Image credits: Daniella Valz Gen
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Book NowThu 24 Apr, 6.30pm
Gallery 2
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
Access requirements
The Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
About This Event
This event takes place in Gallery 2 at Whitechapel Gallery, located on the ground floor.
This event lasts approximately 1 hour. There are no rest breaks currently scheduled during this event.
You must purchase a ticket to attend the event. Concession tickets are available. If you require a Personal Assistant to support your attendance, we can offer them a seat free of charge, but it must be arranged in advance.
If the ticket price affects your attendance, please email tickets@whitechapelgallery.org to be added to the guest list (no questions asked, but dependent on availability).
This event is suitable for those over the age of 16
We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event
We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
An audio recording of the event can be obtained by emailing publicprogrammes@whitechapelgallery.org following the event.
Transport
To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
Live Recording
Please note: we audio record all events for the Whitechapel Gallery Archive and possible future online publication via Soundcloud.
Live Recording
Please note: we audio record all events for the Whitechapel Gallery Archive and possible future online publication via Soundcloud.
In its origin, the word soothsayer means one who speaks the truth in Old English, while contemporary dictionaries list the word as meaning one who attempts to predict the future, a diviner.
In classical culture the sybils – another term for a soothsayer – delivered messages through their spoken words. Often cryptic in nature, their prophecies had a way of demonstrating the unavoidable nature of fate, though she was often dismissed as a charlatan when her predictions were not aligned with the desires of those who sought her words.
The image of the sybil, oracle, fortune teller, witch or soothsayer, has evoked curiosity and fear throughout time, often being the subject of ridicule.
Soothsayer is an experimental poetic ritual of divination through a live reading of the sky and the atmosphere in Gallery 2 during the performance. Composed live in collaboration with experimental musician Ana Tiene (F*choir, Trouble Wanted), Soothsayer enacts oracular practice in real time and explores the ritual nature of percussion as a conduit for divination.
Soothsayer is the last iteration of a series of expanded poetry, performances and texts by 2024-25 Writer in Residence Daniella Valz Gen that reclaim, reimagine and embody mythological characters that have been othered, misunderstood or misrepresented.
Find out more about Daniella’s residency here.
Process-led, Daniella Valz Gen’s work explores poetic experience through different forms of reading, writing, performing and making. They’re invested in a relational and responsive approach to land, place, and the other-than-human. Born in Peru and based in London, Valz Gen’s work highlights the interstices between languages, cultures and value systems as areas where potential new meanings can arise.
(Be)longing (2019) realised site-specific landscape interventions examining migration and ecology in post Brexit Britain. In 2022 Valz Gen took part in the OrganizmoBloom residency, ‘Body, Weaving and Territory’ (British Council/European Alternatives) in an indigenous community in the Amazon, which gave space for an immersive process of evaluation of indigenous technologies, in relation to language, environment and craft.
Valz Gen’s work has been shown at Glasgow International, SPILL Festival, Aichi Triennale, Gropius Bau among others. Subversive Economies, their first poetry collection, was published by PSS Press in 2018. Their writing has been featured in The Happy Hypocrite, Map Magazine, Salt, and others.
Ana Tiene is an experimental self-taught musician trained in traditional Brazilian percussion. Ana works with children, plays drums with iconic queer band Trouble Wanted, and sings with the gender bending F*Choir.
