SELECTED RECENT PROJECTS subvirt / aladin have contributed to - co-animated / co-devised by him, featuring him as a principal artist or a senior adviser. Full chronology further below (web links underlined): 2010Manifesta 8 (Spain) / Chamber of Public Secrets (Denmark) / Arts Assembly (Finland) for critical interventions and as animateur; Unsignal (collaboration with dance artist Joe Moran; text by aladin); D&AD New Blood Festival (masterclass); “India Song” – Karen Knorr/Tasveer Arts Bangalore/Chobi Mela Dhaka (collaboration with aladin for film and stills portrayals); Luxury Goods - Art in 50 Words (UK). 2009
- Designs For Life: aladin curated frameworks, interventions and events
allowing ensembles of creative practitioners across disciplines to
engage collaboratively with the thematic ‘re-designing life’. “Tweehive” and “Tweehive Live” for Pestival/SouthBank Centre/Queen Elizabeth Hall:
aladin, in collaboration with John Grant and others co-curated online
and live cultural interventions. The online aspect was cited as one of
the most effective uses of the medium in 2009 while the live festival
overall won theUK Conservation Event of the Year award. “Design Inspirations”/Boiler
House/Truman Brewery/Nissan/Colette Shop: Curating and delivering a
multimedia event exploring the nature and potential of ‘social design’;
incorporating: sculpture, exhibition, film, music, dance, discussions.
2009 - "Perpetual Gypsy Pavilion"/53rd Venice Biennale. Adviser on a collaboration between several country pavilions.
2008 - 2Getherfest08
: “Festival of ideas and actions - London's answer to TED talks'. Greengaged/London Design Festival/Design Council : including "Imagine 2058”, a half day collaborative event applying the elemental tools of visual
culture, design and ‘social design’ to create an integrated ‘map’ of
the future; and “Night Tour: Rethinking the City, a memorable, and oversubscribed highlight of the festival, an ambitious, improvised, 6
hour, unpremeditated walk through London in the late/early hours – led
by aladin. The ‘S’ Word / DCMS/TateThe ‘S’ Word
– a complex, challenging encounter with the U.K.’s creative
industries’ heads (including of Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the
Olympics etc) to co-create a sensory, visual, discursive and written
actualisation of anxieties and hopes for the future. 2007 - Portobello Film Festival aladin was commissioned by the 2007 Portobello Film Festival to curate a two-day ‘meltdown’ sub-festival at Westbourne Studios across platforms. The event - ‘The World’s Greatest Magicians’
– was enormously successful, comprising film screenings, live
performances, exhibition, talks and panel discussions with
contributions from interdisciplinary mavericks including: 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, Gordon Tait, Gee Mahabir. Archived at the festival website and on MySpace. 2007 - Charcool A unique commission from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)/ Forum for the Future/London Sustainability Exchange
enabled aladin to devise and site a series of critical artistic
experiments across platforms, genres, localities and ‘audiences’
engaging with (at that time) new discourses about the relationship of
wider civil society to ‘sustainability’. Outcomes ranged from ‘séances’
in living rooms to the production and dissemination of viral films, the
siting of sanctioned public performances in spaces as disparate as
Trafalgar Square and television studios. An ‘outsider’ communications
strategy extended the project’s reach and virtual life-span. The project garnered considerable mainstream acclaim including from an ARUP-sponsored IPSOS Mori evaluation. 2001-6 - Nordic Projects In the course of a 5 year professional relationship with NIFCA/Nordic Council of Ministers, itinerant co-animation of/contribution to a range of interdisciplinary arts initiatives including: “Under (de)Construction: Perspectives on Cultural Diversity in Visual and Performing Arts”/NIFCA Helsinki 2001+2 – Colloquium and book. Keeping It Real: Challenges to Locally Rooted Practice/ Living Art Museum Reykjavik 2004 – interdisciplinary colloquium. “Minority Report: Challenging Intolerance in Contemporary Denmark”/Aarhus 2004 – interdisciplinary exhibition Norse Ferry Tales/NKD Dale (Norway) 2006 – interdisciplinary exhibition across platforms. 2000-4 - Artist In London Government In
2000 aladin was enlisted by London Mayor Ken Livingstone to develop the
world's first integrated strategy for the development of a capital
city's culture, media, sport, arts, heritage and tourism. aladin’s
4-year term as Co-/Vice-Chair of the Cultural Strategy Group for London,
the political/governmental body responsible for policy-making, was a
revolutionary twist on and evolution of 'Artist in Residence' /
'artist in social/industrial/government context' as pioneered by Artist Placement Group/John Latham and Barbara Steveni in the 1960s. 1999 - Outsider Projects 5 independent public artistic commissions across genres, engaging outsider artists led by aladin. "En-Trance"/Battersea Arts Centre+Tom Morris/British Festival of Visual Theatre/Edible Theatre+Tassos Stevens-Coney.
