ICA Off-Site: An Occasion Hosted by Isabel Lewis

As part of the ICA Offsite week and Frieze Projects London, artist Isabel Lewis hosts two ‘occasions’ at the Old Selfridges Hotel. Considered a celebratory and sensory gathering of things, people, plants, music, dance and smells, the ‘occasion’ - a term coined by Lewis herself - is a social meeting place that situates itself somewhere between a bar, a lecture and a salon.

Lewis’ dramaturgy, which includes speaking, DJing, dancing, and smells by Norwegian chemist and smell researcher Sissel Tolaas, will create an environment attuned to the energies of each occasion and its attending guests. Easing the formalities of distanced observation often found within a theatre or exhibition context, Lewis offers a space of relaxation where the entire human sensorium can be engaged. Visitors will be greeted with a drink and a light bite to eat and can come and go as they please throughout the occasion.

Isabel Lewis (b. 1981, Dominican Republic) is an artist of Dominican and American origin who grew up on a suburban island off the coast of Southwestern Florida. She has danced for many choreographers in New York and from 2004 presented commissioned works at The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, New Museum and Movement Research at Judson Church, among others. In 2009, Lewis moved to Berlin, where she spent the next two years working as an editor and DJ, before creating her solo show STRANGE ACTION (2010). She draws from her training in literary criticism, dance and choreography, as well as from party and popular culture. 

Co-commission with Frieze Projects and Liverpool Biennial.

Additional occasions will be hosted by Liverpool Biennial on Tuesday 30 September and National Trust on Friday 17 October. For further details visit www.friezeprojects.org

Unfortunately, your ticket does not guarantee a seat: as all ICA Offsite events are free, people often request more than they actually require, and to allow for this the ICA must issue more tickets than there are available.

We do carefully consider how many extra tickets to issue for each show, but nevertheless we recommend that you arrive in good time to be sure that you are not disappointed. If you have a ticket that you no longer need, please do let us know and we can return it for further use. There will be a limited number of tickets for each event available on the door half an hour before the start of the event. The tickets available at the door are limited and therefore entry is not guaranteed.

Entry to the event is on a first-come, first-served basis and some queuing may be required.