Referentiality: Towards a Decentred Future

About

In this time of planetary reckoning when racial, social and environmental inequities of multiple pasts inhabit our present and inhibit our future, is it possible to enable change that is not deferential or referential to these pasts? How can we imagine and realise futures free from inequitable power structures and their legacies whether colonial, political, socio-economic or cultural? Taking aim at the structures of power that have enabled and sustained the unsustainable, this research networking event, sponsored by the AHRC (1)  and hosted by MoHoA (2) with The Bartlett's Architecture & Historic Urban Environments MA (3) programme, is a celebration of creativity that disrupts, deposes and decentres. The central theme of referentiality invites academics, activists, creative practitioners and artists to contemplate approaches free from, or independent of, referential relationships with power. 

Referentiality is a day-long public event with special guests that raises critical awareness of, and demonstrates, new research approaches that address cultural, historical and intellectual marginalisation, trivialisation and neglect. It is aimed at making a significant contribution to supporting, promoting, and strengthening artistic, curatorial, policymaking, academic, and other research and practice relationships.

Referentiality comprises a series of dialogues, starting with scholars and practitioners engaged in research that challenges canonical references. This will be followed by an in-conversation lunch and an afternoon of events with global figures from diverse art practices including architecture, dance, opera, curation, activism and music.

1. AHRC: Arts and Humanities Research Council 
2. MoHoA: Modern Heritage in Africa/Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene 
3. MAHUE: MA Architecture and Historic Urban Environment 

Image: Leap of Faith (Edification Series) © Alun Be, 2017 

Schedule

10:00 - 12:30 | Research Dialogue – Interrogating Referentiality. Chaired by Edward Denison, Ievgenia Gubkina, Shahid Vawda, Emily Mann and Alyssa Barry

A collaborative public forum in which scholars from different institutional and disciplinary practices share their work and experiences in doing research that attempts to be independent of structures of power that have dominated their field, including, but not limited to, colonial centres, political hegemonies, racial inequities, and nationalist narratives. This will include presentations by representatives of three MoHoA regional partnerships from East, South and West Africa: Swahilipot Heritage Hub, University of Cape Town and Direction du patrimoine culturel du Sénégal.

Location: Room 6.02, 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB.

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Biographies

Shahid Vawda currently is researcher at the History Workshop at the University of Witwatersrand and a Research Associate at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town. He was the first Archie Mafeje Chair in Critical Humanities at the University of Cape Town 2017-2021 and has degrees from the universities of Durban-Westville, Queens (Belfast) and KwaZulu-Natal. He has held positions as Head of Anthropology at the Universities of Durban-Westville and Witwatersrand, and was the Head of the School of Social Science at the University of Witwatersrand, and Head of the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics. He has been on the boards and panels of UNESCO related to culture, and heritage, the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa. His current major research projects are Re-Centering Afro-Asia and Modern Heritage of Africa.

Ievgenia Gubkina is a Ukrainian architectural and urban historian, currently based in The Bartlett School of Architecture as a visiting researcher. Her work specialises in architecture and urban planning of the 20th century in Ukraine, and a multidisciplinary approach to heritage studies. She is the author of the books Slavutych: Architectural Guide (2015) and Soviet Modernism. Brutalism. Post-Modernism. Buildings and Structures in Ukraine 1955–1991 (2019). In 2020–2021 she curated the Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Architecture, a multimedia online project that worked with architecture, history, criticism, cinema, and visual arts.

Emily Mann is Associate Professor of Architectural History, Race and Spatial Justice at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Working within the world-renowned Survey of London, her research centres on the relationship between visual culture and European expansion in the world through the growth of trading networks and territorial settlements, c.1550 to c.1800. While investigating historical processes and production, she is concerned with postcolonial/decolonial approaches and attitudes to empire’s material legacy

Alyssa K. Barry is a Senegalese architect and urbanist specialized in African cultural heritage. Currently based in Dakar (Senegal), she works as an independent consultant, providing support to national and international institutions – including UNESCO – in the development and implementation of projects and activities for the preservation, promotion and enhancement of Africa's cultural heritage. She is also the current coordinator of the ICOMOS Emerging Professionals Working Group for the Africa region (ICOMOS EPWG Africa), and the founder of AFREAKART, a digital platform dedicated to contemporary arts from Africa and its diasporas.  