Using the meta-structure of itinerant asian storytelling a sculptor,
dancer, actor and magician devised and told tales to each other. "000ZeroZeroZero"/Whitechapel Gallery+Judith Nesbitt – seminal expo charting the rise of British Asian cultural practice; with memorable work from Runa Islam, Nitin Sawnhey, Chila Burman, Asian Dub Foundation and aladin amongst almost a hundred others across genres. "aladin: Extemporised" London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT)/HMS President – a live’ action’ by aladin at the legendary LIFT Cabaret on HMS President to mark the final night of LIFT. "Fire and Rain"/ICA+Philip Dodd/Magic Academy Bangalore/Ernst Fischer/Rebecca Swift/Manuel Vason
– Performance artists Ernst Fischer and Rebecca Swift (devising and
performing “The Bound Man”) and Magic Academy Bangalore Gold Turbans
KS Ramesh and aladin (conjuring as “aladin and the Magic Academy”) in
one of the most unexpected double bills ever seen at the ICA. "Badder Badder Schwing"/Freddy
Fresh+Fatboy Slim/Independiente Records – aladin directing a guerrilla
ensemble of 12, shot and edited an innovative pop video capturing
moments of zeitgeist magic across London. 1997 - Garden City Festival Of Magic/Magic Academy Bangalore 10
years in the planning, a 4-day international conclave in Bangalore
(India) on conjuring and related outsider arts. Taking place at
multiple sites the festival attracted almost 800 outsider artists and
performers across vernacular cultural forms from around the world. A
collaboration with Karnatakan curator/director and magician K.S.
Ramesh and the Magic Academy Bangalore. "The biggest event in the
history of magic": The Times, London 21-11-1998. 2000+ Miscellaneous project partners: Rooseum/Malmo,
Natural History Museum, Arts Depot Barnet, Oxford House Bethnal Green,
Rochelle School/Arnold Circus Shoreditch, Toynbee Studios/Whitechapel,
Bullion Room/Hackney Empire, Miller’s Academy Westbourne Grove
SELECTED CHRONOLOGYfrom 1991-present: 2010 – Manifesta 8 (Spain) / Chamber of Public Secrets (Denmark) / Arts Assembly (Finland); Unsignal/Joe Moran; D&AD New Blood Festival; Karen Knorr/Tasveer Arts Bangalore/Chobi Mela Dhaka; Luxury Goods - Art in 50 Words . 2009 - “Tweehive”+“Tweehive Live”: Pestival/SouthBank Centre/Queen Elizabeth Hall; “Design Inspirations”:Boiler House/Truman Brewery/Nissan/Colette Shop; Perpetual Gypsy Pavilion/Venice Biennale; “Mugh-al”: Museum fur Volkerkunde Hamburg/Brunei Gallery/Sketch London 2008 - 2Getherfest08 ; “Imagine 2058” + “Night Tour: Rethinking the City”: Greengaged/London Design Festival/Design Council; The ‘S’ Word:DCMS/TateThe ‘S’ Word; “Portraits”: Marcus Tomlinson collaboration with aladin. 2007 – “Untitled Provocation”:South London Gallery/OMSK.
Live, online and viral project. “ Spitz Discourse” :The Spitz/Manifesto
Club/London. Talks programme. “Throw”: British Museum Great Court
/Richard Blurton Head South Asia Section. Live art and Mughal gaming.
CHARCOOL: DEFRA/Forum for the Future/London Sustainability Exchange (LSX)/Trafalgar
Square/City Hall/London Mela; "Portobello Film Festival – The World’s
Greatest Magicians”: with Marcus Tomlinson/Tunde Jegede/Rahul
Dholakia/Ishmahil Blagrove/Lone Sigurdsson et al 2006 - Norse Ferry Tales/NKD Dale (Norway); Sculpture for the Ahmed Family/REC Berlin: Project by conceptual artist Chris Evans 2005
- “Copenhagen-London-Aarhus: A Cultural Sharing” :Aarhus Kommune/Filmby
Aarhus - Cultural-thinking ‘jam’ with cultural planners, thinkers,
artists, politicians and community leaders; “Untitled: Politically
Incorrect Facilitation”: Chisenhale Dance Space 25th Anniversary.
