‘The Dream’ Radio

To celebrate 25 Years at Somerset House artist Tai Shani presents, ‘The Spell or The Dream’ an ambitious installation incorporating a round the clock radio station. Radiophrenia have been asked to put together a selection of works responding to the themes of the exhibition to be included in the broadcasts.

7th August – 14th September

Over the 10-year period of our broadcasts, artists have explored dream worlds in many shapes and forms including pieces about sleep and dreaming, sound works made to induce dream states, surreal utopias and work that responds via radio to crises of all scales, through activism, escapism, subversion and storytelling. We are proud to share a small selection of these works as part of these broadcasts.

For more details and listen links see the Somerset House website.

Participating artists include: Robert Barry, Gregory Whitehead, Julia E Dyck, xentos fray bentos, Gabriele Heller, Elizabeth Flood, SUBTERRA (Astrid Björklund & Marie-Chantal Hamrock), Catalina Barroso-Luque and Feronia Wennborg, The Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence, Manja Ristić & Marko Paunović, Anne Marie Deacy & Lesego Rampolokeng, Toni Dimitrov, Laura Phillips, Dmitri Miticov & Ivan Palacký, Kirsty Gallagher, Mark Vernon, José Alejandro Rivera, John Roach, Nicky Stott and Nat Grant with Luc Yong, Magali Daniaux & Cédric Pigot, Yara Asmar, Neolithic Cannibals, Marco Paltrinieri, Sille Kima, Netta Weiser and Nora Amin, Stevie Jones, Autumn Chacon, Nichola Scrutton, Shortwave Collective and Kari Kraakevik.

About ‘The Spell or The Dream’:

Uniquely bringing together sculpture, radio, live gatherings and a host of guest contributors, The Spell or The Dream is a multi-faceted work inviting audiences to collectively dream of new horizons.

At its heart is The Spell, a magnificent new sculpture in the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court, featuring a newly commissioned soundscape by composer, producer and double bassist Maxwell Sterling. Resting atop a stepped plinth, where visitors can sit, gather or peer inside, the luminous blue figure gently breathes, caught in a suspended state, the spell. The dreamer sleeps through the warnings of present and imminent catastrophes, political and social disaster and environmental collapse – but it also dreams of resistance and renewal.

Inviting you to wonder, imagine and dream is The Dream radio, running alongside the sculpture. It convenes artists, thinkers and academics including Yanis Varoufakis, Brian Eno, Hannah Black and The Palestinian Sound Archive, to collectively reimagine a hopeful future. Co-curated by Shani and broadcast globally via Channel, the 24/7 radio also features three new commissions from Cécile B Evans, Moor Mother and Cecilia Vicuña, alongside archival work, and invites you to submit your dreams for interpretation. The Dream radio is a continuous broadcast; works will not be available on demand – tune in live or let it slip into the ether.