The Dream radio

A 24/7 radio broadcast exploring dreaming as a radical act of imagination, co-curated by Turner Prize winner and Somerset House Studios artist Tai Shani.

Under the seemingly unbreakable spell of capitalism, a strange blue figure is sleeping in the Somerset House courtyard, a dreamer caught in a suspended state. The dreamer has been sleeping through warnings of present and future catastrophes, the violence of colonialism, environmental collapse, social breakdown and geo-political turmoil. But the dreamer also dreams of resistance against the fairytale of empire, of renewal and new imaginaries. It invites a communal, intergenerational intervention to imagine, wonder, and dream alongside it.

Dreaming is a radical act of imagination, and in dialogue with The Spell, Tai Shani’s stunning new sculpture, the artist has co-curated The Dream, a 24/7 radio broadcast which imagines other ways of being and building together, of dreaming radical new futures.

Featuring original contributions from artists, writers, thinkers, ecologists, and academics including Yanis Varoufakis, Hannah Black, Jay Bernard, Mark Leckey, Anne Boyer, Brian Eno and The Palestinian Sound Archive, The Dream radio will broadcast 24 hours a day for the duration of the installation. It includes three brand new narrative commissions for radio by artists Cécile B Evans, Cecilia Vicuña and Moor Mother.

Through the day and overnight the radio will trawl deep through the archives of artists, musicians and radio stations playing a selection of old radio documentaries, sound works, plays, audio books, music playlists and conversations.

Full programme and schedule will be announced in July.

Poet, musician and activist, Moor Mother (aka Camae Ayewa) has developed a new piece for radio, drawing inspiration from the Old Testament and playing with ideas of ancestry and time.
Visual artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña, has created a new experimental sound piece with ongoing collaborators Ricardo Gallo, Satoshi Takeishi and Daniel Neumann meditating on humanity’s possible extinction in the face of planetary crisis.
Artist Cécile B Evans’ has produced an adaptation of French surrealist Antonin Artaud’s play ‘A Spurt of Blood’.
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Poet, musician and activist, Moor Mother (aka Camae Ayewa) has developed a new piece for radio, drawing inspiration from the Old Testament and playing with ideas of ancestry and time.

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Visual artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña, has created a new experimental sound piece with ongoing collaborators Ricardo Gallo, Satoshi Takeishi and Daniel Neumann meditating on humanity’s possible extinction in the face of planetary crisis.

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Artist Cécile B Evans’ has produced an adaptation of French surrealist Antonin Artaud’s play ‘A Spurt of Blood’.

Full List of Contributors to The Spell or the Dream

Adelita Husni Bey, Aja Barber, Alia Al Ghussain, Andrea Khôra, Anne Boyer, Ayesha Hameed, Aura Satz, Basyma Saad, Brian Eno, Cécile B Evans, Cecilia Vicuña, Charlie Fox, Dalia Gebrial, David Wengrow, Duval Timothy, Ear Hustle, Eileen Myles, Elaine Mitchner, Emily LaBarge, Farhana Yamin, Felicita, Gary Stevenson, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, Hannah Black, Hannah Proctor, Huw Lemmey, IONE, Jason Hickel, Jay Bernard, Jayati Ghosh, Jamie Sutcliffe, Jemma Desai, Jenna Sutela, Johanna Hedva, Juliet Jacques, K Allado McDowell, Kanta Dihal, Katie Shannon, Kojo Koram, KMRU, Lola Olufemi, Lucy Winkett, Mark Leckey, Maxine Peake, Max Porter, Maxwell Sterling, Micha Frazer Caroll, Mo’min Swaitat from the Palestinian Sound Archive, Montez radio, Moor Mother, Mykki Blanco, Nat Raha, Ohal Grietzer, Omar Barghouti, Radio Atlas, Radio Commons, Reggie Watts, RIP Germain, Roy Claire Potter, Sam Keogh, Sarah Shin, Sarathy Korwar, Sophia Al Maria, Sophie Jung, Suzanne Treister, Tanya Tagaq, UbuWeb, Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, XMTR, Yanis Varoufakis, Zadie Xa.

The Spell or The Dream

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