Initiator and principal curator of SUBVIRT aladin (left) pictured with artist Franko B, Wysing Arts Centre. Photo: , Bourne, Cambridgeshire, January 2008; during a research visit leading up to the publication of a feature on Franko by aladin for the U.K.'s 'Latest Art Magazine'Nichole Rees.
Please scroll to the bottom to contact Subvirt. =====================================================
SUBVIRT SUBVIRT is a curatorial space which since the 1980s has been a primary platform for creative projects initiated by interdisciplinary artistaladin and his collaborators. It supersedes and succeeds the production ensembles Peacok Arts and Outsider Arts. =====================================================
MORE ABOUT aladin aladin is a critically acclaimed interdisciplinary artist, curator/director and strategy consultant based in London. Comprehensive biographical details at aladin's personal website www.aladin.me. =====================================================
Previous SUBVIRT projects engaging with the arts (either directed/co-devised by aladin or featuring him as a principal artist)
SUBVIRT projects have featured at contexts including the Institute ofContemporary Arts (ICA), Hayward Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Victoria andAlbert Museum (V+A), British Museum, Natural History Museum, Shakespeare'sGlobe Theatre, South London Gallery, Jerwood Space, Chisenhale Dance Space,Battersea Arts Centre, Bullion Room/Hackney Empire, Miller's Academy andTrafalgar Square, London.
In London in the 2000s SUBVIRT through its principal aladin set up collaborative practice with Cardboard Citizens and in the 1990s with the legendary ensemble of Ernst Fischer's "Living RoomTheatre"/"Crack in the Wall Cabaret" at Brixton heArtRoom - including artist Franko B from 1992 onwards; in the latter period SUBVIRT/aladin also contributed to the development of the Cupboard Cabaret at the Rheingold Tavern.
SUBVIRT has co-ordinated and programmed some striking and high
profile collaborations featuring aladin's extraordinary and world
renown skills as a sleight of hand magician. The 'magic of aladin' was featured inthe Universal Pictures movie ‘Magicians’ (2007), the multiple awards-winning film project Book of Cool (2006)
featuring two dozen of the world's greatest virtuoso entertainers, the
pop video for "Badder Badder Schwing" by DJs Freddy Fresh + Fatboy Slim,
the BBC1 TV pilot "The Shuffler” and the BBC1 TV show "Late
with Russell Peters" amongst others. In 1995 SUBVIRT through aladin
co-devised, produced and delivered a magic festival for a combined live
theatre and television audience of hundreds of millions in Bangalore,
India.
SUBVIRT initiatives helmed by aladin have gained major honours, including: selection for the British Festival of Visual
Theatre, the National Review of Live Arts (U.K.) and the London
International Festival of Theatre. In August 2007 London's Portobello FilmFestival showcased some of aladin's/SUBVIRT's rare film and television work across two nights
- including the pop video for the single 'Badder Badder Schwing' by
Freddy Fresh+FatboySlim and a BBC 1 TV project. SUBVIRT/aladin's
application of cultural practice to leadership training attracted an FT/Arts & Business Innovation Award
and SUBVIRT/aladin's unique approach to using the combined arts to
interrogate policy debates during the CHARCOOL project was acclaimed in
an evaluation by ARUP/'Book of Cool'(2006)Ipsos-Mori =====================================================
Cultural planning, civil society and strategy SUBVIRT (including through aladin's strategy consultancy alkhemi) has an international reputation for developing cultural policy and planning which directly engages and integrates with the wider processes ofcivil society – for clients ranging from the Nordic Council of Ministers to the Love Parade in Berlin.
Following Ken Livingstone’s election as London’s first Executive Mayor in 2000, a Cultural StrategyGroup for London (CSG) came into being, charged with the developmentof the world’s first integrated plan for culture, media, sport, arts, heritage and tourism. aladin, as principal of SUBVIRT and alkhemi, was head-hunted by the Mayor to develop the policy-making process between 2000-4, finally co-authoring a published culture plan widely regarded as groundbreaking. As aladin was one of the principal cultural strategyarchitects of CSGand its Co/Vice-Chair, SUBVIRT played a key role in leading and managing a process whose outcomes ranged from the generation of the 2012 Olympic Bid to the underlining of the pertinence of ‘diversity’ in cultural policy.
aladin brings a consultancy and academic background in risk management and strategic planning to his work under the rubrics of SUBVIRT and alkhemi in the culture sector, for example in testing and adapting the uses of arts and culture to re-engage marginalised groups in society, which he has done through developing and directly carrying out youth and community development work on public housing estates in Peckham, Camberwell and Walworth, London and La Paillade, Montpellier (France) as well as in building research and practice through extensive detached streetwork with vulnerable individuals and groups especially at risk of violence.
More recently aladin has been focusing on bringing a creative approach to interrogating and building on initiatives in the terrain of 'sustainability'; in 2007-8 he co-founded the collective London United which has undertaken innovative and experimental action reseach in the field. =====================================================
Further background SUBVIRT has strong pedagogic links through aladin's status as a visiting academic at academic institutions internationally and across territories related to cultural policy, contemporary cultural anthropology, organisational management, leadership and negotiation. Institutions include: Manchester University, Art Academyof Trondheim,Christies London, Copenhagen Business School's Centre for Arts and Leadership, KAOS-Pilots and The Learning Lab in Denmark, London’s City Universityand the KCC Foundation. aladin has written widely on society and culture including for the Nordic Institute of Contemporary Arts, Latest Art Magazine, The Photographer’s Gallery, Performance Research journal, the Almanac of Political Art, and Deepak Chopra’s 'Intent'. He has wide experience as a keynote speaker for organisations ranging from the Tate Modern to the Danish culture ministry.
SUBVIRT benefits from a strategic approach to the management of cultural processes as aladin, aside from having been a Co/Vice-Chair CSG, is a former Chair of the Boards of Entelechy Arts , Head4Biz- a project of the National Theatre’s‘Art of Regeneration’ - as well as Black Mime Theatre, was Chair of the Steering/Development Group for CRISIS and CardboardCitizens when the culture-based Skylight Project was being set up and is a former Trustee and Board Member of LondonCyrenians Housing. aladin currently chairs the advisory boards of the sustainable fashion label Amoosi and the cultural production space Spitz. =====================================================
Press, comments and websites SUBVIRT projects have received extensive coverage in the media, including the featuring of aladin as a live guest on the talk show BBC Radio 4's'Midweek with LibbyPurves' as well as on BBC World Service Radio's 'Outlook'. His SUBVIRT work has been widely profiled in The Times (3 pages of the Saturday Times Magazine) and The Sunday Times (centre pages of Culture Section) amongst others.