Collaboration with dancer Florence Peake to facilitate and animate gala
night of dance. 2004 - “Minority Report: Challenging Intolerance in Contemporary Denmark”: Ridehuset Aarhus/Denmark; Organisational Art Summit/Liseleje Denmark: With Learning Lab Denmark. Barbara Steveni (O+I; APG),
Gavin Wade et al - Artists, practitioners and researchers met to
explore contemporary art projects where organisations and
organisational issues are central themes in the art itself; "Organising
Authenticity": Centre for Performing Arts Bramstrup/Centre for Arts and
Leadership CBS Copenhagen; "Keeping It Real: Challenges to Locally
Rooted Practice": Living Art Museum Reykjavik; “The Shuffler”: BBC TV;
“DKNZ daKillaNiteZoo”: Hayward Gallery/Roy Lichtenstein - Special night
of live arts, music and screenings in conjunction with Roy Lichtenstein
exhibition. 2003 – “The importance of being
English”/Mentorn Barraclough Carey/Ch4/George Amponsah – Short
documentary on aladin and his use of magic as a tool for ‘social
alchemy’; “Master-class in Enchantment” : Cardboard Citizens/Skylight
Project – Series of interdisciplinary workshops with homeless people
exploring the tools of magicianship for use in everyday life; Project 2, Bargehouse, OXO Tower. 2002
- “Under (de)Construction: Perspectives on Cultural Diversity in Visual
and Performing Arts”: NIFCA Helsinki - Radical Loyalty/Art Museum of
Estonia- conceptual art project with artist Chris Evans - “Master-class
in Enchantment” – CRISIS/Cardboard Citizens/Cold Weather Shelter.
Series of workshops with homeless people exploring the tools of
magicianship for use in everyday life. 2001- Love Parade/Berlin (Observer artist/executive adviser); Project 1, Roundhouse. 2000
– "Artist-in-Government" (2000-4): Co/Vice-Chair of Mayor’s Cultural
Strategy Group for London; "Summit on brands": Brand.You:the power,
promise and perils of brands /Victoria & Albert Museum
/ Brand.New/Siegel+Gale – Colloquium on the relationship between design
and democracy. 1999 - "En-Trance": Battersea Arts Centre+Tom Morris/British Festival of Visual Theatre/Edible Theatre+Tassos Stevens-Coney/aladin; "000ZeroZeroZero": Whitechapel Gallery+Judith Nesbitt/aladin; "aladin: Extemporised": LIFT/HMS President/aladin; "Fire and Rain": ICA+Philip Dodd/Magic Academy Bangalore/Ernst Fischer/Rebecca Swift/Manuel Vason/aladin; "Badder Badder Schwing": Freddy Fresh+Fatboy Slim/Independiente Records/aladin. 1998 -
“Small Change”: Cardboard Citizens/Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre/Paul
Weller et al - Collaborations across disciplines on the theme of “Real
Change” for the charity CRISIS. - “Master-class in Enchantment” :
Jerwood Space/London. Series of workshops with Tassos
Stevens/Coney/Edible Theatre playing with the structures of magic and
gaming. 1997 – "Garden City Festival of Magic": Ravindra Kalakshethra Bangalore/Magic Academy of Bangalore/India. 1996 -
“Moving Visions” :Deptford Albany, London/Entelechy Arts/Professor Alan
Read et al. Co-animation of complex interdisciplinary colloquium on
locally rooted arts and human rights practice. 1995 – “Ernst Fischer’s Living Room Theatre”: Brixton heaRTroom/Franko B/Ernst Fischer/Helen Spackman 1994 – “Cupboard Club”/ Rheingold Tavern/London- Visual theatre. 1993 –“ Crack-in-the-Wall-Cabaret”: Brixton heARTroom/Ernst Fischer/Franko B 1992 – “Outsider Arts”:Pull It Gallery, Jamestown Rd./Camden/London – Multidisciplinary event. 1991 – “Rabbit”: National Review of Live Arts Platform Event/U.K.
