southbank centre`s festival of love listings festival of love exhibitions

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S FESTIVAL OF LOVE LISTINGS
FESTIVAL OF LOVE EXHIBITIONS AND ART INSTALLATIONS
28 June to 7 September
WHAT LOVE IS EXHIBITION
Open daily from 10am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Free
Artist Lothar Götz has created Seven Colours for Seven Loves, an artwork that gives a colour to
each type of love, which will help guide visitors around the site and the introductory exhibition
What Love Is in Queen Elizabeth Hall, curated by Southbank Centre with a design concept by
Hemingway Design. A visitor and interpretation centre for Festival of Love, What Love Is will
introduce visitors to Festival of Love’s seven elements of love with giant maps to guide visitors
around the festival site and a bar, The Love Inn, featuring seven cocktails each designed to bring
on one of the seven types of love – Storge , Agape , Ludus , Philia , Pragma, Eros or even Philautia.
The exhibition will be a visual encyclopaedia of this summer’s Southbank Centre festival and will
also include an information kiosk, photos, films and text. Götz’s colours will flow out of What Love
Is around the site.
LOVE FLAGS BY MARK TITCHNER
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall roofs, Jubilee Garden pole, Free
Turner-prize nominee Mark Titchner has created the artwork for this summer’s festival flags, 42 of
which will fly from Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall roofs, with one large flag flying
from the flagpole on Jubilee Gardens. Titchner drew his inspiration from the idea of a love knot,
and has unified Festival of Love’s seven types of love into a bold flag motif. An artist who often
works with text, Titchner chose to create the word Love using the seven colours of the rainbow,
referencing the strong connection of the rainbow colours with both the peace and gay pride
movements. The rainbow colours will move through a smooth gradient across the flags, giving a
sense of movement as the flags run around the site. The text is set against a bright blue
background, and Titchner’s hope is that the word Love will appear as if floating against the bright
blue sky on sunny summer days. Titchner’s Love Flags artwork will also be animated on digital
screens across the site showing the love text as a love knot idea; merging, unravelling and
reforming.
SLIDING GATE
Festival Terrace alongside Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Designed by Sean Griffiths, previously of legendary architecture firm FAT, five play slides will be
installed alongside the Royal Festival Hall. The slides will vary in height, and will be up 2.5m high
and 3.5m long. Members of the public are encouraged to ride the slides as an evocation of the ups
and downs of family life and the strong bonds between families. The installation celebrates all
aspects of family love in the form of a play structure that will allow parents, children and
commuters to interact on two monumental gateways, which incorporate slides. Visitors will be
able to re-enact the moment when a parent meets a child at the bottom of a slide – always a
milestone in family life. Commuters and visitors will be able to recall and recreate a joyous
moment of childhood as they interrupt their journey to work with a whizz down the slide.
TEMPLE OF AGAPE
10am-9pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen’s Walk along the riverside, Free
Created by artists Morag Myerscough and Luke Morgan, this temple, made up of hundreds of
large scale hand-painted flag-like signs, covered in words about love and in a riot of bright colours,
will at its highest point be 8m high, and will provide a place for celebration and shared thoughts.
Tying into the Agape theme – love of humanity – the temple will represent the power of love to
conquer hate. On the side of the temple will be the Martin Luther King Jr quote:
‘And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only
answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't
popular to talk about it in some circles today. And I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk
about love; I'm talking about a strong, demanding love.’
The Temple of Agape will provide a stunning backdrop for the festival finale Big Wedding
Weekend (30 and 31 August), and there will be love seats behind the temple, overlooking the
river, providing a place to sit and contemplate love in all its guises. There will be a new temporary
staircase leading out of the temple and connecting the riverside with Southbank Centre’s Riverside
Terrace on Level 2.
TUNNEL OF LOVE
10am-11pm, Spirit Level at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
This Tunnel of Love pays homage to the naughty fairground rides of yesteryear, as a throwback to
the days when couples would escape to the darkness of a Tunnel of Love to cuddle up. Curated by
creative arts organisation Heart n Soul, who work with artists and participants with learning
disabilities to make innovative new art, this multi-sensory, multi-media, interactive installation
comes complete with a soundtrack of giggles and love songs, vibrating floors, fruity smells, a giant
Twister mat and live performances by Heart n Soul artists. On Wednesdays Heart n Soul
performers will be on hand in The Pig Powder Room as toilet attendants/fortune tellers/agony
aunts, providing make up, love advice and helping people get ready for a hot date all with a pig
twist.
HEARTBREAK HOTEL
Sunday – Wednesday 11am-8pm, Thursday – Saturday 11am-11pm, Southbank Centre’s Festival
Village, Free
Architecture and design practice Lyn Atelier will create a 1970s motel in the bowels of Southbank
Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The space will include a neon sign by Chris Bracey, a pop up cocktail
bar run by Department of Good Cheer, an exhibition of responses from Jackie magazine Agony
Aunts Cathy and Claire and the I Think I Love You Lounge – a dress up karaoke lounge by Jessica
Voorsanger with portraits in oil as inspiration.
HEARTBREAK HOTEL NEON BY CHRIS BRACEY
Southbank Centre’s Festival Village, Free
For Festival of Love, Chris Bracey has created a unique neon artwork to welcome visitors to the
Heartbreak Hotel. Chris Bracey began his career designing signs for Soho sex shops, but it wasn’t
until he saw American light artist Bruce Nauman’s exhibition at Southbank Centre’s Hayward
Gallery in the 1970s that Bracey realised neon could be considered art. Since then he has gone on
to create pieces for films directed by Stanley Kubrick, Tim Burton and Paul Greengrass and
collaborate with Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Vivenne Westwood and David La Chappelle.
DEAR CATHY & CLAIRE
Sunday – Wednesday 11am-8pm, Thursday – Saturday 11am-11pm, Southbank Centre’s Festival
Village, Free
As part of Heartbreak Hotel, publishers DC Thomson have helped Southbank Centre create an
exhibition of responses from Jackie magazine Agony Aunts Cathy and Claire. The installation will
be a recreation of a 1970s style office, similar to the one where Jackie magazine was produced,
featuring sacks of Agony Aunt mail and a typewriter. Although Cathy and Claire did not actually
exist as individuals, DC Thomson staff shared the letters between them and guaranteed everyone
who sent an SAE a reply. Cathy and Claire’s replies will be exhibited on the walls, alongside Jackie
magazine Valentine edition covers from the 70s.
I THINK I LOVE YOU LOUNGE BY JESSICA VOORSANGER
Sunday – Wednesday 11am-8pm, Thursday – Saturday 11am-11pm, Southbank Centre’s Festival
Village, Free
Exploring the love of celebrity, in this installation visitors can take inspiration from Jessica
Voorsanger’s portraits in oil, dress up and sing karaoke as their favourite pop star. Voorsanger is
an American artist who examines the concept of celebrity within popular culture – through
obsession, fans and media representation. This work explores the idea that adulation often takes
the form of imitation. The installation is a 1970s swinger’s living room with sofas, shag-pile carpet,
bean bags, velvet drapes, mirrors, mood lighting, dressing up and make up areas, disco balls and
oil paintings of pop stars from the 1950s onwards. Beneath each portrait there will be wigs,
costumes and accessories to enable dressing up as each pop star. Participants can then perform
live as their chosen pop star in a karaoke set up. There will be poster prints of the oil paintings and
marker pens throughout the installation so that visitors can graffiti them with messages for and
about their idols, in reference to sites like Abbey Road, which is covered in graffiti to The Beatles.
