Programme Provocations

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU: Love Letters to a (Post)Europe

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU sought to connect, exchange and witness through performance and assembly, and through the action, idea or form of a love letter. A programme of performance gatherings, discussion and a new publication conceived and curated by Lisa Alexander.

In the midst of rapid change, polarisation and crises of social imagination in the UK and mainland Europe, TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU suggests that small acts of imagination and friendship can become radical interventions. The programme built on Love Letters to a (Post)Europe that took place at Bios, Athens in 2015, in which twenty six artists created short works in an act of gifting and assembly.

Here. Now. A place to continue.

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU book launch at the Live Art Development Agency (LADA), London on 4 October 2018 included screenings of remote messages and readings of open letters with contributions from artists and writers involved.

The performance programme continued at Artsadmin Toynbee Studios, London on 5 and 6 October in a festival of short works, featuring performances and new commissions by over twenty artists including Kate Adams, Dean Atta, Laura Bridgeman, Season Butler, Brian Catling and David Tolley, cris cheek, Robin Deacon, Lin Hixson and Matthew Goulish, Catherine Hoffmann, Brian Lobel, Claire MacDonald, Graeme Miller, Jenny Moore, Ivana Müller, Daniel Oliver, Florence Peake, Maria Sideri, Marikiscrycrycry, Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir and Nikki Tomlinson alongside video works by Tim Etchells, Mikhail Karikis, and Erica Scourti and an intervention by Kleio Gizeli. 

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU then travelled to other parts of the UK including The Arts Centre, Ormskirk, The Institute for Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, Liverpool and ]performance space[ Folkestone.

“Love Letters to a (Post)Europe brought together a wide range of artists to consider the European crisis…connecting artistic practice and intervention with solidarity as a mode of visibility." Diana Damian Martin, Exeunt (2015)

“TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU could not be more timely. Whilst the artistic riches and influential thinking that have been generated through the relationships, collaborations and exchanges of ideas and practices between artists, writers, producers and cultural activists across Europe over the decades have opened up all kinds of connections and possibilities, the prospect of Brexit threatens to undo so much of what has been achieved by so many and to drastically diminish the cultural life of the UK.” Lois Keidan (2018)

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU is published by the Live Art Development Agency. The project is conceived and curated by Lisa Alexander supported using public funding by Arts Council England and has been developed in collaboration with Live Art Development Agency and Artsadmin with support from Counterpoints Arts. 

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU at Toynbee Studios 5 - 6 October 2018

The programme explored multiple, singular responses to a provocation as a mode of gathering and shared witness. The action, idea or form of a love letter is poetic and political guideline to a work that is otherwise brief and presented simply.

Responses were delivered on the Art Deco stage of Toynbee theatre off Commercial Street in London E1 almost exactly three years since the gathering in Athens. A handful of the artists who responded to the first provocation in Athens reframe or redevelop their works beside a series of new commissions near to a mural of the goddess Athena on the proscenium wall. The shift of context and political moment is not insignificant.

Scroll down for a trailer with excerpts from some of the artists responses.

Images and video documentation: Studio MaBa

Artsadmin Toynbee Studios Theatre:

FRIDAY 5 OCT
Laura Bridgeman
Brian Catling and David Tolley
Tim Etchells
Catherine Hoffmann
Mikhail Karikis
Claire MacDonald
Marikiscrycrycry
Ivana Müller
Daniel Oliver
Florence Peake
Maria Sideri

SATURDAY 6 OCT
Kate Adams
Dean Atta
Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir
Season Butler 
cris cheek
Robin Deacon
Lin Hixson and Matthew Goulish
Brian Lobel 
Jenny Moore
Erica Scourti
Nikki Tomlinson

and Kleio Gizeli (micro intervention)

Additional artists in tour: Tim Jeeves, Xristina Penna, Ernst Fischer, Carol Grimes, Local Foreigner, Audrey Green Oakes, Anka Zawiślak and a meal created by CUSTOM Folkestone

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU Publication

Edited by Lisa Alexander

Published by the Live Art Development Agency and supported using public funding by the Arts Council England

Read Introduction here

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU, Love Letters to a (Post)Europe is an intimate collection of letters, poetry and postscripts by artists and writers and marks a critical period in Europe’s recent past and present. The publication explores Love Letters to a (Post)Europe at Bios, Athens in 2015, in which twenty six artists created short works in an act of gifting and assembly and includes contributions from:

Kate Adams, Demosthenes Agrafiotis, Brian Catling & David Tolley, cris cheek, Robin Deacon, Tim Etchells, Alec Finlay, Matthew Goulish, Guy Harries, Steven C Harvey, Catherine Hoffmann, Wendy Houstoun, Mikhail Karikis, Brian Lobel, Claire MacDonald, Georgios Makkas, Ivana Müller, Mariela Nestora, Kira O’Reilly, Florence Peake, Erica Scourti, Maria Sideri, Anna Sherbany, Jungmin Song, Yoko Tawada, Nikki Tomlinson, a correspondence between Lisa Alexander and Mary Paterson, and an essay by Claire MacDonald.

The book designed by David Caines.

The Book launch took place on Thursday 4th October 2018 at the Live Art Development Agency , London

The evening included messages, readings and discussion with Lisa Alexander, Demosthenes Agrafiotis, Season Butler, Claire MacDonald, Mary Paterson and Maria Sideri. Documented by StudioMaBa (see link above)

TO YOU TO YOU TO YOU Contents page above - & - below poster from Athens event (2015) below - that programme and book build on

LOGOS_ALL_jpeg.jpg