Free entry
Saturday 2 November, 11am - 4pm
Gallery 2
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).
Take part in a mass Play-In of Tarot for Creativity. Adapted from a traditional Tarot deck, each card has an activity that encourages you to be creative in the gallery and collaborate in playful actions.
Psychic Bibliophiles is an intimate, durational, cross-cultural storytelling performance by Istanbul Queer Art Collective. The participants are encouraged to take their time selecting a card from Just In Bookcase, a suitcase full of 2000 books each representing a different book from the artists library that they had to disperse to migrate to the UK. Then the artists will tell the story of the chosen book, anecdotes of where it was bought, where it was read and where it might be now, as well as what it might mean that the participant chose this card out of so many: a card reading with a twist.
Artist Amy Leung will offer a workshop aimed at (but not exclusive to) under 5’s. She invites those taking part to use everyday materials a little differently to make collaborative sculptural forms inspired by the works of Lygia Clark and Sonia Boyce currently on show at the gallery.
Recommended age: There is something to suit children of any age, young people and adults.
Drop-in:
11am – 4pm: Tarot for Creativity, Gallery 2
11am – 4pm: Under 5s workshop with Amy Leung, Creative Studio
12pm – 3pm (Exact times TBC) : Psychic Bibliophiles, IQAC, Archive Reading Room
Those taking part get free entry to all our current exhibitions
Istanbul Queer Art Collective (IQAC) is a performance duo, founded by Tuna Erdem and Seda Ergul in 2012, based in London.
Their works have been exhibited at the ICA, Copeland Gallery, Ugly Duck in London, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Dzialdov, Berlin, Pose Gallery, Ark Kultur and Bilsart in Istanbul, Museum Kurhaus Kleve in Kleve, and Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe, Beyond the Wall Festival in Nogales, Mexico, among others.
They have performed at venues such as Mimosa House, Goldsmiths CCA, Studio Voltaire, as well as at various art events worldwide, including the Zürcher Theatre Spektakel and Les Belles de Nuit in Zurich, Athens Sound Acts Festival in Greece, If Independent Film Festival and Mamut Art Fair in Istanbul, Art Gallery Weekend in Amsterdam, Knotty Festival of Performance in Hastings and Deep Trash, Queer Migrant Takeover, and NSA: Queer Salon in London.
Statement:
IQAC engages in live art with a view that the documentation of performance is an art form in itself. Their performances embody radical drag and explore the queer art of failure. IQAC performs everywhere from art galleries to public spaces, from wild nature to cabaret stages; sometimes to live audiences expecting to see them, sometimes to the unsuspecting passersby and sometimes to the camera. Their performances range from the durational to the intimate and at times can morph towards other forms like sound art or installation, always embracing the art of re-enactment and remake, with a strong emphasis on storytelling.
Amy Leung is a London based artist working across sculpture, drawing and workshops to explore the articulation and communication of joy. She is an arts educator and is interested in the intersections in which community, craft, objects and cultural identity meet.
As an established freelance arts facilitator she has worked with Bow Arts, Create, Drawing Room, Firstsite, GOSH, MK Gallery, The National Gallery, National Maritime Museum, October Gallery,
Royal Academy, Royal Society of Sculptors, Saatchi Gallery, SLG, Towner Eastbourne.