Pop stars across the decades have been chosen by Voorsanger and will include; Elvis, Chuck Berry,
Diana Ross, The Beatles, David Cassidy, David Bowie, Abba, Blondie, Michael Jackson, Adam Ant,
Kate Bush, Jarvis Cocker, KD Lang, the Spice Girls, Amy Winehouse and Beyoncé.
MUSEUM OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS
Sunday – Wednesday 11am-8pm, Thursday – Saturday 11am-11pm, Southbank Centre’s Festival
Village, Free
Set up by artists and ex-lovers Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić in 2006, this award-winning
collection of remnants of past relationships comes to Festival of Love this summer. The Museum
of Broken Relationships has a permanent exhibition in Croatia as well as a collection which travels
the world, and revolves around the concept of failed relationships and their ruins. The Museum
offers a chance to overcome an emotional break-up through creation: by contributing to the
Museum’s collection. 60 items from the collection will be coming to Southbank Centre, including
one half of a pair of handcuffs from Singapore and a Slovenian sleepover bag from a relationship
that included 20 breakups over 17 years. Members of the public can donate remnants of their
broken love lives, commemorating their past break-ups and relationship breakdowns, and
Southbank Centre is looking to add up to 40 items to the collection. Those who wish to unburden
the emotional load of a painful experience can donate to the exhibition and take part in the
creation of collective emotional history by filling in the donation form at
http://brokenships.com/en/join/london_donations
HAPPY TOGETHER
10am-11pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Artist Lothar Götz has create a palette of colours defining the seven aspects of love for Festival of
Love. All Götz’s works possess a colour-coding system developed in response to a site's particular
physical qualities. He will transform The Clore Ballroom with a giant floor painting, Happy
Together, incorporating the seven defining colours for love. Placed on the sunken ballroom floor,
the effect will be as if visitors are stepping into a swimming pool made up of the Festival of Love
colours, and will evoke ballroom dances of years gone by.
TANABATA FUKINAGASHI DECORATIONS
Balcony on The Clore Ballroom overlooking Southbank Centre Square, Free
Celebrating the Japanese festival of Tanabata, colourful giant streamers (fukinagashi) will be
installed on the balcony overlooking Southbank Centre Square. The Tanabata legend focuses on
two star-crossed lovers. Represented by the stars Vega and Altair, Orihime the Weaving Princess
and Hikoboshi the cowherd are only allowed to meet once a year on the seventh day of the
seventh month by crossing the Heavenly River (Milky Way).
In partnership with the Japan Society and the Embassy of Japan.
PRAGMA TREE: GROWING TOGETHER BY THE EDIBLE BUS STOP
Southbank Centre Square, Free
The Edible Bus Stop will create a playful installation symbolising Pragma, or enduring love.
Situated in Southbank Centre’s market place, seating will be centred around a mature living tree,
planted as a symbol of growth and putting down roots. The installation will be made up of four
pairs of single person seats. On one side of each pair of seats will be an overhead shelter, and on
the other side will be a table. Each side needs each other, and when put together each seat
becomes more than the sum of its parts. The moveable seating will enable people to sit close to
their loved one or give them space, with sensory planting set within the seating, made up of
Mediterranean herbs including thyme. Originating as a guerrilla gardening project adjacent to a
bus stop in South London, The Edible Bus Stop engages with urban communities to encourage the
transformation of neglected sites into design-led growing spaces. The collective made the highlypopular wheelbarrow roller coaster, made up of mini edible gardens and wheelbarrow seating, for
Southbank Centre’s Festival of Neighbourhood last summer.
SIEGE WEAPONS OF LOVE BY ZOE WALKER AND NEIL BROMWICH
10am-11pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Giant pink inflatable cannons and a tank made by artists Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich, inviting
us to make love not war, will be installed in Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Siege Weapons
of Love is the latest development in Walker and Bromwich’s Friendly Frontier Peace Campaign,
and has at its heart the aim to spread a bit more love and peace in the world. The artists invite the
public to join a symbolic finale parade on the closing weekend of the Festival to spread peace, love
and happiness in the world, to remind us that love is a human right and invite action for peace.
The Love Cannon was originally commissioned by Ateliers d’artistes des Arques France, has
featured at Big Chill Festival and is part of Amnesty International’s campaign Love is a Human
Right.
THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER
Popular features across the site will return for the summer including:
JEPPE HEIN’S APPEARING ROOMS FOUNTAIN
Saturday 3 May – Sunday 7 September (open every day except Mondays, excluding bank holidays),
10am-9pm, Outside Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Free
Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms makes a welcome return to the space outside the Queen Elizabeth
Hall this summer. Combining sculpture with architecture and technology to playfully solicit the
viewer’s direct participation, jets of water shoot into the air, creating 'rooms' that disappear as
quickly as they emerge, inviting visitors of all ages to try their luck at predicting its next move.
Hein’s aquatic sculpture Appearing Rooms was first installed at Southbank Centre in 2007.
SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S LOVE BEACH
Saturday 28 June – Sunday 7 September, 10am-9pm, Queen’s Walk, Free
Southbank Centre’s popular riverside urban beach returns.
ROOF GARDEN AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL
Open now until late September, 10am until 10pm daily (weather dependent), Free
The Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden, designed by the Eden Project and maintained by Grounded
Ecotherapy gardeners, is a true oasis at the heart of Southbank Centre, with stunning riverside
views, Company of Cooks cafe bar, wildflower meadow, mini allotments and a woodland garden.
JUBILEE GARDENS STAGE
Various dates and times throughout the summer, Jubilee Gardens, Free
This year for the first time Southbank Centre will create pop-up stages throughout the summer on
Jubilee Gardens. Scheduled events include a choir performance during James Lavelle’s Meltdown
Festival and a picnic with poetry readings for Poetry International Festival.
SOUTHBANK CENTRE HISTORY TOURS
Saturday 7, 14, 21, 28 June, 2pm, Meet at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Ticket Desk,
£8.50, (£7.50 for groups of four or more)
A chance to find out more about Southbank Centre’s architecture and roots in the 1951 Festival of
Britain on this guided tour. Runs for approximately one hour.
Southbank Centre also facilitates special requests to run tours on other dates and times.
[email protected]
SOUTHBANK CENTRE ARCHITECTURE TOURS
Thursday 5, 12, 19, 26 June, 12pm, Meet at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Ticket Desk,
£8.50, (£7.50 for groups of four or more)
A chance to explore the unique design and architecture of Southbank Centre on this guided tour.
Runs for approximately one hour.
Southbank Centre also facilitates special requests to run tours on other dates and times.
[email protected]
SOUTHBANK CENTRE FESTIVAL OF LOVE TOURS
Thursday 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 July & 6, 13, 20, 27 August, 12pm, Meet at Southbank Centre’s Royal
Festival Hall Ticket Desk, £8.50, (£7.50 for groups of four or more)
A Southbank Centre tour that gives the inside scoop on our Festival of Love.
Runs for approximately one hour.
Southbank Centre also facilitates special requests to run tours on other dates and at varying times.
[email protected]
SOUTHBANK CENTRE BEHIND THE SCENES TOURS
July, dates and times vary see website for details, Meet at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Ticket Desk, £8.50, (£7.50 for groups of four or more)
A chance to experience the inner workings of Southbank Centre’s amazing venues.
Runs for approximately one hour.
Southbank Centre also facilitates special requests to run tours on other dates and times.