Edward Denison is Professor of Architecture and Global Modernities, Director of the MA Architecture and Historic Urban Environments and co-founder of MoHoA. His research is motivated by historiographical inequity and sustainability. With over 20 published books, his most recent outputs include his Inaugural Professorial Lecture End Time - Reflections on Design, Modernities and the Anthropocene and The Value of Others: Modern Heritage and Historiographic Inequity

12:45 - 14:15 | Sites and Insights – Intereferantial Drawing with Sumayya Vally, Honorary Professor of Practice, The Bartlett School of Architecture

Sites and Insights – Intereferantial Drawing is an intimate and co-creative student centred lunchtime activity hosted by architect Sumayya Vally, facilitated by BSA design tutor Jhono Bennett. The exercise will see students working with Sumayya to co-produce a drawn artefact through facilitated series of co-production. Through drawn discussion based on inter-related insights and sited experiences, the group will work through questions on referentiality in architectural research and practice.

Lunch will be provided free of charge for those signed up via Eventbrite.

Location: Room 6.02, 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB.

Register on Eventbrite

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Biography

Sumayya Vally is a South African architect, and founder and principal of the architecture and research firm, Counterspace, with whom she designed the 20th Serpentine Pavilion (2020/2021). In 2021 she was the only architect on The Time100 Next List. The list, which gathers emerging leaders, pioneers and creators ‘poised to make history’, identified her as ‘shaping the future of the architectural canon and practice’. She is the Artistic Director of the first Islamic Arts Biennale in the Middle East, which has extended opening throughout the summer 2023. She has recently won the competition for the design of the new Asiat-Darse pedestrian bridge in Vilvoord, Belgium. Her response to the brief drew on complex histories of colonial and migrant pasts through the story and legacy of the Congolose intellectual, Paul Panda Farnana, a significant but largely forgotten former resident of the city.

14:00–15:30 | Referentiality: Towards a Decentered Future Conversation with Christopher Samuel, Valerie Amani, and Nana Ocran

This Referentiality: Towards a Decentered Future event features multi-disciplinary artist and disability activist Christopher Samuel, and Tanzanian interdisciplinary artist and writer Valerie Amani, in conversation Nana Ocran, the London-based Founder and Editor of People's Stories Project and former Editor-in-Chief for the Time Out Group's series of guides to Lagos and Abuja.

Location: Room 6.02, 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB.

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Biographies

Christopher Samuel is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, often echoing the many facets of his own lived experience. Seeking to interrogate his personal understanding of identity as a disabled person impacted by inequality and marginalisation, Christopher  responds with urgency, humour, and poetic subversiveness within his work. This approach makes his work accessible to a wider audience, allowing others to identify and relate to a wider spectrum of human experience. The Archive of the Unseen, which was commissioned with the support of Unlimited and the Wellcome Collection, addresses the imbalance of representation in medical and social archives to build a better understanding of the wider spectrum of the human experience.

Valerie Asiimwe Amani is a Tanzanian interdisciplinary artist and writer. Her practice interrogates the ways in which body erotics, language and percieved reality are used to situate (or isolate) the self within community. She has exhibited internationally including The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art, South London Gallery, with a semi-permanent contribution at the GRASSI Museum (Leipzig) where a collaborative work, Berge-Versetzen, creates a space for reflection on provenance, retribution and the void left by displaced and stolen objects. Amani holds an MFA from The Ruskin School of Art and was the recipient of the 2021 Ashmolean Museum Vivien Leigh Prize and The 2022 Ingram Prize. Her work has been featured in Art Monthly and Hyperallergic amongst others. She is also a contributing writer on Emergent Art Space, with a focus on emerging African artists; and has given various talks on contemporary African art including University of Edinburgh, Carleton University (CA) and University of Johannesburg (SA).

Nana Ocran is the London-based Founder and Editor of People's Stories Project. She was formerly Editor-in-Chief for the Time Out Group's series of guides to Lagos and Abuja (2007-2013) and has consulted on and established publications on West African culture for the Danish Film Institute, Arts Council England, and the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva). She was Editor-in-Chief for the British Council's Connected Futures print magazine, which was developed as part of the organisation's Connected ZA programme (2013-2016). In 2014 she was a curatorial advisor for the Afrofuture design programme at La Rinascente retail store in Italy, during Milan Design Week. She has also written design-focused articles for Design Indaba (Cape Town), Gestalten Books (Berlin) and has previously been a Pan-African trends watcher for the Breakthrough Innovation Group (B.I.G.), a creative marketing think-tank for Pernod-Ricard, Paris. She has also been engaged as an editor for the Clore Leadership Brilliant Routes Cultural Programme. Nana is a long-time Associate Lecturer at the London campus of Omnes Education, a private multidisciplinary higher education and research institution, where she has designed modular courses in Visual Culture and creative Trendspotting for international students. Nana has designed and delivered transmedia storytelling workshops for cultural producers in Columbia. This was in partnership with the British Council Americas, the Columbian Ministry of Culture and the digital agency, Poliedro in Bogotá. She has been a cultural advisor and artist nominator for the Rolls-Royce contemporary-textile based Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge, which is one of the company's annual arts programmes. Nana also contributes reports and articles to Canvas8, the award-winning behavioural insights agency. 

