressed by The Vinyl Factory’s mobile pressing unit, The Vinyl Factory Press, as part of the limited edition series of 'Station to Station' records. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
The Barbican's staging of Aitken's festival-cum-happening is just the latest iteration of a project that has already travelled the breadth of North America, taking in both major cities and off-grid locations in a 24 day, 4,000 mile Atlantic-to-Pacific jaunt in 2013. Courtesy of the LUMA Foundation
''Station to Station' is a platform for progressive culture and new artistic experimentation,' explains Aitken. 'It will be amazing to see [it] come to life in London in such a unique, multi-arts environment as the Barbican. Courtesy of the Barbican Centre
ADDRESS
Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London, EC2Y 8DS
-
The Living Places experiment: how can architecture foster future wellbeing?Research initiative Living Places Copenhagen tests ideas around internal comfort and sustainable architecture standards to push the envelope on how contemporary homes and cities can be designed with wellness at their heart
-
Turin’s Museo Egizio gets an OMA makeover for its bicentenaryThe Gallery of the Kings at Turin’s Museo Egizio has been inaugurated after being remodelled by OMA, in collaboration with Andrea Tabocchini Architecture
-
Calico Wallpaper founders Nick and Rachel Cope set up studio and home in Upstate New YorkHaving put down firm roots in the Upper Hudson Valley since the pandemic, the Calico Wallpaper duo is developing new collections inspired by this bucolic setting
-
Looking at people looking at art: inside the mind of a gallery attendantVisitor experience workers at London’s Tate Modern, Serpentine, Barbican and V&A share what it’s like to watch people looking at art during a time of changing attention spans and rising vandalism
-
London art exhibitions to see in NovemberRead our pick of the best London art exhibitions to see this month, from Frances Bacon at The National Portrait Gallery to Genesis Belanger at Pace gallery
-
Ibrahim Mahama tells us why he has covered the Barbican in pink fabricIbrahim Mahama's 'Purple Hibiscus' has transformed the Barbican’s Lakeside Terrace
-
Politics, protest and potential: the Barbican explores the power of textiles in artUnravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art’ at the Barbican Centre in London explores how far the medium has evolved in the last sixty years
-
Ranjani Shettar’s site-specific sculptures unveiled in Barbican ConservatoryRanjani Shettar’s ‘Cloud songs on the horizon’ suspends sculptures amid the Barbican Conservatory’s plant life
-
Forty years of the Barbican Centre: an art utopia made concreteBuilding Utopia: The Barbican Centre, published to coincide with the institution’s 40th anniversary, explores the birth of the Barbican, its storied history and its unparalleled impact on contemporary arts and culture
-
Doug Aitken judges Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022American artist and Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022 judge Doug Aitken discusses art that fuses humanity to nature, and how architecture and design ‘should be about the entire narrative, rather than the endpoint’
-
Shilpa Gupta at the Barbican: social injustice, censorship and poetryIn the multipart show ‘Sun at Night’ at London’s Barbican, Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta highlights the fragility of free expression and gives a voice to those silenced