[email protected]
UDDERBELLY FESTIVAL AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE
Until Sunday 13 July
The big purple cow is back for a sixth year. Highlights include circus performance A Simple Space,
amazing juggling from Smashed, hit comedians Gina Yashere, Stephen K Amos, Richard Herring
and Ed Byrne, and for the first time in two years Frisky and Mannish take to the stage to mark the
beginning of a new pop-comedy-mashup-infotainment era. This year the pasture features a
Festival of Love-themed Beach Bar and Love Shack.
LONDON WONDERGROUND AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE
Wednesday 7 May – Sunday 28 September
London Wonderground returns for a third dazzling year of circus, cabaret and family shows,
alongside sideshows, outdoor performance spaces and bars. This year sees the return of last year’s
smash hit circus show LIMBO, as well as seasons from cabaret diva Meow Meow, darkly comic
musical maestros The Tiger Lillies and the award winning all male, all vaudeville cast of Briefs.
MAY LISTINGS
LIMBO
Wednesday 7 May – Sunday 17 August, London Wonderground at Southbank Centre, tickets from
£15, For ages 12+
Back by popular demand, LIMBO fires up Southbank Centre once more. Hot on the heels of an
international tour, the original cast returns to whisk audiences into a sinister netherworld of jawdropping contortion, gut-churning aerial acrobatics, nail-biting stunts and staggering illusions. It is
directed by Scott Maidment, and set to Sxip Shirey's live score of brass, electronics and hip-hop.
FRANCES STARK: LOOK, READ ALONG WITH ME…
Wednesday 21 May – Sunday 13 July, Monday 12pm-6pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday,
Sunday: 10am-6pm, Thursday, Friday: 10am-8pm, Hayward Gallery Project Space, Free
Two amusing and strangely moving video installations by American artist and writer Frances Stark
will be presented in the Hayward Gallery Project Space. Exploring how internet technologies have
transformed interpersonal communication, Stark’s My Best Thing (2011) is a feature-length
computer-animated video that presents far ranging conversations between two digital avatars,
representing the artist and a couple of strangers she met in an online forum. Mozart’s opera Don
Giovanni provides the soundtrack for the namesake Osservate, leggete con me (2012), in which
Stark projects snippets of written conversations with nine different online partners.
ON LOVE – A WEEKEND CELEBRATING TWO LOVE CLASSICS
Friday 30 May – Sunday 1 June
Southbank Centre will set the scene for Festival of Love with a taster weekend of talks, debates
and performances on Friday 30 May to Sunday 1 June, featuring dramatisations of two of the
greatest works ever written about love: Plato’s Symposium and Shakespeare’s sonnets. Plato’s
timeless definitions of the nature of love and Shakespeare’s series of 154 love poems will usher in
a whole summer of thinking about love and what love means to individuals and to the world at
large. Surrounding these great performances, there will be a free programme of talks and
activities to bring audiences closer to these archetypal works of love literature. You can stitch a
sonnet into a handkerchief, create edible poetry, watch Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, hear
hip-hop responses to Shakespeare’s sonnets, read a sonnet in a mass Shakespearean sonnet
readathon, and hear what happens when we lock poets in The Saison Poetry Library at midnight
and give them 12 hours to come up with 154 new poems inspired by Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
PLATO'S SYMPOSIUM
Friday 30 – Saturday 31 May, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15, £10
Some of the finest thinkers in Ancient Greece come together for a drinking party to discuss the
nature of love. What is it? Where does it come from? What does it mean to be in love? Whether
it's erotic or platonic, the love of self, family or country, each guest makes a case for a different
type of love and why it matters. Plato's Symposium is possibly the most influential book about love
ever written, setting out the differences between 'erotic' and 'platonic' love and including the
origin of the idea that each of us need to find our 'other half.' This modern adaptation by
Southbank Centre’s Head of Literature & Spoken Word James Runcie, involves actors and
musicians exploring whether love really is the meaning of life.
Some of the free events during this weekend include:
LOVE BITES
Saturday 31 May, 2.30-6.30pm, The Front Room at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Free
Seven speakers will look at the seven Greek themes of love inspiring Festival of Love. Love Bites
are short digestible and informal ponderings to encourage group discussion around each theme.
THE MANY FACES OF LOVE
Saturday 31 May, 11am-5pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Participants – whether you are a beginner at poetry or have been writing for years – are invited to
take part in poetry creating workshops in accordance with Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man. With
incrEDIBLE Poetry, edible poem drop in workshops, and a sew a sonnet into a Shakespearean
handkerchief session, there is something for all ages at our Seven Sonnet Activity Stations.
BAZ LURHMANN’S ROMEO AND JULIET
Saturday 31 May, 7-9.15pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest love stories of all time. Baz Luhrmann’s
1996 film adaptation will be shown on The Clore Ballroom and members of the public are invited
to dress up as a character from the film’s famous ball scene – as Claire Danes’s angel or Leonardo
DiCaprio’s knight – and immerse themselves in this story.
JUNE LISTINGS
THE IRON TONGUE OF MIDNIGHT
Sunday 1 June, 11am, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Using the 154 Shakespearean Sonnets as inspiration, poets Dan Simpson and Niall O'Sullivan will
be locked in The Saison Poetry Library at midnight and given 12 hours to come up with 154 new
poems. They will tweet at #IronTongueOfMidnight throughout the night so you can see what a
poem looks like at 4am. Join them on The Clore Ballroom at 11am on Sunday 1st June to hear some
bleary-eyed readings and an installation of their midnight ponderings.
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS
Sunday 1 June, 5pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £25, £20, £15, £10
Part one: 5pm – 6.30pm; Part two: 7.15pm – 9pm
To mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, all 154 Shakespearean Sonnets will be read
in Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall by some of the finest actors and poets, led by Simon
Russell Beale and Harriet Walter.
THE PEOPLE’S SONNETS
Sunday 1 June, 10am-12pm Queen’s Walk, 12.30-2.30pm Riverside Terrace, 3-5pm Hayward
Terrace, Free
Ahead of the Shakespeare’s Sonnets event, there will be The People’s Sonnets. Southbank Centre
is calling out for readers of all ages to learn a sonnet and recite it in a marathon reading. Please
contact [email protected] for details of how to register to read.
HIP-HOP SHAKESPEARE – ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
Sunday 1 June, 12-3pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Founded in 2009 by MOBO award-winning hip hop artist Akala, The Hip-hop Shakespeare
Company is a music theatre production company aimed at exploring the social, cultural and
linguistic parallels between the works of Shakespeare and modern day hip-hop culture. THSC also
produce interactive live music events and theatre productions showcasing the work of up and
coming young talent who share the stage with established artists, poets and actors. Some of the
exciting new talent from THSC’s Peer Leader artist collective will perform a series of musical
responses and reinterpretations in celebration of Shakespeare’s legendary Sonnets.
SOUTHBANK CENTRE BOOK CLUB AFTER LEAVING MR MACKENZIE
Wednesday 11 June, 6.30pm, J.P. Morgan Pavilion at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Jean Rhys's novel After Leaving Mr Mackenzie will be discussed at this summer book club session.
Extraordinarily modern in 1930, this story of a woman struggling to salvage both life and love after
the humiliating end of an affair feels as relevant today as it did 80 years ago.
Please note this free event requires a ticket.
THE HUMAN FACTOR: THE FIGURE IN CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE
17 June – 7 September, Monday 12pm-6pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10am-6pm,
Thursday, Friday: 10am-8pm, Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery, £10 (concessions available)
The Human Factor surveys how artists over the past 25 years have reinvented figurative sculpture,
looking back to earlier movements in art history and drawing on contemporary imagery. The first
show of its kind on this scale, the exhibition focuses on sculpture that explores a variety of social,
political, cultural and historical concerns and incorporates diverse references ranging from science
fiction to war monuments, from popular photography to art history. Encompassing a wide array of
recent practices from hyper-realistic sculptures to near-abstract assemblages, The Human Factor
focuses on works that relate to a human scale. Works by over 20 leading international artists are
featured: including Pawel Althamer, Frank Benson, Huma Bhabha, Katharina Fritsch, Ryan Gander,
Rachel Harrison, Georg Herold, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, John Miller, Cady
Noland, Ugo Rondinone, Yinka Shonibare, Thomas Schütte, Paloma Varga Weisz, Rebecca Warren,
Andro Wekua and Cathy Wilkes. Across their works, the figure is a catalyst for exploring concerns
from political violence and mortality to sexuality and voyeurism.
UNCANNY FIGURES
Monday 23 June, 7pm, Level 5 Function Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £8
To coincide with The Human Factor, this is a conversation between artists and curators about the
ways artists are re-visiting and re-wiring classical models of sculpture to engage contemporary
concerns. With artists Ryan Gander and Mark Wallinger, Tate Britain Director Penelope Curtis and
Hayward Gallery Director and exhibition curator Ralph Rugoff.
FESTIVAL OF LOVE OPENING WEEKEND
Saturday 28 June – Sunday 29 June, £15 Day Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
This weekend is the first of differently-themed weekends throughout the Festival of Love. The
opening weekend will explore the seven concepts of love from Ancient Greece that Southbank
Centre has built the festival around. Southbank Centre will looks at love’s place in society and how
humans express and experience love, with talks, workshops and performances. Subjects include
the place of love in struggles for liberation and whether love needs to be at the heart of any social
justice movement, led by Shami Chakrabarti; couples who have been together for decades will
read their love letters of old and talk about what it feels like to commit, love and be loved over
generations; and romantic love will be investigated – was Toni Morrison right when she said
romantic love was ‘one of the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought’? Other
subjects include self-love, and whether we know how to tell good forms of self-love from bad
forms; lost love, heartbreak, disappointment and when death does us part; and parental love,
unconditional love, and what happens when people never experience it. There will be Love Bites,
short 15-minute talks on everything from aphrodisiacs and bromances, to post-natal depression
and love songs. Workshops will include How to write well about love, flirting, creating your own
philosophy on love, and learning songs for the Big Love Sing.
THE DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF LOVE – ROMAN KRZNARIC
Saturday 28 June, 10.30am, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15 Day Pass, £25 Weekend
Pass
More advice has been offered about love than any of us could ever hope to digest – in novels,
operas, blogs, self-help guides and more. But one place most of us have rarely looked is into the
past. Drawing on his acclaimed book The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live (Profile
Books), School of Life founding faculty member Roman Krznaric explores what history can tell us
about rethinking the way we approach love. How many of us are familiar with the seven kinds of
love known to the Ancient Greeks, which included not only sexual love, but love of strangers and
of ourselves? How did the romantic myth that we can find all our loving needs in a single person –
a soulmate – evolve? And what can we do to overcome our addiction to romance and find love in
unexpected places? From the love tales of medieval Persia to the rise of the diamond industry, via
the age of chivalry and marriage advice from the Dutch Golden Age, be prepared for a talk that is
certain to invigorate your relationships and get you prepared for the day ahead.
1000 ACTS OF KINDNESS BY ADAM QUANG
Saturday 28 June – Thursday 3 July, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall,
Free
Representing the theme of Agape, the love of humanity, 1000 Acts of Kindness is a global art
installation project as part of artist Adam Quang’s World Karma Project and uses paper cranes to
encourage a ripple effect to make the world a better place one act of kindness at a time. It
combines creativity with a heart in order to help others. Southbank Centre invites participants on
Saturday 28 June (from 11am to 6pm) to make a paper crane, write an act of kindness on it, record
a pledge of kindness on video, then perform this act within 48 hours. The 1000 Acts of Kindness
crane installation has travelled across Canada and America and now comes to Southbank Centre’s
Festival of Love. Adam Quang is an award winning artist and the founder of World Karma Project.
HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS
Saturday 28 – Sunday 29 June, 11am- 6pm, Level 2 at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Drawing on our Love Stories exhibition and the seven Greek themes that we are taking inspiration
from for our Festival of Love, we invite members of the public to participate in acts of love in its
many different forms. Have an intimate saucy poetry reading with the Emma Press poets, make a
friendship bracelet for your favourite friend or bring a piece of a loved one’s clothing to embed a
secret message in. There is no booking required for these drop in activities taking place across the
weekend.
PROUD IN LOVE
Saturday 28 June, 12.30pm, Level 4 Blue Bar at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
First kiss, first time, first love – being in love is both glorious and painful – but what happens if you
also have to go through the process of coming out to family and friends? Celebrating Pride
weekend we invite young people to join this discussion about first love in the LGBT community
before heading off for the Pride Parade.
Suitable for ages 13-20.
PRAGMA
Saturday 28 June, 12.30pm, Level 5 Function Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15
Day Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
How does it feel to still be in love after years of being together? Two couples revisit their early
romances by reading love letters of old, and recount their stories of getting and staying together
for what might be forever.
TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE
Saturday 28 June, 12.30pm, JP Morgan Pavilion at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15 Day
Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
Poet Mimi Khalvati runs a workshop on how to write well about love, exploring ways of writing
about the many types of love without the usual clichés, using writing exercises and discussion.
Khalvati is the author of seven collections of poetry published by Carcanet Press, including The
Meanest Flower, which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, a Financial Times Book of the
Year, and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and, most recently, Child: New and Selected Poems
1991-2011, a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.
LOVE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Saturday 28 June, 2pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15 Day
Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of human rights campaign group Liberty, leads a discussion on the
place of love in struggles for freedom. The panel looks at Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have decided to
stick with love” ethic and Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary” stance in the Civil Rights
Movement, and asks whether love needs to be at the heart of any fight for justice in society.
I CARRY YOUR HEART WITH ME – THE YOUNG POETS NETWORK
Saturday 28 June, 2pm, Level 4 Blue Bar at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Are you struggling to tell your girlfriend or boyfriend how you feel about them? Are you spending
English lessons getting tangled up with Shakespeare’s Sonnets or trying to write your own version
of John Donne’s Saucy flea poem? The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network workshop will help
you to write love poems for the 21st century.
Suitable for ages 14 – 18.
FLIRTOLOGY
Saturday 28 June, 2pm, Level 5 Function Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15 Day
Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
Ever wanted to know why you can’t flirt with someone you fancy – but have no problem with
someone you don’t? Never sure when someone is flirting with you? Come and hear social
anthropologist Jean Smith, author of The Flirt Interpreter: Flirting Signs from around the World on
why we flirt, what it means, and how you can get better at it.
A POETIC GUIDE TO LOVE AND SEDUCTION
Saturday 28 June, 6pm, Blue Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £8
The Poetic Primer for Love and Seduction, published earlier this year by The Emma Press, is a
collection by poets including Christopher Reid in tribute to the Roman poet Ovid's instructional
works about love – the Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris. Poets will read poems on the subjects
of finding, keeping and losing lovers. Founded in 2012 by Emma Wright, The Emma Press is an
independent publisher dedicated to producing books which are sweet, funny and beautiful.
