Stories of Rights and Protest

Mansions of the Future announces Stories of Rights and Protest, the 2019 artist commission programme and the 1st Annual Lincoln Keynotes on Culture Lecture by Kathrin Böhm.

Launched in 2018, Mansions of the Future is a multifaceted social art project, based within a public space designed by artist Kathrin Böhm. Situated in Lincoln, an ancient city that holds manuscripts of the Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest, key texts in the articulation of human rights, the project addresses the relationship between art, culture and democracy through international artists’ commissions.

Mansions of the Future’s pilot year explored notions of culture and power through public commissions—including Now it is Permitted by artist Bridget Smith, Medusa’s Ankles by film-maker Bonnie Wright and a philosopher in residence, Ayisha de Lanerolle. Seasons reflecting on protest were curated around key works Wild City by artist Liz Davis, No Friend but the Mountain by writer Behrouz Boochani and Remain by photographer Hoda Afshar.

Stories of Rights & Protest 
In Summer and Autumn of 2019 Mansions of the Future continues the conversation around culture, power and democracy in dialogic and international art commissions curated by Clare Cumberlidge & Co. The works connect the complex heritage of the city with urgent contemporary realities:

The Free and the Unfree a durational work by Ruth Beale, is a series of public and private exchanges around definitions of freedom culminating in a radio play exploring possible futures.

Order, composed by Orlando Gough, directed by Emma Bernard, sung by Melanie Pappenheim and Esme Herbert. An intimate voice performance in the historic Guildhall council chamber articulating the rituals and dynamics of power.

Desire Lines by Alicja Rogalska is a speculative work using the heritage and vital contemporary role of Lincoln’s co-operative movement to provide an alternative guide to the city focusing on citizen’s political desires for the future.

We Will Not Repent: Bahia Shehab, first female winner of the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture will produce her inaugural UK street art work in Lincoln.

Laura Wilson will create a performance working with the material and labour histories of the city, in a collaboration between Mansions of the Future and The Collection.
 

The 1st annual Lincoln Keynote on Culture
Kathrin Böhm, Mansions of the Future Inaugural Artist

Mansions of the Future was developed with the premise of hosting and celebrating the city’s different cultural activities, groups and interests. Through her commission Culture is A Verb Böhm asked: how can such a space be set up to be used? How can the idea of openness be communicated? Böhm’s art practice focuses on the production of collective public spaces. Her Culture is a Verb saw the ground floor equipped with infrastructure and design, and a pilot programme of public events which promoted culture through action. In her lecture Böhm will reflect on the concept of usership in art, as a strategy which rejects spectatorship, considering how art can be applied and used in order to support public spaces which are shaped by their numerous possibilities—welcoming a broadness of practices, a richness of aesthetics and a multitude of identities.

Further information on the commissions and supporting public programme of activity can be found online at: www.mansionsofthefuture.org

Stories of Rights and Protest is commissioned by Clare Cumberlidge & Co and delivered by the curatorial and production team of Mansions of the Future.

Newly appointed Artistic Director Kerry Campbell will launch the legacy year in October 2019, with a season of activity dedicated to Urban Form: Social Architecture & the Commons.

In collaboration with Lincoln Cultural and Arts Partnership, Mansions of the Future is supported by Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence fund. The project was conceived, developed and launched by curatorial and communications agency Thirteen Ways and has been made possible with the generous support of community partners and donors, including the University of Lincoln, Lincolnshire Co-op, Lincoln BIG, Lincoln Cathedral, City of Lincoln Council and Bishops Grosseteste University.