CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
Company No: 08565097 (England and Wales)
Charity Number: 1156554
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS
AND
FINANCIAL STATEIVIENTS
FOR
THE YEAR EIYDED 31 MARCH 2024
Prepared by
GENCH & COMPANY
INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTANTS, TAX & BUSINESS ADVISERS
3 JARVIS CLOSE
BARKING, ESSEX
IG117PZ
Tel: 020 8820 6614 Email.. info@genchcompany.com
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
INDEX TO THE ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
CONTENTS
Page
Legal and Administrative Inforniation
Report of the Directors
Independent Examiner's Report
Income & Expenditure Accounts
10
Balance Sheet
Notes Forniing Part of the Financial Statements
12- 13
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Company I Charity Name:
Cell Foundation
Company Registration Number:
08565097
Charity Registration Number:
1156554
Registered Office and
Operational Address:
258 Cambridge Heath Road
London
E2 9DA
Directors:
Ms Carol Milika Muritu
Mr Richard Michael Priestley
Mr James David Healy Chesterman
Secretary:
Ms Carol Milika Muritu
Independent Examiner:
Mr Guvench G Gench
Gench & Company
3 Jarvis Close
Barking
Essex
IGI17PZ
Bankers:
HSBC Bank PIC
Lion House
25 Islington High Street
London
NI 9LJ
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
The Management Committee presents its report and annual financial statements for the year
ended 31 March ?024.
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Governing DocuEnent
The organisation is a charitable Company limited by guarantee and was forni¢d to promote
the practice and appreciation of the arts for the public benefit. The organisation aims to
advance the public's education in the arts by establishing and maintaining an art gallery for
the provision of exhibitions, lectures and intern training programmes. Additionally, it supports
artists wlio are in financial need by assisting with studio workspace for them. Cell Foundation
was registered as a company on I l June 2013 and as a charity on 7 April 2014. The company
was established under Memorandum of Association, which established the objects and power
of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. In the event of
the company being wound up, members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding
£1.
Recruitment and Appointment of Management Committee
The three directors of the company, Carol Milika Muritu, Richard Michael Priestley and James
David Healy Chestennan are charity trustees for the purpose of the charity law and the
company's Articles. The company secretary is Carol Milika Murttu. All truste¢s are members
of the Managyement Committee. Under the r¢quiremeiit of the Memorandum and Articles of
Association, the members of the Management Committee are elected to serve for a period of
twelve months. After this tiine. they must be re-elected at the next Annual General Meeting.
The Charity has a good mixtur¢ of business, community, academic and art specialist skilled
reprcscntatives on the Management Cotnmittee. In an eft.ort to maintain this broad skill
mixture, members of the Board are requested to provide a list of skills and to update it on a
yearly basis.
Trustee Induction and Training
An induction pack will be provided to new Board members when elected. New Board
members will meet with both the chair of the Management Committee and the director of the
organisation as part of their induction into the service to cover: _
Obligation of the Management Committee.
Main documents which set out operational framework for the Charity including
Memorandum and Articles.
Resourcing and the current financial position as set out in the latest published accounts.
Future plans and objectives.
Organisational Structure
Cell Foundation has clearly defined structures that allow the members to participate through an
elected Manageiiient Committee as governing body for policy and overall management
responsibilities and through quarterly member meetings.
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
The staff, led by the director, have the responsibility of running day-to-day work and the
organisational development.
Cell Foundation has a Management Committee, which does not have a maximum number ol
trustees, but does have a minimum of two. Th¢ trustees tneet bi-monthly and are responsible
for the strategic direction and policy of the Charity. At present the Managen]¢nt Committee
has a variety of professional backgrounds relevant to the work of the Charity. The company
secretary sits on and chairs the Commite. All members of the Management Committee have
voting rights. The directors are responsible for the day to day running of the servic¢, ¢nsuring
that the Charity delivers the services specified and that perfomiance targets are met.
Operational management is carried out by the Directors or the senior staff member and they
ensure that staff continue to develop their skills in line with good practice.
CELL FOUNDATION'S OBJECTIVES
Cell Foundation's aims and objectives are to continu¢ to improve th¢ quality of exhibitions in
the gallery, aiming to widen the public's knowledge about emerging contemporary artist5 in
the local community of Tower Hamlets and London wide. The activities are underyjinned by
its commitment to public engagement. Cell Foundation aims to:
Support artists in financial need and encourage their participation in the wider
community.