ROMANTIC LOVE
Sunday 29 June, 12.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £15 Day Pass, £25 Weekend
Pass
“What will survive of us is love.” – Philip Larkin.
Romantic love is one of the most powerful sensations on Earth. Anthropologists have never found
a society that does not have romantic love – so what is it? This panel of psychotherapists,
scientists and philosophers discuss whether it’s something we “fall into” if we’re lucky, or whether
it’s something we can choose, and work towards, whether love at first sight real, and when we’re
in love, what’s happening in our brains and our bodies.
SEX AND SENSIBILITIES
Sunday 29 June, 12.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15 Day Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
Do you need to be in love to have good sex, and do you need to have sex when you’re in love?
This panel discusses what love’s got to do with it, whether true love demands monogamy, and
whether online dating and pornography have changed the game forever.
VOICELAB’S BIG LOVE SING
Sunday 29 June, 12.30-1.30pm, 2-3pm, The Clore Ballroom at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival
Hall, with final performance at 3.30pm on Southbank Centre’s Riverside Terrace, Free
People of all ages, abilities and experiences are welcome to come and learn a selection of songs
celebrating the seven themes of love in two workshops and a performance, led by Laura Howe.
This free afternoon of singing is for everyone – whether you’ve sung with Voicelab before, or are
new to singing at Southbank Centre.
MAKE YOUR OWN PHILOSOPHY ON LOVE
Sunday 29 June, 12.30pm, JP Morgan Pavilion at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15 Day
Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
What do you think love is? How would you explain it to someone who didn’t know? Do you want
to get better at loving or receiving love from a partner, friend or family member? Here, you can
spend an hour with a psychotherapist in a small group, to help you identify your own philosophy
on love.
Limited capacity.
NOW I’M A BELIEBER!
Sunday 29 June, 12.30pm, Level 4 Blue Bar at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15 Day Pass,
£25 Weekend Pass
From the utter exhilaration of seeing the band or musician you love up on stage to the darker side
of super fans involving stalking and self harm, how does admiration turn quickly to obsession? A
discussion with teenage super fans about their love of Justin Bieber and 1D.
Suitable for ages 10 and upwards.
FRIENDS AND SOLDIERS
Sunday 29 June, 12.30pm, Level 5 Function Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15
Day Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
People who go through wars together form strong friendships, and shared – often terrible –
experiences can bring with them loyalty, intimacy and love. Photographer Alison Baskerville has
long been exploring human relationships on the front line in her work, and here she talks to
soldiers and others who have been on the front line as they tell stories about the bonds they forge
in wars, what happens when they come home, and the impact these strong connections have on
their lives.
GAY MARRIAGE
Sunday 29 June, 2pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15 Day Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
It was a great leap forward for human rights when Parliament passed the Equal Marriage bill, and
the first marriages between gay couples in the UK took place in March 2014. Here, on the
weekend of London Pride, some of the first people to get married or renew their vows under the
new laws talk about their weddings and why they chose to marry.
SEX RE-EDUCATION
Sunday 29 June, 2pm, Level 4 Blue Bar at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Do you believe that true love waits or that first sex is best out of the way quickly? How is sex
discussed between boys and girls in your school? This is a discussion about what you are taught at
school and what the reality in the school yard is. Parents and young people welcome – there will
be discussions together and separately to avoid too many #awkward moments!
Suitable for ages 14-20 and parents welcome too.
FAMILIAL LOVE
Sunday 29 June, 2pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15 Day Pass, £25 Weekend Pass
Love between parent and child can be strong and unbreakable, an unconditional and beautiful
force of nature. This discussion asks – what happens if a parent finds it impossible to love their
child? And when children don’t receive love or see examples of love around them, how do they
learn to love themselves and others?
HUMAN FACTOR: BODY POLITIC
Monday 30 June, 7pm, Level 5 Function Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £8
Artists, critics and curators discuss ways in which contemporary sculpture explores the crosssection of individual and social bodies and how artists make use of mannequins to explore aspects
of our social history and cultural life, including the art gallery’s conditions of display. With artists
Yinka Shonibare and John Miller, Artangel co-director James Lingwood and critic Martin Herbert.
JULY LISTINGS
NEW MUSIC BIENNIAL
Friday 4 – Sunday 6 July
Southbank Centre presents a weekend of free concerts, workshops and new music featuring all 20
commissions from the PRS for Music Foundation’s initiative, New Music Biennial. The weekend
will include a work featuring 20 pianos from around the world by Matthew Herbert; a piece
written by Shingai Shoniwa (lead singer of the Noisettes) in collaboration with David Okumu for
community choirs inspired by African heritage and a work by composer Andy Scott which depicts
the real life story of a 17-year old Ugandian Asian who fled Uganda in 1972, under the brutal
regime of Idi Amin, and who subsequently lived with the family of the composer, via UK refugee
camps. Other projects include jazz musician Gwilym Simcock working with City of London Sinfonia
and clarinettist Michael Collins and a project led by Tête à Tête Opera in which young composer,
Samuel Bordoli will bring together skateboarding, choral singing and the unique acoustic of skate
parks. New Music Biennial provides a platform for talented composers, performers and
organisations in the UK.
CAMILLE O’SULLIVAN – THE RAPE OF LUCRECE
Wednesday 9 – Saturday 12 July, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £27.50, £20,
LONDON PREMIERE
Shakespeare’s politically-charged, sexually provocative and violent thriller The Rape of Lucrece is
brought to life in the hands of internationally-acclaimed performer and singer Camille O’Sullivan.
Through a mixture of speech and song, Camille inhabits the souls of both Tarquin and Lucrece,
playing the part of both victim and abuser. The music is co-written by composer and long-time
collaborator Feargal Murray, who accompanies Camille on piano, and is directed by Elizabeth
Freestone. This award-winning Royal Shakespeare Company production was a sell-out hit at the
Edinburgh International Festival 2012.
SOUTHWARK SPLASH 2014: THE BLOODLESS GIANT
Wednesday 9 July, 7pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £4
Over 500 Southwark children will tell a story about the seven ancient Greek definitions of love,
through poetry, singing, dancing and playing. Led by composers Ross Power and Laura Howe,
choreographer Natasha Khamjani, poet and writer Cheryl Moskowitz, animator James Sandifer
and percussionist James Larter, the children tell the story of Bloodless – a sad lonely giant who is
given new life through gifts of love.
BIG DANCE POP UP CINEMA
Thursday 10 July, 9.30pm, Level 1 Terrace outside Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Big Dance, the UK’s largest festival of dance and dancing, presents the Big Dance Shorts – five
short films followed by a screening of award-winning Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus). The film is
based on the Brazilian play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, in turn based on the Greek
love story of Orpheus and Eurydice. It's a tragic love story featuring Brazilian carnival and dance,
filmed in Rio de Janeiro and released in 1959, which won the Palme d'Or that year, the Academy
Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1960 and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1960.
STORGE WEEKEND
Saturday 12 – Sunday 13 July
The theme of Storge – family love will be explored in a weekend of talks, debates, performances
and activities. Storge includes all forms of family love, such as the love a parent has for a child, or a
child has for a favourite aunt or uncle, or grandparent.
DIGITAL PLAYGROUND
Saturday 12 – Sunday 13 July
As part of Storge weekend, carers and children are invited to experiment and collaborate in a
weekend of digital workshops and activities. There will be opportunities to play with fun and
accessible digital apps and games, to learn how the Web works and how to stay safe online, and to
be immersed in a noisy and colourful celebration of digital creativity for all the family.
