neil cummings

the enthusiast has the same relationship to capital as the gift to the commodity

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Here is a version of the text published *********, without images and footnotes

Phantoms, controversies and communities

For the past thirty years I’ve lived on the Boundary Estate in Shoreditch east London, its the first public housing scheme built by a London wide authority, the London County Council in 1891. The estate was designed by a team of young architects inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement with a utopian intent, it was to replace the notorious slum the Old Nichol, and be a model for future public housing.

The Boundary Estate consists of 23 blocks of flats arranged around seven tree-lined roads radiating from a central raised garden, with a bandstand at its heart. Each block is subtly different and beautifully detailed, with decorative brickwork, Dutch gables, Doulton ceramic signage and main entrances that always open onto or from courtyards. The flats themselves are varied in size, some designed for large extended families, others couples and some for individuals, the original plan was to house some 5,000 people in a dense yet generous urban setting. As well as housing, there’s also infrastructure, the kind of infrastructure necessary to encourage communities to form; two schools, shops, a communal laundry, two pubs (although they were not in the original design, and added later), a community centre, gardens and bandstand, courtyards in which children can play and clothes could be dried, a church and two mews made of small craft and small-batch workshops. Public housing for an aspirational working class.

While housing Bethnal Green locals, the estate has also accommodated waves of migrants, initially european Jews escaping fascism, Irish families seeking employment and since the 1960s Bangladeshis working in public service, the local garment factories and increasingly the restaurant trade. Since I’ve been living on the estate, and the Conservative government’s 1981 Right to Buy scheme has come into effect, the Bangladeshi majority has been offset by an influx of younger, creative types.

Villa Arson

For two weeks, I was a visiting professor at the Villa Arson;

Built on Saint-Barthélémy hill in Nice, with magnificent views over the city and the Bay of Angels, the Villa Arson is a utopian art school - something of an interest of mine - built on an ideal-model of a provençal village in a 'brutalist' style.

A historical account of the Villa Arson site could go something like this; it was home in the 16th and 17th Century to a community of Capuchin monks who cultivated orchards, vineyards, watercress beds, and olive groves. Then in the 18th century it was purchased by an aristocratic consul of Nice who built a mansion on the hill looking down to the city and the sea. In 1812, after the revolution and the end of aristocratic consul of Nice, all 6.5 hectares of the estate was purchased by a wealthy merchant, Pierre Joseph Arson. He remodeled the villa, and also designed a spectacular formal garden, constructed from successive terraces – parterres - criss-crossed with paths and staircases.

Over time and as fortunes changed the Arson family began selling off parts of the estate, by 1927 a clinic was built next to the villa, the villa became a hotel, and the site shrunk to 2.5 hectares. After the war, in 1946 the estate passed into the ownership of the City of Nice.

Research Architecture

I was invited by Joasia Krysa, the then Director of the Kunsthal Aarhus to contribute to a programme of events entitled The Perfect Institution: Culture 2017.

On the 11th December 2014 I made a public presentation using Self Portrait: Arnolfini and V&A bicentenial as speculative case studies. And on the 12th I facilitated a closed workshop for Aarhus staff.

The Perfect Institution, was a programme of events across the fields of culture and business that took place between September 2013 and February 2014 . It set out to offer a pragmatic guide to constructing an art institution that responds to future cultural and economic conditions. The aim, was not merely to adapt to change, but to begin to shape those changes.

Social Cinema

17 Jun 2006 - 24 Jun 2006

I collaborated with architects Peter Thomas and Catherine du Toit of 51 architecture and Marysia Lewandowska, on Social Cinema

Social Cinema consisted of a series of temporary cinemas, each installed for one night only into the existing urban fabric of the London Architectural Biennale designated route between Exmouth Market and the Millennium Bridge. Films about, set in, or commenting on London and its architecture were stunningly projected upon the city itself.

At each location, buildings became screens, steps seating, residents generously gave power, or loaned their houses as projection booths. The architectural fabric of the temporary cinemas was improvisery, and playful; pallets borrowed from an adjacent market made temporary bleachers, plastic crates from local pubs and restaurants became seating, neighbours joined the audience, and volunteers with torches transformed into ushers. Social Cinema turned un-built spaces into auditoria and spectacularly intervened in neglected places around landmark buildings.

rejected

In 2010 I collaborated with 51% studios on an entry into a competition, A Room for London. The brief was to design a temporary 'hotel' room on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the South Bank. Although our entry was rejected, I enjoyed the process and especially their blackboard traces. See more of the drawings.

Mesquita

modes of assembly

I contrbute to Critical Practice, here is an invitation to an event we are working on.

Dear ******

We are writing to inform you of Parade, an upcoming event facilitated by Critical Practice.

Critical Practice is a cluster of artists, researchers and academics hosted by Chelsea College of Art and Design, a constituent

college of the University of the Arts London. We have a longstanding interest in public goods, spaces, services and knowledge, and a track record of producing original participatory events. For instance, in 2004 we organized Open Congress at Tate.

Chelsea College is opposite Tate Britain on Millbank, and has a large contemporary courtyard at its heart, the beautiful Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground. We have worked with our Polish partners over the last year to develop a program of events that will explore different, contested and vital conceptions of being in public. These events will unfold over Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd of May 2010. We will investigate the history of public space and the public sphere, along with differing cultural perceptions of 'being in public', the politics of public assembly, the socialization implicit in 'publicness', the architecture of public knowledge, and much more besides.

Nottingham Contemporary

Almost three years work as a trustee, part of a big team, and here it is

The inaugural welcome from Alex Farquharson, Director

Trustee

This will be the cafe, designed by Caruso St John.

For the last 2 years I've been a trustee of the emerging Nottingham Contemporary. Its been fascinating - and quite a lot of work - to participate in creating a new kind of art institution. An art institution 'fit-for-purpose' in the 21st Century

“Art is what makes life more interesting than art”. Robert Filliou

At Nottingham Contemporary we believe that contemporary artists offer extraordinary perspectives on society, and so:

• We promote the research, exchange and dissemination of ideas inspired by today’s art practices across disciplines and cultures, working with a wide range of partners.

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