How do we collectively honour, celebrate and remember significant sites of organising, movement and resistance in London?
“The pavilion proposes a holding place – holding the ambition of a performative, political intervention, a pavilion which speaks of multiple acts of home; holding stories, energies and histories of movement – and the myriad ways in which people have made a city a place to take hold and, in turn, a place in which to be held.” – Sumayya Vally, Counterspace
The Listening to the City programme engages with a set of sonic landscapes from selected London neighbourhoods, paying attention to existing and lost spaces of gathering and belonging, with particular relevance to migrant communities across the city.
Conceived as a summer programme from July – September 2021 developed by Serpentine Education, Civic Projects and 2021 Pavilion architect Sumayya Vally, the programme of sound commissions, workshops, education packs and listening sessions will offer ways of listening to the city. At a time when personal listening devices have become ubiquitous, shared spaces to listen are increasingly rare. If how we listen determines what we hear, this programme encourages us to unplug, slow down, and embrace modes of active listening, making connections between histories of struggle, community care and organising.
As part of the programme we are working in collaboration with artists Ain Bailey, Jay Bernard, collaborative publishing practice OOMK, the Becontree Forever Arts and Culture Hub at Valence Library, Radio Ballad’s partner New Town Culture, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and young people’s organisations in South London.