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE – AVANTI COURT PRIMARY SCHOOL
Monday 14 July, 7pm, with foyer performances from 6.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth
Hall, £8
A celebratory concert featuring a massed choir drawn from across four schools and presenting a
wide range of repertoire, from Bollywood via Mozart to sacred hymns. Avanti Schools Trust is a
multi-academy sponsor with four schools in its family. Two hundred singers, aged seven to 13,
retell a version of the story of Rama and Sita, the age-old tale of light over dark, friendship over
animosity, wisdom over ignorance and love over hatred. Western and Eastern musical traditions
will fuse together in a wonderful expression of friendship, love of Divinity and humanity and the
forces that bind us together as one human race.
CLOD ENSEMBLE – RED LADIES
Tuesday 15 – Wednesday 16 July, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £15
Red Ladies are an undisclosed number of identically dressed women who will infiltrate London
with a series of mysterious, visually arresting interventions before rendezvousing in the Purcell
Room to perform their 'theatrical demonstration' in five movements. They place world events –
war, floods, migration – in the context of the everyday: they knit, they eat, they wait. Their
movements echo the patterns of a flock of birds, a herd of bison, a swarm of bees. Performed to
an original score, featuring live drums and violin, Red Ladies is about connectivity, identity,
community, complexity, transformation and love. It is a poetic investigation into the ways human
beings and other animals behave when in groups.
Clod Ensemble are led by choreographer/director Suzy Willson and composer Paul Clark.
Produced in association with Fuel.
THE BUSKAID SOWETO STRING ENSEMBLE
Wednesday 16 July, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, £25, £20, £15, £10
The Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble perform a concert of classical music, classic pop and
township kwela music.
Made up of 30 young African musicians drawn from less privileged communities, the Ensemble
take to the stage to showcase their musical versatility.
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Overture, Castor et Pollux
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Suite from Castor et Pollux
Ernest Bloch: Nigun (Improvisation) from Baal Shem Suite
Johannes Brahms: Selection from Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op.52a arr. Hermann
Jenö Hubay: Csárda Scene No.4, Hejre Kati (Hey Katie!), Op.32 for violin & orchestra
Interval
Karl Jenkins: Soweto Suite for strings
Classic pop songs featuring Buskaid vocalists
African Kwela and Gospel arr. by Buskaid musicians
POETRY INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Thursday 17 – Monday 21 July
Poetry International Festival is a bold, playful and inspiring festival of poetry, film and spoken
word designed to ‘make the heart leap, the soul stir and the mind soar’. Over a week there are
readings, music, poetry films, translations, new commissions, free events and innovative spokenword performances throughout Southbank Centre – from Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall,
to the renowned Saison Poetry Library at Royal Festival Hall and the gardens, bars and public
space that surrounds our venues. With poets from all over the world including Robert
Hass, Carolyn Forché, Don Paterson, August Kleinzahler, Durs Grünbein, Ana Blandiana, Caroline
Bergvall, El Deeb, Nikola Madzirov, Serhiy Zhadan, Bejan Matur.
Poetry International was co-founded by Ted Hughes in 1967 and takes place every other year.
LOVE MOTOWN!
Saturday 19 July, 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall, £27.50, £22.50, £17.50
Building on the spectacular success of last summer’s Catch A Fire extravaganza in Royal Festival
Hall, Jazz Jamaica and a 200-voice Voicelab choir celebrate the great love songs of the Motown
back catalogue in this new show created especially for the Festival of Love. The night will feature
some exciting guest lead vocalists – names to be announced shortly.
LOVE EACH OTHER OR PERISH – 50 GREATEST LOVE POEMS
ALSO PART OF SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S POETRY INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Sunday 20 July, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £15, £12
As part of Southbank Centre’s Poetry International Festival actors and poets from across the globe
come together for a celebratory reading of 50 of the greatest love poems from the last 50 years.
SOUTHBANK CENTRE BOOK CLUB – THE FORTY RULES OF LOVE
Wednesday 23 July, 6.30pm, J.P. Morgan Pavilion at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Free
Southbank Centre Book Club will cover Elif Shafak's novel The Forty Rules of Love, a bestseller in
Turkey and lauded around the world. Weaving together past and present, philosophy and faith,
this is the surprising and moving story of one woman's quest for self-discovery and fulfilment
through Sufi mysticism.
DOWN WITH LOVE
Wednesday 23 July – Sunday 31 August, Monday: 12pm-6pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday,
Sunday: 10am-6pm, Thursday, Friday: 10am-8pm, Hayward Gallery Project Space, Free
To coincide with Southbank Centre’s Festival of Love, the Hayward Gallery Project Space presents
Down with Love: a group exhibition exploring the verbal and visual languages of love and its
mediation through social and cultural codes. Featuring multimedia works from a range of UK and
international artists, including William Cobbing, the exhibition explores themes encompassing
personal longing and desire, the politics and power-plays of love and the physical and emotional
choreography of intimacy. The exhibition will be accompanied by a special programme of events
and performances.
URBAN – CELEBRATING STREET CULTURE
Friday 25 – Sunday 27 July
Following the success of a dedicated urban arts weekend last summer, Southbank Centre once
again celebrates all things urban. Free performances will take place across the weekend, including
free-running and parkour across the Queen Elizabeth Hall roof, BMX and dance battles on The
Clore Ballroom and hip-hop by the river. There is the chance for visitors to play basketball in the
pop up basketball court, join in with an urban block party, and take part in a number of free
workshops including parkour training and the chance to learn a dance routine with hip-hop dance
company ZooNation. There will be a focus on fashion, looking at how street culture can influence
designers, and urban fashion from around the world. Visitors will be able to make their own urban
space a little bit greener, with the chance to make and take away their own window-box in a free
workshop on the Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden.
ARACALADANZA – CLOUDS
Saturday 26 – Wednesday 30 July, 4pm on Sat 26 then 11am and 2pm daily, Southbank Centre’s
Queen Elizabeth Hall, £18, £9
Spanish company Aracaladanza present Clouds – a magical, visually-spectacular show for families
filled with swirling clouds, miniature houses and enchanting music. Directly inspired by the
paintings of René Magritte, butlers, ballerinas, puppets and dancers create a dream world full of
colour and surprises, where clouds turn into sheep, shadows make beautiful patterns across walls
and the imagination runs wild. Clouds is one of a trilogy of Aracaladanza pieces inspired by the
visual artists Magritte, Bosch and Miró, which have received rapturous receptions internationally.
For everyone aged 4+
L'ORCHESTRE D'HOMMES-ORCHESTRE – SHATTERED CABARET: THE SONGS OF KURT WEILL
Tuesday 29 July – Sunday 3 August, 7.45pm (6pm on 3 Aug), Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room,
£20, UK PREMIERE
Quebec's iconoclastic L'Orchestre d'Hommes-Orchestres (LODHO) return to Southbank Centre this
summer after four-star reviews last year for their idiosyncratic take on the music of Tom Waits. In
Shattered Cabaret: The Songs of Kurt Weill, LODHO create a work at the crossroads of theatre,
cabaret, visual art and performance. In a high-society salon of the early 20th century, eight
musicians sing about the best and worst of the human condition. From Berlin cabaret and Parisian
nostalgia to New York's Broadway, LODHO retrace the path of this musician in exile, using rare
instruments and 'music-objects' that conjure up Weill's dramatic musical world. Superimposed
over the music are fanciful and surrealist images concocted by the group to create surprising
tableaux vivants.
