Projects involve a wide range of disciplines including architecture, fine art, jewellery, interior architecture, textiles design and animation carrying out projects that work with local community groups, charities and stakeholders in the Aldgate area.  All of the individual creative projects seek to engage with local groups, expand beyond the confines of the studio space and setting out to be better connected with the surrounding area.

The Work in Progress show is an opportunity to view these ongoing projects.  The exhibition focuses on development and process as this project continues to evolve.  To mark the opening day tea and cake will be served 3-5pm on the 2^nd February 2012, with informal conversations to discuss the work on show.

Musarc event page →

In addition to the screening and talks by the artist and guests exploring sound, architecture and perception, the evening will include a performance by Musarc’s choir and more. Stay tuned and save the date.

Admission: free
26 January 2010, 19.00h
Baribcan Art Gallery
Drinks are available at the bar, stimulation guaranteed:
Click here for further information on the Barbican website

The Warehouse, First Floor, Spring House

An exhibition of built projects carried out as research in India and Sierra Leone. Live projects poke beneath the surface of everyday life to explore the accommodations which can be made to physical and cultural resistances found in rapidly changing situations to provoke an appropriate architectural response. They provide a testing ground for hypothetical ideas developed in the Diploma school, a method of investigation at PhD level and a firm pragmatic, confidence building grounding for young practitioners. Provoking Architecture provides an insight into the way that locally generated live projects are providing a spring board into the meaningful making of an architecture of rapid change and scarce resources in India and Africa.

Exhibition opening times:

Private View: Thursday 26th January – 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Monday to Friday – 10am to 7pm
Saturday – 10am to 2pm

Exhibition dates and opening times:

Friday 27th January – Monday 13th February 2012
Private View: Thursday 26th January – 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Monday to Friday – 10am to 7pm
Saturday – 10am to 2pm

How far can buildings accommodate the mutability of individual lives and collective relationships? Working for mature institutions, Witherford Watson Mann Architects have increasingly found themselves working with existing buildings. Reflecting on projects and realisations by the practice, including Astley Castle for the Landmark Trust, William Mann will consider the tension between care for structures and responsiveness to patterns of use.

A room with no ceiling
The year began with a short project in Aldgate for the design of a city room; focusing on the spatial and material qualities of floor and wall using the walled garden as a reference typology, we wonder how these rooms could form part of a wider network of urban rooms in Aldgate. The projects propose temporary structures using currently empty or underused sites, programmatically suggesting production, education, commerce and leisure.

Composed wilderness
In the main design project we have shifted focus to Berlin, a city with a loose fit and a wide range of typologies and densities. In the former railway landscape of the Gleisdreieck area, the wild and the man made landscape intermingles to create a most peculiar and wild place in the midst of the city. The project started with the design of a shared hall, which is to become part of the final project, exploring structure and lining and what programmes might be afforded by the characteristics of the room. Initial site investigations aim to carefully draw the place as is, but be propositional through observation and articulation of what is there. The next steps will test an ensemble of buildings and places and consider the relevant urban gestures that connects or perhaps leaves this ‘landspace’ to remain.

The exhibition will be open 10–18 January 2012
Venue information →

Book now →

On 16 December 2011, Musarc will be returning to St Bartholomew the Great with an ambitious programme of improvisation, instrumental and choral performances, a sound installation, and an exhibition of photographs by Yiannis Katsaris.

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Sound installation and bar open 7.00pm
Programme starts 7.30pm
Bar open after concert
Doors close 10.30pm

St Bartholomew the Great
West Smithfield
London EC1A 7HW

Tickets and admission
Full price £15.00
Concessions £10.00

Advance bookings only
Click here to book tickets →

Programme:

Mathew Kneebone and Yuri Suzuki, Large scale Reubens’ tube

[1.] Musarc’s third visit to one of London’s oldest, most beautiful churches and great acoustic spaces will open again with an installation on the theme of sound and light: an ensemble of standing wave flame tubes, or ‘Reubens’ tubes’, created by designers/artists Yuri Suzuki and Mathew Kneebone.

Pierre Boulez, Dialogue de l’ombre double (1982–85)

[2.] The first part of the programme features a rare performance of Piere Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double (1982–85) for solo clarinet and electronics. The pioneering piece, which was composed exploring the technical resources at IRCAM, is inspired by a scene in Paul Claudel’s drama Soulier de satin (1943) and sets a live clarinet in dialogue with its ‘shadow’ using pre-recorded sound, live electronics and spatialisation through loudspeakers that surround the audience. The clarinet will be played by Kazia Smith, one of the ensemble’s altos who is a professional musician and teacher, and a member of Tambourin Trio who performed with Musarc at St Bartholomews in 2009 and 2010. The electronic part of the piece was re-interpreted and developed for Musarc’s concert by composer and sound artist Ev Buckley (electronics).

