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Z20 Gallery, Rome
10 March, 6.30pm

As part of the exhibition WALLED GARDENS IN AN INSANE EDEN, and exploring the theme of art as therapy, Florence Peake will reprise her performance of Voicings for the first time in Rome.

“Is it only the external landscape which is altering? How often recently most of us have had the feeling of déjà vu, of having seen all this before, in fact of remembering these swamps and lagoons all too well. However selective the conscious mind may be, most biological memories are unpleasant ones, echoes of danger and terror. Nothing endures for so long as fear.”
            - J.G. Ballard from The Drowned World (1962)

In line with the prevailing mood across Europe after an overthrow of political certainties in 2016, this exhibition curated by Marcelle Joseph features the artwork of seven London-based artists brought to Rome, many for the first time. Hijacking a phrase from The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard’s first science fiction novel and one of his London-based dystopic tales, Walled Gardens in an Insane Eden portrays the world we live in today - on the precipice but hopeful for a less fragile future.

As part of this exhibition and exploring the theme of art as therapy, Florence Peake will reprise her performance of Voicings for the first time in Rome. Previous iterations of this performance have taken place at Serpentine Gallery, London (2016); Modern Art Oxford (2015); Somerset House in London for Block Universe 2015; and at a group show in Athens in 2015. For this performance, Peake will actively channel both physically and orally the personal losses and political concerns of various audience members, acting as a conduit between imagined and material place as she embodies the collective spirit of the audience. In Voicings, the idea of the collective is held as a resource - You, Me and Us are used as a way to access and articulate questions of personal, group and global concern. Voicings responds with optimistic candour to questions of authenticity, the bogus and the real, truth and trickery.

The exhibition features work from: 

Rebecca Ackroyd, Gabriella Boyd, Rhys Coren, Kira Freije, Marie Jacotey, Florence Peake, Zadie Xa