AUGUST LISTINGS
PRAGMA WEEKEND
Saturday 2 – Sunday 3 August
The theme of Pragma – love which endures – will be explored in this weekend of talks, debates,
performances and activities. Pragma includes the love between a couple, which develops over a
long period of time, or the love which endures in sickness and in health. For instance the love
which makes a friend care for their former school friend who has become vulnerable in later life.
URSULA MARTINEZ – MY STORIES, YOUR EMAILS
Tuesday 5 – Sunday 10 August, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £17
When her infamous magic striptease act Hanky Panky was illicitly videoed and posted online,
strangers started sending Ursula Martinez, the Olivier award-winning star of La Clique/La Soirée,
unbelievable emails. At first Martinez was so disturbed by these emails that she filtered her inbox
and didn’t read them, but eventually she came to see them as an amazing source of material for a
show. In My Stories, Your Emails, Martinez combines stand-up, live art and character comedy to
investigate confession, obsession, miscommunication, relationships, loneliness, sex, identity and
the internet. Presenting a comical and uncompromising portrait of herself, this show is an
investigation into love and relationships in the 21st century. Following sell-out seasons around the
world including Sydney Opera House and Brighton Festival, Martinez invites audiences to meet the
ordinary and extraordinary characters in her life and in her inbox.
Commissioned by Barbican B.I.T.E.10 and IQUN international Festival.
PLATFORM 4 – MEMORY POINTS
Wednesday 6 – Sunday 17 August, hour-long tours from 11am – 9pm, Promenade piece across
Southbank Centre’s site, £15
Platform 4 create magical performance work that aims to captivate and involve and put human
relationships at the heart of the event. This acclaimed and uplifting show about memory loss is an
intimate, interactive experience filled with love and inspired by Platform 4’s work with the
Alzheimer’s Society. Wearing headphones, audiences of up to five people will be guided through
the unseen spaces of Southbank Centre’s site by a unique sound track whilst encountering an
imaginary world of installations, miniature sculptures, films, and photographs. Audiences are
encouraged to dress up and delve into their own memories and relationships
With music by Pete Flood (Bellowhead).
ZOONATION’S GROOVE ON DOWN THE ROAD
Tuesday 5 – Tuesday 26 August, Times vary, see website for details, Southbank Centre’s Queen
Elizabeth Hall, £27, £22, 50% concessions for 16s and under (Limited availability)
Kate Prince and her award-winning dance company ZooNation return to Southbank Centre this
summer with their smash hit of 2013 – Groove On Down The Road, a re-imagining of the muchloved The Wizard of Oz, a classic story about friendship. Following the success of hit shows Into
The Hoods and Some Like It Hip Hop, and its critically acclaimed world premiere at Southbank
Centre last year, Groove On Down The Road is an exhilarating hip-hop dance production for the
whole family, showcasing the phenomenal dance talent of a new generation of ZooNation
performers aged 10 to 19. Set in a fantastical urban world, Groove On Down The Road tells the
story of Dorothy, complete with ruby sneakers, and her adventures with Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man
and Lion as they groove on down the yellow brick road to Oz. Written and directed by Kate Prince
and commissioned by Southbank Centre, this is an original, new vision of a renowned classic tale
of friendship. The cast of Groove On Down The Road is made up of ZooNation Youth Company
(ZYC), a group of young dancers from across the UK, all under the age of 19, with the role of
Dorothy shared by two 12-year old dancers; Arizona Snow and Portia Oti.
For ages 5+
PHILIA WEEKEND
Saturday 9 – Sunday 10 August
The theme of Philia – shared experience – will be explored in a weekend of talks, debates,
performances and activities. Philia is the love felt for people we strive with to achieve a shared
goal; for instance, colleagues, players in a sports team, or soldiers in an army.
BRYONY KIMMINGS – SEX IDIOT
Tuesday 12 – Saturday 16 August, 7.45pm daily and at 9pm on Saturday 16 Aug, Southbank
Centre’s Purcell Room, £17
Following her first STI test, Bryony Kimmings discovered she had a common sexual disease. Not
one for looking back, she was faced with the arduous task of retracing her sexual footsteps to see
where she'd contracted her little problem. This funny and unapologetic account of female
sexuality in the 21st century takes a whirlwind tour through Kimmings’s sexual misadventures and
self-realisations, told through vignettes of performance, dance and song.
DAVID LEAN'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER
Friday 15, 22 & 29 August, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £45, £30, £20
The centrepiece of a three week series of love films with a music theme being screened in Royal
Festival Hall as part of Festival of Love, Brief Encounter will be screened for three nights only and
features a newly commissioned live orchestral accompaniment performed by Southbank Centre
Resident Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra. David Lean's iconic 1945 love film follows
the affair of a married doctor and suburban housewife who meet on a train platform, and heavily
features Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 in its soundtrack – indeed the film was largely
responsible for bringing this epic work to fame. Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall will be
transformed into a giant, comfortable 2,000 seat cinema, with films shown on an 8m screen.
Audiences are invited to dress with the theme of the film or as their favourite character and join
themed pre-film activities, such as participatory dance and singing, from 6pm.
By arrangement with ITV Studios Global Entertainment and Park Circus Films.
SINGALONGA GREASE
Saturday 16 August, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £10
As part of a three week series of love films with a music theme to be screened in Royal Festival
Hall for Festival of Love, the producers of Sing-a-Long-a Sound of Music present a sing along
screening of the classic film Grease (1978), starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall will be transformed into a giant, comfortable 2,000 seat
cinema, with films shown on an 8m screen. Audiences are invited to get into character as a Pink
Lady or T-Bird and join themed pre-film activities, such as participatory dance and singing, from
6pm. The evening will be hosted by a presenter and include a vocal warm up, the chance to learn
how to hand jive, competitions with prizes, including best outfit, and a goody bag with
participatory items to enjoy throughout the film. The film will be subtitled so that audiences can
sing along.
Fancy dress not obligatory but highly recommended.
Produced by Singalonga Productions Ltd in association with Park Circus.
PHILAUTIA WEEKEND
Saturday 16 – Sunday 17 August
The theme of Philautia – self-respect and the love we give to ourselves – will be explored in a
weekend of talks, debates, performances and activities. This is not vanity, like narcissism, but our
joy in being true to our own values. It is having the strength to care for ourselves so that we can in
turn care for others.
SINGALONGA DIRTY DANCING
Saturday 23 August, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £10
As part of a three week series of love films with a music theme to be screened in Royal Festival
Hall for Festival of Love, the producers of Sing-a-Long-a Sound of Music and Sing-a-Long-a GREASE
present their latest interactive film– the brand new singalonga screening of the classic film Dirty
Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. It’s the summer of 1963, it’s college boys
versus dancing hunks, it’s one of the best loved movies of all time and, yes, there is a guy as great
as your dad. Audiences can join Baby and Johnny in a fun-filled screening of the 1987 dance classic
film as Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall is transformed into a giant, comfortable 2,000 seat
cinema, with films shown on an 8m screen. Audiences are invited to dress with the theme of the
film or as their favourite character and join themed pre-film activities, such as participatory dance
and singing, from 6pm. The evening will be hosted by a presenter and include a vocal warm up,
competitions with prizes, including best outfit, and a goody bag with participatory items to enjoy
throughout the film. The film will be subtitled so that audiences can sing along.
Fancy dress not obligatory but highly recommended.
This film carries a 15 certificate and contains adult content.
Produced by Singalonga Productions Ltd in Association with Park Circus.
