RUINS OF TIME / TOWER

“Tower” is part four of the “Ruins of Time” project, organized by LME (London – Munich Exchange) exploring the passage of time and its specific expression in the place, space and architecture of the site.

St Augustine’s Tower, the venue of the upcoming exhibition, is a unique historic location and the oldest building in Hackney, East London. It is all that remains of the original church of that name, built in the 13th century on the estate owned by the Knights Templar. The tower was taken over and many historic features restored by the Hackney Historic Buildings Trust ten years ago. Since then it has been turned into a public venue, and is used for special cultural events and art exhibitions. It is a Grade I listed building, and is in the top 2% of listed British buildings.

Though situated in a busy part of London, the Tower, this relic from bygone times, still stands, as if frozen in the moment, otherworldly and apart from what is going outside it. The century-old pendulum clock ticks its eternal melody, while the bell strikes upon each full hour. The ancient tombs, which used to be within the long gone church, are now at the mercy of the skies — another witness of the ghostly past. The Tower has its own life and its own dream. This, and more, will be the focus of the new project.

The “Tower” project will bring together the usual “Ruins of Time“ themes, which revolve around time passing, transience, the end of time, collapse, decay and transformation, through contemporary artistic interpretations.

The participants are a group of eight artists from London and Munich and one performance artist from New York, whose works deal with the themes outlined above. Engaged in a collaborative process, the LME artists will respond to St Augustine’s Tower through their works and performances, taking into consideration the specific aspects of this site, in historical, cultural and architectural terms. The works will focus on ideas of time, space and place in connection with a specific part of English culture and history.

The exhibition Ruins of Time / Tower will offer the public multifocal and multicultural views of many key concepts of the ‘Ruins of Time’ project, from both British and German perspectives, with the aim of further continuing this dialogue in subsequent LME group exhibitions in Germany and Great Britain.

General note on the project:

“Ruins of Time” is conceived as a long-term project, intended to further artistic cooperation between artists from Britain (London) and Germany (Munich), working in a variety of media, ranging from sculpture, painting and installation to photography, time-based media and performance. The aim of the project is to reflect on time passing, decay, collapse, ruins and related subjects, through site-time-specific exploration, by responding to the qualities of the actual exhibition space and taking into consideration its historical and cultural meaning.

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Location: St Augustine’s Tower, Mare Street, Hackney, London E8 1HT

Time: 13 – 19 July 2022

Curators: Eleonora Bourmistrov and Milena Michalski

Links:

St Augustine’s Tower, Hackney, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Augustine’s_Tower,_Hackney
https://www.staugustinestower.org
https://www.instagram.com/staugustinestower/
templar knights order, Knights Templar,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar