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Previously at the ICA - Events

Freya's Cabin, Studio Weave. Photo: Peter Sharpe

Live Weekends: Fantasy Atelier

13 May 2010 – 16 May 2010

Fantasy Atelier: A Site of Production will see the ICA’s Gallery and Reading Room transformed into an experimental playground for adults and children, a site of novel architectural production where invention and experiment takes inspiration from real and imagined worlds. Participants of all ages will be encouraged to move and manipulate props and materials as a way of shaping and testing ideas for play. Working around the concept of an ‘unfinished story’, the architecture will provide a physical framework where this story can be built on, while other new and overlapping stories can be simultaneously imagined and created.

An accompanying series of workshops, discussions and other events led by architects, artists and writers will similarly see the traditional gallery space transformed into a fantastical realm for play and interaction as we embark on a speculative and serendipitous occupation of the fertile territory between work and play. A specially designed sleepover for children and their families on the Saturday night will provide a unique opportunity to allow stories to become the stuff of dreams. Participants will include Studio Weave, Chris and Keir, Riitta Ikonen, Glass Hill, Louis Moreno, We Made That, antepress, and Office Sian with Ros Croker.

Fantasy Atelier has been conceived by the ICA Learning Team in collaboration with Erin Bryne, who is responsible for our Playworks events.

All the events are free but the Riitta Iknonen and Chris and Keir workshops need to be booked in advance.

Please note on Saturday 15 May the ICA bar will be closing to the public at 11pm.

Schedule and further information

  • Thursday 13 May: Children’s Workshops

    We have invited primary schools and Westminster Play Services to take part in workshops responding to the Fantasy Atelier playground.

    Office Sian and Ros Croker lead Cognitive Kaleidoscope: just as any story or fairytale can hold multiple layers of narrative and meaning which vary from person to person, this workshop will aim to unpeel the layers of sight, touch and perspective as we’ll discover how any space can be thought of not only as one entity, but as a cauldron of overlapping spaces. There’ll be drawings to be sketched, models to be made, secret histories to be discovered, a room to be transformed, and also maybe a bit of fun with sticky tape. We’ll be rushing from order to chaos and then back again on a Thursday afternoon…

  • Friday 14 May: Talking

    Louis Moreno - Building schools for what future?

    Playing, learning and shopping in debt cities: the scale of national debt has cast a cloud over the prospects for children and young people today. So what does the massive scale of investment in social architecture and inner cities over the last decade say about their urban economic and cultural futures? In a short talk, Louis Moreno of UCL's Urban Laboratory will consider some new school academies, offices complexes and shopping centres built in England over the last decade's building boom. With an eye on the outcome of the general election, this talk aims to stimulate discussion from designers and educationalists about cultural and economic tendencies shaping the production of education and urban space today.

    1.15pm, Lower Gallery

    Oliver Goodhall (We Made That) - Playing Out Policy

    Covering topics from the future of the London 2012 Olympic site to the popular fairy tale of Rapunzel and the plotland town of Jaywick in Essex, Oliver Goodhall of We Made That will be advocating expanded engagement between policy making and creative practice in the public realm. Join us for a lively Q&A discussion at the end of the talk.

    3pm, Lower Gallery

    Amenity Space - How many people can you fit in a phone box?
    This interactive presentation by architectural practice Amenity Space will explore how people utilise leftover and forgotten spaces for work, rest and play.Whether it's a space between buildings, under a bridge, a railway siding or in cyberspace, people will occupy it and create their own independent world. Amenity Space is fascinated by these bizarre places and will encourage the audience to see creative opportunities in wasted space.

    6pm, Lower Gallery

  • Saturday 15 May: Public Workshops

    Riitta Ikonen & 3D colour me in
    If you weren’t allowed to draw on the walls and furniture when you were little this is your chance. The ICA’s Gallery and Reading Room will be transformed into a 3D colouring-in book. Bring your dream to the machine, the ceiling is the limit. Pile up your favourite mountain or make a labyrinth. Your crayon has a mind of its own, let it play for you.

    Ages 5-11yrs accompanied by an adult. Call the ICA Box Office for tickets on 020 7930 3647.

    1pm - 4pm, Lower Gallery

    antepress
    For the Fantasy Atelier, antepress will propose their own methods of exploring the architectural structure and the events, talks and workshops housed within it.

    12 noon - 6pm, Lower Gallery

    Studio Weave - Opera of Buildings
    The ICA is hosting a specially designed sleepover for children providing a unique opportunity to sleep in the Fantasy Atelier experimental playground. In collaboration with clarinettist, singer, and teacher Kazia Smith, Studio Weave are proud to present, for one night only, a unique 'Opera of Buildings'. Taking as a starting point the Studio Weave design methodologies of making up fairytales, personifying buildings and landscapes, and discovering the important imaginary relationships between buildings in the city, we will make building-puppets and building-costumes and in them perform a Building Opera. Please note: This event is now sold-out.

  • Sunday 16 May: Public Workshops

    chris+keir - Super Perruquer!
    This workshop, among the shifting, fantastical space of Fantasy Atelier, will blur the boundaries between work and play. If you ever wanted to know how to give the impression of working ridiculously hard—while surreptitiously playing and pursuing your own interests—then this is the workshop for you!

    Ages 5-11yrs accompanied by an adult. Call the ICA Box Office for tickets on 020 7930 3647.

    1-3pm, Lower Gallery

Part of: Live Weekends: May 2010

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