EROS & LUDUS WEEKEND
Saturday 23 – Sunday 24 August
The theme of Eros and Ludus – romantic and erotic love, based on sex and powerful magnetism –
will be explored in a weekend of talks, debates, performances and activities. This is the love that
can turn into other kinds of love – like Pragma – but starts as romance and attraction.
TIGER LILLIES – RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
Friday 29 – Sunday 31 August, times vary; see website for details, Southbank Centre’s Queen
Elizabeth Hall, £30, £25, £20
The Tiger Lillies make a triumphant return to London with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
following sell-out performances at Southbank Centre last summer and much-heralded
performances around the world. The cult-creators of the Olivier Award-winning Shockheaded
Peter stage another adaptation of a macabre classic as they take Coleridge's tale of the sinister
and supernatural and add a dash of music-hall panache, with stunning visuals by Mark Holthusen.
The band's flamboyant live performance is enhanced by large-scale virtual sets that create an
immersive and highly atmospheric environment. Across 25 songs, the legend of the Ancient
Mariner unfolds as an uncompromising musical and visual melodrama.
For ages 16+
Duration 90 minutes
BIG WEDDING WEEKEND
Saturday 30 – Sunday 31 August
To celebrate the year in which same sex marriage became legal, Southbank Centre is creating the
Big Wedding Weekend, the finale weekend of Festival of Love, inspired by Agape – love of
humanity. All couples, gay or straight, young or old, are invited to marry or renew their vows on
the stage of the iconic Royal Festival Hall, with its world famous organ, followed by bubbly, all day
dance and entertainment, an optional wedding buffet and the opportunity for the wedding couple
and guests to enjoy the wonderful riverside setting at Southbank Centre. On both Saturday and
Sunday evenings there will be a mass wedding party including a wedding disco and a live big band,
featuring exciting performers to be confirmed, and there will be day time activities and workshops
throughout the weekend to entertain wedding parties and public alike.
There will be up to eight ceremonies over the weekend, Saturday 30 – Sunday 31 August, daily at
11am, 1.15pm and 3.30pm and 5.45pm. Each ceremony will last for 90 minutes and comprise of
up to 20 couples who will all declare their vows separately in front of their family, guests and
registrars. This is followed by music, dancing and entertainment for the rest of the day and
evening. It will be an amazing, emotional and unique celebration of human love – a wedding like
no other.
There are two packages to choose from:
Package one – £1,000
A 90 minute ceremony with choirs, fanfares and live music on Royal Festival Hall stage
A glass of bubbly for up to 40 guests
Registrar
A photographer and stunning backdrops
2 bouquets of flowers
Day-time and evening activities
Riverside location
40 guests
Package two – £2,000
As above, plus wedding buffet for up to 40 guests as part of a mass wedding breakfast on The
Clore Ballroom.
More guests can be added, with the price increasing accordingly.
There will be three open evenings offering a chance to look at the venue and ask any questions.
The first one will be held on Wednesday 28 May.
Those interested should email [email protected] to book a wedding or secure a
place at one of the open evenings.
SUMMER 2014 POP-UPS
SNOG FROZEN YOGURT
Wednesday 28 May – Sunday 2 November, 10am – 11pm, Queen’s Walk
SNOG come to Southbank Centre this summer, selling organic, fat free frozen yoghurt from a pink
refurbished 1960s double decker Routemaster bus.
LOOK MUM NO HANDS!
Wednesday 28 May – mid September, 10am-11pm, Under Hungerford Bridge
Look Mum No Hands! is the much loved bike workshop meets cafe set up by three cycling
enthusiasts in 2008. The Old Street institution returns to Southbank Centre this summer with a
pop-up in a caravan under Hungerford Bridge, serving arguably the best cake in London, quality
Square Mile coffee and a range of craft beer including Kernel.
B.O.B.’S LOBSTER
Wednesday 28 May – mid September, 12-11pm, Under Hungerford Bridge
B.OB.’s Lobster will be serving up the perfect summer treats including their famous lobster roll and
ahi tuna tacos from their reconditioned 1957 VW camper van under Hungerford Bridge. To aide
the alfresco dining experience, Prosecco will be served on tap.
THE BLOODY OYSTER
Mid June – mid September, 10am-11pm, outside Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Tying in with the Festival of Love theme, The Bloody Oyster will be serving the aphrodisiac food of
oysters alongside Bloody Mary cocktails from a double-decker London bus. A crowd-funded startup, The Bloody Oyster is on a mission to bring back the humble oyster, which used to be a food for
everyone, served deep-fried, grilled, poached, ceviche and of course fresh. They even offer a
vegetarian Bloody Mary, the Bloody Dragon, made without anchovy laden Worcestershire sauce.
DEPARTMENT OF GOOD CHEER
28 June – 7 September, Sunday – Wednesday 11am-8pm, Thursday – Saturday 11am-11pm,
Southbank Centre’s Festival Village
Department of Good Cheer are a South London based cocktail collective who specialise in
thematic drinks, bizarre infusions and gastronomic flavour pairings. They will create a pop up
cocktail bar as part of our Heartbreak Hotel, based on the popstars in Jessica Voorsanger’s I Think I
Love You Lounge. The menu includes a 'Scary Spice' (Blended Whiskey, Cocci Vermouth, a Sloe
reduction and Bunnahabhain rinse served with Maraschino Chilli) and the 'Heartbreak Hotel'
(bacon infused Bourbon, with a jelly and grilled banana foam), a nod to the 'King' himself.
There will be table service with a variety of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, herbal teas and
craft beers on offer.
REAL FOOD MARKET
Fridays 12-8pm, Saturdays 11am – 8pm, Sundays 12-6pm, Southbank Centre Square (except when
KERB are at Southbank Centre – see below)
Southbank Centre’s Real Food Market offers a delicious range of sustainably and ethically
produced food with 40 carefully selected stalls. The market offers the chance to enjoy the very
best fresh food, artisan charcuterie and cheeses, sweets, the finest craft beer and wines and the
most creative vendors on the street food scene.
southbankcentre.co.uk/markets
KERB
Friday 6 – Sunday 8 June, Friday 4 – Sunday 6 July, Friday 1 – Sunday 3 August, Friday 5 – Sunday 7
September, Fridays 12-9.30pm, Saturdays 11am-8pm, Sundays 12-6pm, Southbank Centre Square
Street food organisation KERB and their talented crew of street cooks come to Southbank Centre
for four weekends this summer. The market will include The Grilling Greek’s oregano feta fries,
Indian street food from Horn OK Please and paella specialists Jamon Jamon.
FESTIVAL OF LOVE SHOPPING HIGHLIGHTS
Southbank Centre’s shops will feature a smart, playful and mischievous range of love-inspired
items this summer. There are exclusive LOVE 2014 prints from lino cut artist James Brown and
witty alternative gifts from The School of Life including Emotional Baggage canvas tote bags and
100 Questions: A Toolkit For Relationships, a box of provoking questions to help get people talking
about love. There will be Message in a Bottle packs to send a love letter the old fashioned way and
a Shakespeare's love quotation range for swotting up on the sonnets. These, and more exclusive
love products, can also be found online at southbankcentre.co.uk/shop
For further press information please contact:
Katie Toms, Press Manager, 020 7921 0926, [email protected]
Patricia O’Connor, Head of Press, 020 7 921 0632, [email protected]
Ticket line: 0844 847 9910
Website: www.southbankcentre.co.uk/love
#southbankforlove
Notes to Editors
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of
London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an
extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the
Hayward Gallery as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection.
www.southbankcentre.co.uk