THE DERELICT SENSATION SHOW
{1} 'The
Derelict Sensation'
presented site
specific art
by an international
group of artists
on November
1 & 2, 2003
at the
Midland
Grand Hotel
at St. Pancras
Station
More
information
about the November
2003 show
GRAND/THE DERELICT SENSATION SHOW
{2}
'The Derelict Sensation' contributed film
and photography to a GRAND event on
January 31and February 1, 2003 at 7:30 pm
at the Midland Grand Hotel.
The event featured art, cabaret, free
drinks, live music, and, of course, the Midland
Grand Hotel.
There was a voluntary donation of
10 which was distributed to UCH neo-natal
charitable fund and towards future events.
BEN BRUGES PRESENTATION AT RUSKIN COLLEGE
At a presentation given at Ruskin College
Ben Bruges explored the theme of
exploration of vacant space-the
contents of which follows:
Have you experienced dereliction?
Has there been an abandoned building in your life?
What's the story?
It’s interesting to put some version
of these questions to a new person and
there’s often a pause, then you notice a
shock of memory or of recognition.
For others it’s a present reality,
or fits in with something they’ve
already being doing.
People’s reactions are sometimes surprising,
and the meanings that derelict spaces have
seem strangely wide and diverse.
At heart are questions of value, meaning,
use, memory and experiences of particular
atmospheres, feelings and textures.
Sometimes these meanings are centred on
a particular building, but also often a
particular moment in their life, often a
time of transition or change.
The experience calls into question some
of our easy assumptions about permanence,
of the market economy, of styles of
domestic living, of partying.
There are political issues to be sure,
but also questions of history, of memory,
of the celebration of peoples’ lived culture.
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A derelict building is often the place for
childhood exploration away from the strictures
of family and school. Derelict buildings snake
tendrils through our teenage years: sexual
or substance investigation; vandalism; running
away, parties, raves, festivals. Transgressive
and liberatory years, which combine explorations
of community, of allegiance. A time to make
life choices that persist and shape maturity.
Derelict places have a resonance: the traces of
personal choice of décor, the fading plaster,
the dusty corners, the empty echoes and shadows
of people’s lives – the ghosts. There’s always the ghosts.
Derelict buildings often provide play space or a
place to meet, when there isn’t any, or a place
to live when times are harder. Derelict spaces
seem to attract explorers, artists, writers,
photographers, revolutionaries, free spirits,
among the sad, mad, dangerous, drunk, wasted,
idealist edge of a society itself on the edge.
New modes of community are asserted away from
the cash nexus – striving, but never entirely
free of the monetary mainstream. But it’s
an attempt to reclaim something from a
hostile market economy, an attempt to assert
something cultural and political, an attempt
to democratise and re-use the discarded
valueless wastes of post-industrial society.
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The project is in the form of an invitation to contribute.
The first stage is about gathering a collection of
stimulus material from a wide range of sources. We’ve
got photographers involved, video artists are creating
narrative and non-narrative pieces, I am conducting
interviews on video and a number of people have agreed
to write about their experiences, including a local
historian. Our website is in the process of being developed,
and the project is being advertised by word of mouth
and through writer, filmmaker and photography forums.
It has been picked up in America and Canada but the
focus remains London.
The launch night – at the Midland Grand, the derelict
building that straddles St Pancras Station – will widen
that invitation to the artistic community at the gala
night, and later at day time events at the hotel and
on-line. Future developments might include increasing
the interactivity and scope of the website, and there’s
possible interest in an anthology.
I would like to share some of the material that has
been produced so far and to invite you to share your
own derelict sensation, or any questions about the project.
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