Jessica Curry, The story goes roughly as follows (world première)

[3.] In 2010, Musarc was paired with composer Jessica Curry as part of Making Music, Sound and Music and the PRS Foundation’s Adopt a composer scheme 2010/11. The result of our collaboration with the composer is a new work for choir and electronics based on dreams Jessica collected from the ensemble and will be premièred at the concert. The performance will be recorded by BBC Radio 3.

Alan Tomlinson, trombone

[4.] Jazz and improv trombonist Alan Tomlinson will be performing Three pieces for alto trombone by Michael Parsons and Solo for sliding trombone by John Cage, as well as improvising on a trombone made of glass by artist and ensemble member Kate Williams. Photographs of Alan with Kate’s glass trombone taken by Yiannis Katsaris earlier in November at the Barbican can be seen in one of our homepage galleries.

Daniel Basford, Low, how a rose (world première)

[5.] The choir will be singing four versions of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, an ancient carol from the 16th century: the original which was first transcribed by Michael Praetorius (early 17c); a version from Hugo Distler’s Die Weihnachtsgeschichte (1934; Distler is pictured above); a recent arrangement of the song by Swedish composer Jan Sandström (1984); and a brand new arrangement commissioned by Musarc from composer Daniel Basford, Lo, how a rose for double choir, desk-chimes, handbells and electronics.

Sergeij Rachmaninoff and Arvo Pärt, Bogoroditse, djevo

[6.] The theme of variations continues with a performance by the choir of Sergeij Rachmaninoff’s Bogoroditse, djevo (from op. 37, 1915) and a setting by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt from 1990.

Exhibition and sale of prints by photographer Yiannis Katsaris

Jessica Curry first introduced us to photographer Yiannis Katsaris when we started our collaboration for the Adopt a composer scheme in late 2010. Since then, Yiannis has has become the choir’s resident photographer and regularly documents the ensemble’s work and performances. One of the projects that emerged from this collaboration is a series of captivating portraits taken during rehearsals that explore the facial expression of singers. There is a strong link between these images and the ‘libretto of dreams’ at the heart of Jessica’s new work for the ensemble.

Prints of the portraits will be available for sale during the concert. Proceeds from the sale go towards Musarc’s programme of commissions and teaching projects. A selection of these portraits can be previewed on our homepage.

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The concert will end approximately at 9.15pm. After the performance, you will be able to experience more of Mathew Kneebone and Yuri Suzuki’s sound installation and the bar will remain open until doors close at 10.30.

Musarc is a not-for-profit organisation and entirely self-funded. We would like to express our gratitude to the many musicians, artists and composers who make performances like this possible by giving their time to the ensemble, often for free. We are especially indebted to the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Design, LondonMet, which is Musarc’s home; and the parish of St Bartholomew the Great for their support in hosting our concert.

Philipp Ebeling: Invisible Walls

Philipp Ebeling, born in Germany, works as a freelance documentary and portrait photographer in London. He completed a BA in photography at the London College of Communication in 2002. His regular editorial clients include the Sunday Times Magazine, the Observer and Guardian magazines, Time Out, Dazed & Confused, GEO and LeMonde. He has won multiple awards including the 2004 Observer/Hodge Award for his private documentary work and the distinguished National Portrait Gallery’s annual portrait award in 2005. in the same year he followed an invitation to join the scholarship program at Fabrica, Benetton’s creative centre in Italy. In 2008 he was selected for the Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam. His latest project, the Fishbar is a space for new photography in East London, opened with an inaugural exhibition after extensive renovations in December 2010. Philipp runs the project together with his partner and fellow photographer Olivia Arthur.

Alan Dein: Eastenders on the radio & a survey of Oral History projects in East London

Alan Dein is an award-winning freelance BBC Radio documentary feature presenter, oral historian and projects consultant. Recent commissions include BBC, The British Library, The Museum of London, The Royal Parks, Camden Council, English Heritage and The Guardian  Between 2004 – 2008, he was the co-ordinator of the Heritage Lottery Funded King’s Cross Voices, a major oral history exploration of London’s King’s Cross. Alan is a Committee Member at The Oral History Society.