16:30–18:00 | Conversation with Peter Brathwaite and Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE

The acclaimed baritone Peter Brathwaite expands on his pivotal Rediscovering Black Portraiture series and the vital new work-in-progres Insurrection: A Work In Progress, which explores the history of resistance in Barbados through the tradition of opera and Peter’s personal story. Taking its cue from the radical folk traditions of enslaved Black workers, this new performance piece celebrates the human need to gather, move, make music, and tell stories amid and in response to oppression. Peter will be in conversation with renowned British dance artist and former Chief Executive of The Place, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE. 

Location: Room 6.02, 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB.

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Biographies

Peter Brathwaite studied at the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music and Operastudio Vlaanderen, Ghent. He was born in Manchester and graduated with a First-Class degree in Fine Art & Philosophy from Newcastle University. Peter's 2022/23 season includes his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris as Stubb in Olga Neuwirth's The Outcast with Ensemble intercontemporain/Matthias Pintscher/Netia Jones; Melot in a new Tiago Rodrigues production of Tristan und Isolde that will be conducted by Leo Hussain at Opéra national de Lorraine and Théâtre de Caen, and a return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden to co-create and perform in Insurrection: A Work in Progress. In concert, he sings Britten’s song cycle Tit for Tat with Malcolm Martineau at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh. His 2021/22 season included his debut at Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, creating the role of Joey in the world premiere of Kris Defoort's The Time of Our Singing; a return to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in Wolf Witch Giant Fairy (winner of an Olivier Award 2022), and his debut at the Munich Biennale with Ensemble Musikfabrik. He was shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. In the 2020/21 season he made a critically acclaimed main stage debut at the Royal Opera House as Martin Carter in Hannah Kendall's one-man opera The Knife of Dawn. In concert, he performed Schubert's Winterreise at London’s St John's Smith Square (part of Barbara Hannigan's Momentum), and Britten's The Five Canticles at Leeds Lieder. Peter has performed leading roles across Europe for companies including Nederlandse Reisopera, Opéra National de Lyon, and Danish National Opera, with performances at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Philharmonie Luxembourg. Within the UK, Peter has sung for Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Opera North, English Touring Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour. Further details about Peter's opera work can be found in Opera. To bring attention to lesser-known works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime, Peter created the multimedia recital Degenerate Music: Music Banned by the Nazis (London Song Festival/Studio Niculescu Berlin) which was later developed into Effigies of Wickedness: Songs banned by the Nazis (English National Opera/Gate Theatre). His pioneering Rediscovering Black Portraiture series, made during the Covid-19 pandemic, reimagines historical depictions of Black subjects with the help of domestic material culture. Pieces from this project were exhibited by King's College London/Wellcome Trust in Autumn 2021. His book on the series with be published by Getty in Spring 2023. Further details about Peter's series can be found in Rediscovering Black Portraiture. Peter has written for The Guardian and The Independent. A BBC Radio 3 Next Generation Voice, he authors and presents Discovering Black Portraiture and In Their Voices, and presents features for Essential Classics and Inside Music. His documentary Rebel Sounds: Musical Resistance in Barbados is available on BBC Sounds. Further details about Peter's broadcasting and writing work can be found in Broadcasting & Writing. His awards include Peter Moores Foundation Major Award, Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells Fellowship, The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Award, Winston Churchill Fellowship, and International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. He is a Trustee of Leeds Lieder, Second Movement Opera and CHROMA. 

Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp is a key figure in the UK arts and culture scene with close to 40 years professional experience in the sector. He is currently working as a freelance Arts and Culture Consultant. He began his career as a dancer; as one of the leading dance artists of his generation, he performed for 13 years with the internationally acclaimed London Contemporary Dance Theatre and then with other leading companies during a 25-year career as a performer, choreographer, teacher and director. From 2007 to 2016, he was Chief Executive of The Place, the UK's leading centre for contemporary dance development. From May 2018 to Sept 2020, he was Director of The Africa Centre, in its new home in Southwark. He was proud to have led such an iconic organisation, at a time when its role as a home for contemporary African and diaspora culture and heritage, is needed now, more than ever. He is a devoted champion of the arts, cultural learning, creativity and diversity, and frequently presents as a keynote speaker in a variety of contexts, from schools to leadership courses, industry related events and the corporate sector. He has been a regular contributor to Speakers for Schools. He has served on various arts Boards, including The Royal Opera House and The Royal Opera House Benevolent Fund. He is currently a Patron of Akademi and The Place, and a Trustee of choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne's New Adventures company, and the Chineke! Foundation and Orchestra. He is also a School Governor. He has appeared in eight successive editions of the annual Powerlist of Britain's most influential people of African and African Caribbean heritage, as well as in Who's Who. In 2003 Kenneth was made an OBE in recognition of his services to dance, and in June 2017 was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, also in recognition of his services to dance. 

18:30–20:00 | Conversation with Ekow Eshun and Sumayya Vally, hosted by Amy Kulper (Head of School) and Felicity Atekpe (Director of Professional Practice)

A public in-conversation event with celebrated architect, Sumayya Vally, and the distinguished curator, Ekow Eshun. They will be discussing the theme of referentiality through their latest works, including, respectively, the Asiat-Darse Project (Belgium) and the Islamic Arts Biennale (Saudi Arabia) and In the Black Fantastic (UK) and The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure opening next year at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Location: Christopher Ingold Auditorium, 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB.

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Biographies

Ekow Eshun is a Ghanaian-British writer, editor and curator. Eshun studied politics and history at the London School of Economics, where he began editing the arts and features section for the University's weekly newspaper. He has been the editor of numerous magazines, including Tank, Arena and Mined. He was Artistic and Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2005-10), during which time visitors rose by 38%. He holds an honorary doctorate from London Metropolitan University and is Chairman of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, overseeing London's most significant public art programme. He writes frequently for the Guardian, Independent on Sunday, The Face and the Observer. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4 arts shows Saturday Review and Front Row. Eshun's Orwell Prize-nominated memoir, Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in England and Africa (2005) explores issues of race and identity. Most recently, he authored In the Black Fantastic and Africa State of Mind, which was nominated for the Lucie Photo Book Prize. In 2016, he curated a group exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery, London exploring the identity of the black dandy, Made You Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity. In 2017, he edited the publication Africa Modern: Creating the Contemporary Art of a Continent, which marked the opening of Cape Town’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Eshun is also Chairman of Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, and Creative Director of the arts space Calvert 22 Foundation, for which he has instigated an award-winning online magazine, The Calvert Journal. Described as a ‘cultural polymath’ by The Guardian he is the presenter of documentaries including the BBC film Dark Matter: A History of the Afrofuture. He has contributed to books on artists including Mark Bradford, Kehinde Wiley, Chris Ofili, John Akomfrah and Wangechi Mutu, and his  writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Esquire and Wired. 

Sumayya Vally is a Muslim, South African architect, and the founder and principal of the architecture and research firm, Counterspace. It is based between Johannesburg, South Africa, and London, United Kingdom. She is the Honorary Professor of Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Since graduating with honours from the University of the Witwatersrand’s M.Arch Architecture programme, Sumayya Vally has built a global career and reputation as an architect, advocate, ambassador, design leader and teacher, using a multidisciplinary approach to architectural practice to confront increasingly complex social and ecological challenges. As a female Muslim practitioner from the Global South, her success in a sector that still has a long way to go to achieve racial, social and gender equity tells a hopeful story about the possibilities for the industry, and aligns with UCL and The Bartlett’s core values and vision for the present and future of teaching and professional practice. As Principal of her Johannesburg-based design/research studio Counterspace, she designed the 20th Serpentine Pavilion (2020/2021) – the youngest ever architect to receive this commission, her design drew reference from the experiences of London's migrant communities. In 2021 she was the only architect on The Time100 Next List. The list, which gathers emerging leaders, pioneers and creators ‘poised to make history’, identified her as ‘shaping the future of the architectural canon and practice’. She is the Artistic Director of the first Islamic Arts Biennale in the Middle East, which is open now through 23 April 2023, and she is collaborating on the design of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Monrovia, Liberia, the first presidential library dedicated to a female head of state. Sumayya also taught at the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, leading the Master’s programme’s Unit 12 design studio, founded on an intent to create a curriculum for the African continent. She has lectured widely and is frequently an invited speaker in prestigious art and architecture institutions globally, most recently Harvard University and Royal College of Art. 

