 | Feb 2012 monthly round-up For immediate release: Wednesday 21 December 2011
There is much to look forward to at the Barbican in February 2012, where highlights include the opening of Song Dong’s Waste Not exhibition in The Curve and screenings of the celebrated documentary Style Wars and short film The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal which form part of The Architecture on Film series. As part of our music programme, we present multimedia spectacle The Long Count, Andreas Scholl, the musical collaboration The Floating Palace and our International Associate the New York Philharmonic in their first Barbican residency. Improbable open their dark production of The Devil and Mister Punch in The Pit and Cheek by Jowl’s violent drama ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore takes place in the Silk Street Theatre.
The Barbican’s Media Relations team wishes you much Christmas cheer, and all the best for 2012.
February 2012 guide
The February events guide is available to download as a PDF here
THEATRE AND DANCE
The Devil and Mister Punch
2-25 February / The Pit / 7:45pm (7:15pm on 2, 3, 4 February; 2:30pm matinee on 4, 11, 18, 25 February)
Press night: 7 February, 7:45pm
Devised by Julian Crouch and the Company, The Devil and Mister Punch is Punch and Judy but as presented by Messrs Harvey and Hovey, a pair of broken vaudevillians reduced to presenting a puppet show that goes wildly off-course. Featuring a lush score of bass fiddle, gin parlour piano, metronome and bells, this dark but hilarious show reveals a shadowy world inhabited by crocodiles, the devil and more, all performed on a gloriously theatrical wood-paneled set.
Read further details in the press release
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
16 February-10 March / Silk Street Theatre / 7:30pm (2:30pm matinees on 25 February, 3, 10 March)
Press night: 21 February, 7:30pm
Following their triumphant productions of The Changeling (2006) and The Duchess of Malfi (1995), Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod return to Jacobean tragedy with a new production of John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. In this bloody drama, we watch a brother and sister’s passionate descent into hell. Incest, morality, religion and corruption all make this play as shocking and controversial today as it was almost four hundred years ago. Cheek by Jowl have an established international reputation for bringing fresh life to the classics, have toured to over 300 cities in 40 countries and are Artistic Associates of the Barbican.
Find out more in the press release
FILM
Barbican announces launch of new cinemas
The Barbican is delighted to announce that from September 2012 two new cinema auditoria situated on the corner of Beech Street and Whitecross Street will join the highly regarded Cinema One to deliver a world-class programme of specialist, international cinema, live events and quality new releases across all three screens.
The new, purpose built Barbican Cinemas, with exteriors designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects who were responsible for the most recent redevelopment of the Barbican’s foyers, will enjoy a stunning street-level entrance plus facilities to include a restaurant, a café-bar and two 156 seat auditoria. The cinema auditoria design will be delivered by specialists NBDA Architects.
Read our press release
Met Opera Live - Wagner’s Götterdämmerung
11 February / Cinema 1 / 5pm
With its cataclysmic climax, the Met’s new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage, comes to its resolution. Deborah Voigt stars as Brünnhilde and Gary Lehman is Siegfried – the star-crossed lovers doomed by fate. James Levine conducts.
Met Opera Live - Verdi’s Ernani
25 February / Cinema 1 / 6pm
Angela Meade takes centre stage in Verdi’s thrilling early gem. Salvatore Licira is her mismatched lover, and all-star Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto round out the cast.
Silent Film & Live Music Series - An Italian Straw Hat (U) (France, 1927, Dir René Clair, 74min), with live musical accompaniment by Andrew Youdell
19 February / 4pm
René Clair’s satire on middle-class pretension is one of the great landmarks of French silent cinema. A young man in 1890s Paris is on his way to his wedding, when his horse chews the straw hat of a philandering married woman. Complications inevitably abound, as he offers to replace the hat whilst trying desperately not to jeopardise his wedding arrangements. The tale unfolds in an endless series of comic misunderstandings –a sparkling comedy of errors starring the great French film actor, and Clair regular, Albert Préjean.
Architecture on Film Series – Style Wars (PG) (USA, 1984, Dirs Henry Chalfont and Tony Silver, 69min) + The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal (PG) (USA, 2001, Dir Matt McCormick, 16min)
21 February / Cinema 1 / 7pm
The Barbican presents two films that explore a very urban form of personal expression, from both conscious and unconscious origins. Style Wars is a celebrated documentary which presents the city as a canvas and dance floor, offering a glimpse into the graffiti and hip hop scenes in 1980s New York. The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal is a fascinating short film by Matt McCormick, narrated by Miranda July.
Read the February 2012 film highlights release
MUSIC
The Long Count
2 – 4 February / Barbican Theatre / 8:30pm
The National’s twin brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner’s multimedia spectacle about the beginning of time, devised in collaboration with video artist Matthew Ritchie.
Read more about the Long Count here
Andreas Scholl
3 February / Barbican Hall / 7:30pm
The celebrated countertenor gives a recital of Bach cantatas with the Kammerorchester Basel.
Full programme details here
The Floating Palace
8 February / Barbican Hall / 8pm
Curated by Robyn Hitchcock, The Floating Palace is an evening of musical collaboration featuring KT Tunstall, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Abigail Washburn and Howe Gelb.
Read more about The Floating Palace here
New York Philharmonic
16 – 18 February / Barbican Hall / For timings and further details see our website
The first International Associate residency for the New York Philharmonic with Music Director Alan Gilbert features soloists Joyce DiDonato and Lang Lang; a UK premiere of Barbican co-commissioned Polaris by Thomas Adès; and a Young People’s Concert (a series begun by Leonard Bernstein in the 1920s) with narrator Jamie Bernstein, exploring the sights and sounds of New York. Further Creative Learning events will take place during the residency.
