As part of the 2022 Hyundai Commission, Cecilia Vicuña worked with the Thames to create and develop her work. Inspired by this relationship to the Thames this event will provide space to discuss and explore collaboration with London’s largest river.
This event will begin with a panel discussion chaired by artist Tania Kovats featuring artist Patricia Bidi, Thames Programme Manager AJ McConville and Community Archeologist Joshua Frost. We’ll discuss working with the Thames as part of an artistic practice, consider the river's role in the community and our environmental responsibility to it.
After the discussion, we will move to the Thames riverbank in groups to take part in activities hosted by Thames 21. Please note, tickets to these additional activities are limited.
Please wear suitable footwear, such as wellies or waterproof shoes with a decent grip. Thames 21 will provide footwear if needed.
Optional self-guided activities include sketching and litter picking (dependant on amount of litter).
Organised in partnership with Thames 21.
Inhabiting Wet Worlds is a “movement and making” workshop for participants to re-imagine ways of inhabiting the foreshore. First, we will embark on immersive listening experience. Then we will use clay as a medium to sculpt objects inspired by landscape and its non-human components.
A smartphone and headphones are required for this workshop.
Join Thames Discovery Programme and seasoned Mudlarkers, Jay and Joe, to explore what Bankside Beach tells us about London from prehistory to the present day.
Tania Kovats
Kovats is a UK born artist whose work negotiates how we connect to the natural world through sculpture, drawing and writing. Recently this has focused on the element of water as a connective element in the landscape. Kovats' work explores the psychological, subjective and poetic, as well as activating water to provide a route to explore critical environmental and socio-political questions. Kovats is Professor of Drawing and Making at DJCAD, University of Dundee.
AJ McConville
AJ works for London's main rivers trust, Thames21, as Thames Programme Manager. His work has included creating a citizen science network to examine the scale of plastic pollution in the Thames estuary, work which uncovered wet wipe islands forming in west London. His work is increasingly focused on understanding riverside communities' existing relationship with the river and supporting them to have a greater say in how their stretch of river is managed and protected.
Patricia Bidi
Patricia Bidi is a Peruvian artist who specialises in printmaking. Drawing on her heritage, childhood memories and her experience of life in London, her work is rooted in ancient Andean belief systems and community, celebrating life through playful and poetic imagination. Patricia has exhibited in London, New York, Paris, Vienna and Stockholm.
Joshua Frost
Josh is a community archaeologist specialising in foreshore archaeology. He has worked for the Thames Discovery Programme since 2016, helping to run projects for schools and young people and the TDP's team of volunteers. He is fascinated by the relationship between the archaeology of the river and the wider history of London as a city.
Victoria Noakes
Victoria Noakes is a spatial practitioner whose passion for the Thames spans across their interdisciplinary practice as an architect and artist. Victoria enjoys facilitating artistic activities that later feed into solving deeper social and environmental issues embedded within the architecture and policies of our cities.
Jay and Joe
Jay and Joe are seasoned Mudlarks who are on the administrative team of fast-growing Facebook group, The River Thames Mudlarking Finds.
The bankside foreshore does not have step free access. This event is not for under 16s.
All Tate Modern entrances are step-free. You can enter via the Turbine Hall and into the Natalie Bell Building on Holland Street, or into the Blavatnik Building on Sumner street.
The Starr Cinema is on Level 1 of the Natalie Bell Building. There are lifts to every floor of the Blavatnik and Nathalie Bell buildings. Alternatively you can take the stairs.
There is space for wheelchairs and a hearing loop is available.
All works screened in the Starr Cinema have English captions.
- Fully accessible toilets are located on every floor on the concourses.
- A quiet room is available to use in the Natalie Bell Building on Level 4.
- Ear defenders can be borrowed from the Ticket desks.
To help plan your visit to Tate Modern, have a look at our visual story. It includes photographs and information about what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.
For more information before your visit:
- Email hello@tate.org.uk
- Call +44 (0)20 7887 8888 – option 1 (daily 09.45–18.00)