20:15–21:45 | Musical Conversation with Tofa Jaxx and Leon Michael King

The emerging singer-songwriter, LGBTQIA activist musician and notable Tanzanian live performer Tofa Jaxx will perform an acoustic music set accompanied on guitar by Leon Michael King. With his unmistakably smokey, unique and mysterious voice this musical conversation will carry the audience to the sun-soaked shores of the Indian Ocean utilising West African troubadour-historian griot style historical narratives and oral traditions. 

Refreshments and food will be provided.

Location: Room 6.02, 22 Gordon Street, WC1H 0QB.

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Biographies

Tofa Jaxx is an emerging singer-songwriter, LGBTQIA activist musician and notable live performer from Tanzania. His smokey, unique and mysterious voice carries the musical genres R'n'B, Neo Soul, Jazz, and Reggae perfectly just as a dhow sailing through millions of diamond splinters into a sunset in the Indian Ocean. While still a college student in 2015, Tofa participated, and ranked fourth place, in the international singing competition "Airtel Trace Star". A year later, he dropped out of college, following his dreams of becoming a singer-songwriter. One among his very first attempts as an aspiring singer-songwriter was to participate in a four-days musician's boot-camp in Zanzibar, held at the Red Monkey Hotel. This was the platform that launched the artist he is today, followed by a series of live shows he did in Zanzibar and Dar Es Salaam. In 2016 he was the opening act for Grammy Winning Artist Joss Stone at one of her "The Total World Tour" concerts in Zanzibar. He also performed live with the Dhow Countries Music Academy band at one of the largest cultural events in East Africa "Zanzibar Film Festival". GOETHE institute headquarters in Munich selected him and seven (7) artists from around the world to participate in a Musician's Bootcamp in Berlin, Germany, coordinated by Music Board Berlin for the Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs. His first release "I Want You", which was produced by Victor The Traveler, was nominated for Best R'n'B and Soul Song from an East African Artist at AFRIMA 2017.  Tofa's music is notably divergent: ranging from electro swahili pop to the sad sensual ballad such as "Restart", which contributed to an HIV/AIDs awareness campaign by raising funds for an HIV research centre in Tanzania—in partnership with the Spanish Embassy Dar Es Salaam—as part of global UNAIDS Strategy 2021-2026, "End Inequalities. End AIDs: Inclusion for All". 

Leon King is a highly regarded and well respected guitarist within the UK Music Scene. Having recorded with many acts of various genre's, toured the world and played to thousands if not millions, Leon is regarded and respected for his unique sound as well as his adaptability to different musical situations; hired for his sound and vibe. Leon has playing for Grammy Award winning singer Joss Stone on her Total World Tour, as well as playing for renowned UK artist Natty in his his band The Rebel Ship doing venue and festival dates across Europe. Leon also wrote and arranged guitars on DJ Vadim's album Grow Slow featuring Sena. He also writes, arranges, tours and records with his own band The Drop as well as with The Hempolics and also works with artists such as Rokhsan Heydari, Jesse Sheehan, Fawn and Function Band Loveshovel. In the past he has worked with acts such as Lee Scratch Perry, Dj Vadim, Dennis Bovell, Roots Manuva, U.N.K.L.E, Frank Hamilton and Jimmy Screech to name a few. There is always a project going on in which Leon is involved. Leon King has also been teaching Guitar Privately and in Small groups for over 6 years in and around London and has built up a highly regarded reputation for his inspiring contemporary style of teaching, believing the reward is not the money. Currently working for 4 different schools on top of having dedicated private students. On top if this, Leon also works for Level 11 Booking agency, booking acts onto venue and festival tours over the UK and Europe. He also works as programer for various nights and festivals in the south of England. As far as Leon is concerned, he is happy being able to have music as his profession, yet always strives top learn more, meet new people and progress in all aspect of his musical life. 

Event Information

Advance registration is not required unless specifically stated, though entry is on a first-come-first-served basis and early arrival is advised. 

The session will be recorded. The recording and written transcript will be shared online after the event. The Bartlett School of Architecture want to make our events accessible for everyone, and we encourage you to let us know if you have any accessibility requirements not included below. #AllAreWelcomeHere

• Live British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation during the event
• Fixed induction loop systems for the hearing impaired
• Wheelchair accessible
• Accessible toilet
• Level accessible route

Please contact Maxwell Mutanda, Co-Director of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion at The Bartlett School of Architecture with accessibility requirements. Please note we require two working days' notice for additional requests.

This event follows UCL’s code of conduct which seeks to create an inclusive experience for everyone. UCL does not tolerate any form of harassment, victimisation or discrimination.