SELECTED PROJECTS Scroll below for selected recent projects =====================================================
CHARCOOL DEFRA, Forum for the Future, London Sustainability Exchange In March 2007 SUBVIRT secured a substantial and innovative commission from DEFRA, Forum for the Future and London Sustainability Exchange (LSX) to curate and produce a series of experimental interactions - CHARCOOL - with London populations taking inspiration from contested discourses about sustainability including climate change. The brief was subverted to allow a wide range of outcomes and interpretations to arise, alert to the differing needs and expectations of multiple stakeholders. Taking place from Spring through to Autumn 2007 the project unfolded as a series of live as well as virtual, digital interactions. The successes of CHARCOOL in engaging audiences, creating online buzz and attracting media attention extended to an exceptional evaluation by Arup / Ipsos MORI. Interventions ranged from live television broadcasts from Trafalgar Square to online virals, from 'magic shows' in a living room to overtly subversive, officially sanctioned proscenium-based performances at openair festivals in front of audiences of thousands; at most other times undocumented, site specific actions were carried out across London. Overall project curated and directed by aladin.
Limited documentation, relating solely to education aspects of CHARCOOL (primarily the 'magic shows') and in fulfilment of formal responsibilities to some of the funders, may be found at the LSX microsite and at MySpace.com/charcoolonline . LSX also maintains a limited press file on the media coverage for the education work. This aspect of CHARCOOL secured the patronage of Indian development activist and actress Nandita Das. =====================================================
UNTITLED PROVOCATION South London Gallery, OMSK.
For a fortnight upto and including June 30 2007,
SUBVIRT curated and produced the remote, vicarious engagement of public
spaces around the world by virtual, digital means. Partners: South London Gallery and OMSK . The SUBVIRT site at MySpace contains some archive relating to the digital installation at the South London Gallery on June 30, as do microsites at SLG, OMSK and NewWorkNetwork. Curated and directed by aladin. =====================================================
THE WORLD'S GREATEST MAGICIANS Portobello Film Festival mini meltdown SUBVIRT delivered a curatorial commission for a
two-day mini-meltdown interdisciplinary festival taking place
within the 2007 Portobello FilmFestival. On August 6+7 2007, SUBVIRT
animated this special/extraordinary commission for 2007 Portobello Film Festival, London, entitled 'The World's Greatest Magicians'. It introduced
the maverick, interdisciplinary work of over a dozen influential (and
private) creatives across disciplines -among them Marcus Tomlinson, Rahul Dholakia, Ishmahil Blagrove, Ernst Fischer, Fred Rees, Tunde Jegede, Lone Sigurdsson, Melanie Harrold, Ruth Rix, Sam Aloof, Michela Ledwidge, Gordon Tait, Rebecca Swift, Gee Mahabir and aladin. The two-day event took place at Westbourne Studios and the
programme introduced packed audiences to the the artists through film,
projection and expositioin and a series of encounters between the
principal artists, convened and chaired by aladin. Partner: Portobello Film Festival. Part 1 took place on Monday, 6th August. Part 2 took place on Tuesday, 7th August. Archive available at the festival website , including a subsequent write-up, as well as SubVirt site at MySpace. Curated by and also featuring aladin. =====================================================
SPITZ DISCOURSE The Spitz in Spitalfields Market and The Spitz at large. Between June-September 2007 SUBVIRT collaborated with The Spitz and
its Chief Executive Jane Glitre to inaugurate the latter's final strand
of programming in the cultural space's 10th year, prior to vacating its
original site at Spitalfields Market. In creating SPITZ Discourse, Manifesto Club were invited to inhabit the Spitz to kick off a season of Talks. Devised by aladin,
who was appointed Curator-at-Large to September 2007; since then
aladin has been continuing to advise Spitz on itinerant,
peripatetic interventions and provocations in its new incarnations. =====================================================
THROW / MUGH-AL / SPECIAL PROJECTS British Museum, Brunei Gallery, London Design Festival et al SUBVIRT from time to time animates interventions in
public spaces - formal or unmediated - incorporating the virtuoso,
self-sufficient, interactional, facilitatory and conjuring skills of SUBVIRT chief curator aladin. The great majority of such interventions have been taking place as sub rosa actions.
THROW was initiated in 2007 as a series of
collaborations with other practitioners to devise and enact rituals and
exposition instrumentalising aladin's remarkable ability to project a
playing card at distances of 70 metres or further and at speeds of over
100 mph.
MUGH-AL since 1990 has been updating, adapting and subverting
for the contemporary context the aesthetics, customs and protocols of
popular entertainment in the courts of the Mughal emperors of South
Asia.
SPECIAL PROJECTS are animated from time to time
involving covert actions by aladin in contexts providing the conditions
for him to deploy his extraordinary powers of 'social alkhemi' - his
abilities to deal spontaneously and without pre-meditation with social
processes ('unseens').
SUBVIRT WEBSITES AT MYSPACE AND YOUTUBE: Details on live projects may in future be posted on the SUBVIRT sites at MySpace.com/SubVirt and YouTube.com/SubVirt. These are NOT currently operational.