Full programme details here.
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito
22 February / Barbican Hall / 7pm
Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito is performed in concert by Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, conducted by Louis Langrée with a stellar cast of soloists including Elina Garanca.
For further information
Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Perahia
Music by Beethoven and Schubert
25 February / Barbican Hall / 7:30pm
Murray Perahia is held in great affection by all piano lovers of today and his relationship with the superb ensemble the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has been a fruitful one. Here they perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 2., Schubert's Grand Duo and an overture by Ferdinand Ries, a pupil and friend of Beethoven.
Read more details
Just announced: Camille
27 April / Barbican Hall / 8pm
Celebrated for her innovative vocal effects, dexterous body percussion style and her ability to create unconventional tunes with catchy melodies, the iconoclastic French singer makes her Barbican debut to mark the release of her new album, Ilo Veyou.
View full programme details
ART GALLERY
Song Dong: Waste Not
15 February – 12 June / The Curve
Media View: 14 February, 10am – 1pm
Celebrated Chinese artist, Song Dong is known for his conceptual and often poetic and essentially personal performances and installations. For his first solo exhibition in a major UK public gallery, Song Dong is installing the monumental work, Waste Not, in The Curve. Comprising over 10,000 items collected by Song Dong’s mother over five decades – ranging from a section of the house to metal pots and plastic bowls to blankets, bottle caps, toothpaste tubes and toys – the installation is a tribute to his mother, as well as a meditation on family life during the Cultural Revolution. The activity of saving and reusing objects of all kinds is in keeping with the Communist adage wu jin qu yong – ‘waste not’ – a prerequisite for survival during periods of social and political turmoil.
Read our press release
OMA/Progress Events Programme
Inside Track: Zak Kyes
2 February / Barbican Art Gallery / 6:30pm
Join Zak Kyes, an organizer of OMA Book Machine, 2010, at the Architectural Association, as he describes OMA’s approach to printed matter.
To Go Beyond the Fear of Pooling Knowledge
2 February / Barbican Art Gallery / 7:30pm
In this intimate event, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist shares the motivation behind the countless live events and interviews staged with OMA’s Rem Koolhaas, from the Laboratorium Lectures, 1999, to the 24-Hour Marathon, 2006, to their latest publication Project Japan, 2011.
Walk to Rothschild HQ
4 February / Meet at Barbican Art Gallery Ticket Desk / 2pm
This walk is the only one to include access inside the Rothschild Bank HQ building on the foyer level. Join Archivist Melanie Aspey for an introduction to the Bank’s archive and history. The walk begins at the exhibition with architectural historian Eva Branscome.
Inside Track: Eyal Weizman
9 February / Barbican Art Gallery / 6:30pm
Eyal Weizman, writer and director of Research Architecture at Goldsmiths tours the exhibition and considers some of the politics and policies behind building (and not building).
After Utopia
9 February / Barbican Art Gallery / 7:30pm
Architecture writer and provocateur Owen Hatherley and architectural historian David Heathcote discuss the OMA-inspired intervention into the fabric of Barbican Art Gallery, and the reality of occupying modernist utopian structures. What might the future hold for the heroic architecture of the 1960s and 1970s? Join the debate.
Inside Track: Beatrice Galilee
16 February / Barbican Art Gallery / 6:30pm
Independent curator and writer Beatrice Galilee discusses OMA’s global reach and influence on new generations of architects in this tour of the exhibition.
Maggie’s Fundraiser with Bompas & Parr
16 February / Barbican Art Gallery / 7 – 10pm
Spend an evening with Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres, to experience the vision of a patient who wanted to change the way we live with cancer and who encouraged leading architects to build supportive, uplifting spaces for care. Founded in 1995 by Maggie Keswick Jencks, there are now 15 centres across the UK. The most recent centre in Gartnavel, Glasgow is designed by OMA.
OMA in Conversation: On Generations
16 February / Cinema 2 / 7:30pm
Shohei Shigematsu, partner in charge of OMA’s operations in the Americas, talks to his former OMA colleague Bjarke Ingels, now director of Copenhagen architecture office BIG, about their architectural contemporaries and generational inheritance.
Read the latest OMA/Progress events programme release and visit our website for further details
CORPORATE NEWS
The Barbican last week published its 2010/11 annual Season Review. Visit the microsite at barbican.org.uk/seasonreview10-11
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Press Information
For further information, images or to arrange interviews contact:
Lorna Gemmell, Head of Communications +44 207 382 7147
lorna.gemmell@barbican.org.uk
Caitlin Sinclair, Communications Coordinator +44 207 382 5274
caitlin.sinclair@barbican.org.uk
Season Review
Please request a hard copy from Caitlin Sinclair.
Barbican newsroom
All Barbican Centre press releases, news announcements and the Media Relations team’s contact details are listed on our website at www.barbican.org.uk/news/home
About the Barbican
The Barbican Centre is one of the world's leading arts centres, founded and run by the City of London Corporation. It encompasses dance, film, music, theatre, visual arts and creative learning who work together in creating the model of tomorrow's international arts and learning centre. Committed to providing a world-class programme, which inspires, challenges and amazes its audiences, the Barbican is also home to Resident Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Associate Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Associate Producer Serious. Its Artistic Associates include Boy Blue Entertainment, Cheek by Jowl, Deborah Warner, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre and Michael Clark Company. International Associates are Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Center. The architecturally renowned Centre, now Grade II listed, opened in 1982, and comprises the 1,949 seat Barbican Hall, the 1,166-seat Barbican Theatre, the Pit theatre, a 286 seat cinema, the Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, foyers and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, roof-top tropical conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants.
For more information visit www.barbican.org.uk
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February events guide