I’m really looking forward to attending this event on 2 November 2016. Curated by Jes Fernie on behalf of the Museum of London, it also features Nicky Deeley – an artist from year two of the Firstsite Associate Artists scheme. The programme is right up my street – participatory, sound and performance work, influences drawn from literature and history, thought experiments and the beautiful/ ominous ‘rite of exchange and ingestion’…
The Night Museum invites nocturnal visitors to accompany us on a programme of night walks, talks, performances, artist bars and journeys into the dark heart of the city. An eclectic and magical series of events will be held in unusual and hidden spaces surrounding the museum, including the Roman City Wall, the Barber Surgeons’ Garden, St Botolph Without Aldersgate and Postman’s Park.
The evening includes:
The museum of dark places talks
In Dark City: London after the Apocalypse, Dr Caroline Edwards (Birkbeck, University of London) will explore the post-apocalyptic London imaginary, from H G Wells, Virginia Woolf and Doris Lessing, to the disturbing urban fantasies of contemporary writers such as China Miéville and Alan Moore.
In Night. London. 1616, writer and academic Matthew Beaumont (author of Nightwalking) will present a thought experiment that evokes what it would be like to wake in the night and walk through the streets of London before the era of public lighting. Talks begin at 7.30pm
Location: St Botolph Without Aldersgate.
Free, book now
An ear to the night guided walk
Join Rosie Oliver and Dotmaker Tours on a listening tour of the London night. From the bells that mark the passing hours to the hum of buildings at sleep, tune into the City’s nocturnal soundscape and rediscover lost and forbidden sounds.
Starts at 8pm.
Free, book now
Performance by Musarc
Musarc, one of London’s most progressive and experimental choirs, will reference “when night makes a weird sound of its own stillness” (Percy Bysshe Shelley), creating a magical atmosphere where the senses are heightened and darkness prevails. Performances at 8.15pm and 9.20pm. Meeting point: St. Botolph Without Aldersgate.
Free, no booking required.
The memorial to heroic self-sacrifice
Historian Dr John Price will tell the story of Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in London’s Postman’s Park, revealing the story of the memorial and how artist and radical socialist George Frederick Watts realised his ambition to commemorate ordinary people who died saving the lives of others.
Starts 8.20pm.
Meeting point: Postman’s Park (entrance is via St Botolph Without Aldersgate church).
Free, no booking required.
In the darkness they swing their manes like pendulums
Mythical creatures will stalk the night in two specially commissioned performances by artist Nicky Deeley, with percussion by Tazelaar Stevenson. Inspired by H G Wells’ The Time Machine and 60s sci-fi film Quatermass and the Pit, two species will engage in a rite of exchange and ingestion.
Performances at 8.30pm and 9pm.
Meeting point: St Botolph Without Aldersgate.
Free, no booking required.
@MuseumofLondon #MuseumOfTheNight
I’ll update this post with photos from the event.
