SUMMER: IN THE BLACK FANTASTIC
July to September 2022
Southbank Centre
Role: Producer
Dive into contemporary Black art and culture with this Southbank Centre 2022 summer season, taking inspiration from the themes of the Hayward Gallery exhibition In the Black Fantastic curated by Ekow Eshun.
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At the centre of the summer programme was the In the Black Fantastic Weekender, three days of live music, poetry, film and talks that explore myth, science fiction, spirituality and Afrofuturism.
Throughout the season, there were free DJ takeovers, live music, dance and performance on the Riverside Terrace, with artists exploring how fantasy can be a gateway to Black creative and cultural liberation.
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The public could also enjoy free open-air artworks around the site, plus themed events in the auditorium venues, including Ellah P Wakatama x Space Afrika x Alistair MacKinnon, Writing in the Black Fantastic and Jazz Legends.
Lina Iris Viktor, Eleventh, 2018
In the Black Fantastic Exhibition, The Hayward Gallery, 2022
“I’m delighted that the Southbank Centre has designed a multi-artform programme in response to the Hayward Gallery’s summer exhibition. In the Black Fantastic is an expressive exploration of Black popular culture at its most wildly imaginative, artistically ambitious and politically urgent. It brings to life a cultural movement that conjures otherworldly visions out of the everyday Black experience - looking at how speculative fictions in Black art and culture are boldly reimagining perspectives on race, gender, identity and the body in the 21st century.” Ekow Eshun, Curator of In the Black Fantastic
DEADCORP presents: CASISDEAD
DEADCORP welcomed you into its rain-soaked universe for a unique immersive experience: a night of cinematic synth-backed nostalgia with masked grime maestro CASisDEAD.
Photos by Victor Frankowski
JAZZ LEGENDS
The Jazz Cafe and the Southbank Centre present a pantheon of cosmic and spiritual jazz musicians.
Norman Connors, Jean Carne and Gary Bartz
Photos by Pete Woodhead, Courtesy of Southbank Centre
Sun Ra Arkestra
Photos by Pete Woodhead, Courtesy of Southbank Centre
IN THE BLACK FANTASTIC OUTDOOR ART
A free outdoor art exhibition bringing together the work of renowned artists including Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu and Lina Iris Viktor, who exhibited in the Hayward Gallery summer exhibition.
Alisha Wormsley’s text-based work, ‘There Are Black People in the Future’, featured on the Royal Festival Hall building.
Visitors were also able to experience two different sound art installations. Peter Adjaye’s Music for Architecture and a futuristic sound installation Dubmorphology’s Emergence, which takes visitors on a journey through a 2 soundscape of ancient drums, future sonics and the voice of pioneering postcolonial historian CLR James.
Visitors were also able to experience sound art installations in the Queen's Walk Trees on the Southbank. Peter Adjaye’s Music for Architecture, I Nakhla's On the Lips of Time and a futuristic sound installation Dubmorphology’s Emergence, which takes visitors on a journey through a 2 soundscape of ancient drums, future sonics and the voice of pioneering postcolonial historian CLR James.
JEFF MILLS
A bona fide pioneer who radically transformed the sound of electronic music, Jeff Mills presented Tomorrow Comes the Harvest in the Royal Festival Hall as part of a partnership with Fabric.
Tomorrow Comes the Harvest is a collaborative work between Jeff Mills and the late Tony Allen. It is an evocative blend of two great genres firmly rooted in black experience and creativity.
Photos by Pete Woodhead, Courtesy of Southbank Centre
OUTDOOR RIVERSIDE TERRACE
Throughout the summer on the Riverside Terrace Stage there was free DJ takeovers, live music and performance, with artists exploring how the fantastic can be a gateway to Black creative and cultural liberation.
Each weekend throughout July and August was programmed by guest curators including multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie; artist collective sxwks; Faggamuffin Bloc Party; creative collective BORN N BREAD; Tarik Elmoutawakil and Rob Jones (Brownton Abbey); performance company Cocoa Butter Club and digital radio station Colourful.
Nwando Ebizie presents: The Black Fabulous Weekend
Photos by Pete Woodhead, Courtesy of Southbank Centre