Burlington Gardens Festival
Out of the studio into the street
Saturday 4 July 2015 12 - 6pm
Burlington Gardens
Free, no booking required.
Friends of the RA book first
Summer Exhibition 2015
Supported by
For the first time the Royal Academy and its artists take to the streets of Mayfair with Burlington Gardens pedestrianised and the street transformed for a day.
Join us on our temporary forecourt in front of Sir James Pennethorne’s building, to discover new artworks and performances, workshops, food, drink and music.
View and download the full Burlington Gardens Festival programme.
The forecourt will host art installations, including new works by RA Schools alumni Rachael Champion and recent graduate Henry Coleman. Inside the building there will be an installation by Graham Gussin, a musical performance by Richard Wilson RA + Breathing Space, who will send sounds around the dramatic central stairwell, and an immersive sound-movement work 'Sound Bed' by choreographer and dancer Vera Tussing. A special live interactive t-shirt press will be run by YR Store and Epson, featuring images by RA Schools students and staff.
Tables designed by Will and Piers Alsop will be set out along the street with food and drink on offer by artisan producers, with Italian delights from Cecconi’s and American food (to mark Independence Day). There will be a chance to get creative with print-making and drawing workshops throughout the day and special activities for children, including LEGO building.
Busking-style music, provided by The Nest Collective, will fill the air with performances from TEYR and The Thumping Tomies throughout the day, plus live acoustic performances by Jenny Bell. A finale performance in 6 Burlington Gardens by Les Zoings – with Bob and Roberta Smith RA – will round off the day of festivities.
Unexpected Hill, a new ceramic installation which will be located in Burlington Gardens throughout summer, will play host to theatrical life drawing and a talk by its designers, Istanbul-based SO? Architecture and Ideas.
A temporary hidden link will be opened between Piccadilly and Burlington Gardens occupied by an art installation by RA Schools Starr Fellow Felipe Castelblanco and artist Jonathan Armistead. The rarely seen historic studios of the RA Schools will be opened with an exhibition by Castelblanco presenting his ongoing project The Para-Site School with guest artists Melanie Coles, Serra Tansel and Shepherd Manyika.
Taking place in partnership with Brown’s London Art Weekend.
Supported by Scott and Laura Malkin.
Plan of Burlington Gardens Festival
Free, no booking required.
Friends of the RA book first
Summer Exhibition 2015
Supported by
Art and installations
A – Unexpected Hill
SO? Architecture and Ideas
Repositioning ceramics from a small-scale decorative material to one which creates a large surface structure, Unexpected Hill activates the forgotten zone between building and street into a new public space. Discover more about ceramic in a display and interactive wall inside the building and join the architects for an informal talk about their work at 3pm.
B – Raze Bloom
Rachael Champion
Raze Bloom is a site-specific installation consisting of materials and forms found in architecture, suburban landscaping, and aqua-scaping. Its title points to the current trends in real estate development where entire neighbourhoods are razed and with new ones taking form seemingly overnight. Raze Bloom materialises for Burlington Gardens Festival, haphazardly in the street.
C – The Greater Order
Henry Coleman
The work creates a pathway of printed images running north-south along the route of the forthcoming redevelopment by David Chipperfield RA. One of these replaces the usual RA branded flag on Burlington Gardens with an image of the Royal Academy Schools Cast Corridor.
D – Picnic
Will Alsop RA + Piers Alsop
One of the greatest pleasures in life is sharing a meal. A delightful story from a complete stranger or a good friend is tonic for the soul. We learn a little about the lives of others and take pleasure in the suspension of toil and duty. Will and Piers Alsop would like you to linger a while at their picnic table and talk about anything you like and perhaps nothing in particular.
E – Art Party Parade
Bob and Roberta Smith RA
Bob & Roberta Smith RA leads a parade that underlines art’s crucial role in life, in education and modern politics advocating an investment in the arts to Government.
F – Potential Wall Drawing
Graham Gussin
Potential Wall Drawing is an ambient graphic work, something that can work around other things. It is a response to architecture and situation in the way it adapts or is changed according to a space, there is no sense of it being located anywhere, dispersed through a space it intentionally lacks focus and referent, some of it disappears... Produced by Henry Coleman on both occasions, this is the second installation of the work in the space, the first occasion was for Los Vinilos at Zoo Art Fair, 2008.
G – A Mid-Sized Putters Day Dream
Felipe Castelblanco + Jonathan Armistead
This interactive art installation makes permissible all the things we’d love to do on a golf course. Drive your cart down the narrowest putting green or face a sand trap suitable for sunbathing. Putt your way through the course, or just park yourself down and enjoy the RA’s West Yard corridor, a hidden link that connects two historical streets in the heart of Central London.
H – We Out Here Exhibition
Felipe Castelblanco
This iteration of The Para-Site School is a response to the current government’s policies that prevent the RA Schools from enrolling non-EU artists/citizens. The exhibition includes works by Starr Fellow Felipe Castelblanco and Para-Site School’s artists in residence: Melanie Coles, Serra Tansel and Shepherd Manyika.
Performances, activities and music
1 – Sound Bed by Vera Tussing
In 10 minute intervals, sign up for a slot in the Senate Room
You are invited to lie on a moving platform. With your eyes closed and speakers placed at your head and feet, a soundtrack, suggesting a cinematic narrative, plays as performers move the platform and the dance unfolds.
2 – HERD by Richard Wilson RA + Breathing Space
20 minutes from 4.30pm
A new site-specific sound work created for the grand staircase of Burlington Gardens with voice, metal and cello responding to the acoustics and architecture of the building.
3 – Time’s Fool by Place and Means
30 minute tours at 2pm and 4pm
Uncover forgotten histories of Burlington Gardens, as Place and Means lead you on a theatrical tour of the 19th century building, once home to the University of London and later the Museum of Mankind.
4 – Les Zoings
45 minutes from 5.15pm This European-style brass marching band will parade from the RA main courtyard through the Festival site gathering artists and musicians along the way including Bob and Roberta Smith RA.
5 – Para-Site School Artists in Residence
Melanie Coles gives performative lectures and Shepherd Manyika uses found sounds and music to create an original sonic experience.
6 – Interactive T-shirt printing
Epson and YR-STORE invite you to play with prints by RA Schools students, tutors and associated artists to produce special customised T-shirts instantly.
7 – Reimagine Burlington Gardens with LEGO®
With imaginations running wild use colourful LEGO® to explore the past, present and future of this historic building. Until 4pm
8 – Print making
Make your own print using examples from RA Editions, including a special print made by artist Adam Dant of the Burlington Gardens façade.
9 – Drawing workshop
Nikki Shaill from Art Macabre leads participants in capturing the action as acrobats bring the Unexpected Hill installation to life. Until 5pm
10 – Conversing with statues
Our stilt walkers encourage a fresh look at the statues of some of the great intellectuals of the past on the fac?ade of the building.
TEYR
45 minute sets at 12pm and 2pm A trio of formidable musicians who showcase the many sounds of the British Isles.
The Thumping Tommys
45 minute sets at 1pm and 3pm A heady brew of Irish and American folk music performed with a distinctly English style.
Jenny Bell
Short sets throughout the afternoon Acoustic singer-songwriter with folk and jazz sounds.