Provide community advocacy to empower their cngagement with the gallery.
Improve the quality of inforn]ation and access for our audiences.
To actively seek funding partners to ensure our commitment to payingy artists fees for
commissioned works.
Ensure The Arts Council of England's stratcgic plans are on the agenda at all our
org7anisation's strategTric levels with a view to becoming a National Portfolio
Organisation if the possibility arises and that the next round's criteria gives access
to do so- ACE will share infonnation about their aims for this investment
programme. The next National Portfolio investment programme will launch in
Spring7 2025.
Establish. develop and maintain work relations with local community groups and
encoiirage community growth through capacity building, i.e. educational access.
Build on and develop fiinding t.or Cell:s student Fellowship to become a regular
part of the gallery's roster
Reduce isolation by dev¢loping the Cell Foundation network and link up with other
agencies in order to generate a broad rang¢ and depth of views and ideas to influ¢nce
decisions and change. Links have been made with sharing resourc¢s with Auto-Italia
and Chisenhale Gallery.
Keep abreast of changes in emerging contemporary art on an international level.
Achievements and Performance
Cell Foundation activities are continued to capture artist's needs and expectations. Cell
Foundation works relentlessly to create the structures and information that enables the
Foundation to engage with local, national and international audienccs.
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OFTHE DIRECTORS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
New partners include British Council Biennlals Connect, Embassy of Estonia in
London. Alvaro Barrington Studio, Patrick Collins, Arcadia Missa, IFA, Mondriaan
Fund. Goethe Institute London, Region Orebro lan, Film I Vasterbotten, Cockayne
Foundation and the Netherlands Embassy in the United Kingdom, Kunststiftung
NRW.
The 'Associate Curator's title changed to the title 'Curator' Adomas
Nai-kevicius with an agreeinent to ciirate 3 out of 5 exhibition projects per year,
with one allocated to the director and one jointly curated with ihe director
Milika Muritu. Narkevicius has increased international relations and marketing
with Jessie Krish's support delivering community advocacy to target strong
international, national and community partners. CEED (Central Eastern
European & Diaspora) Feminisms a project instrumcntal to this was a
collaboration and invitation work with Feminist Duration Reading Group
supported by British Art Network to explore the role of feminist thinking in
constructing cultural narratives about Central Eastern Europe and British
Central Eastern European diaspora. A programme of reading groups in Autumn
2023 & Winter 2024 brought together a network of practitioners based in and
beyond the UK and C¢ntral Eastern Europ¢. The project culminated in a
publication- working towards a CEED Feminisms Bibliography to be printed in
the summer and planned to be distributed across Europe. CEE and USA to
libraries worl-wide. The project's activities and aims will target educational
resource centres, from universities, galleries and public institutions.
Jessie Krish Gallery Manager & Project Curator resigned in January 2024 with
an aim to pursue a freelance career in curation. The gallery appointed a much-
needed Production Assistant, Annabelle Modlinger in February 2024,
identifying the need for a p¢rnianent and fully focused technical and
administrative assistant to oversee all production aspects of installation and
commuiiications to support the Leam, to address the imbalanc¢ of curatorial
expertise versus practical and technical support in the team and to fulfil the
origTinal role of a permanent part-time Gallery Manager, which was the initial
oeuvre of the recruitin¢nt process.
Cell Foundation's sustained presence in specialist Art Publications included
Frieze, Art Monthly, e-flux, Post Clarity, Artforum, Contemporary Art
Library, Art Review magazine, Mousse Magazine, along with FAD
magazine, The Evening Standard, Art Viewer, Mousse, Another, The Toe
Rag. emergent, PA Museum, Art Basel magazine, Zerodeux
Our newly established Student Fellowship scheme funded by Art Fund which
launched October in 2023 - increased our commitment to creatiiig paid
professional practice, rather than the initial voluntary internship to reach
students from low-income backg7rounds. Cell Project Spac¢ teamed up with
Art Fund to work with and train three early-career practitioners studying in
full-time UK education. Fellows were paid one day a week at the London
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OFTHE DIRECTORS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Living wage, £11.95 plhr. with an opportunity to gNain hands on professional
experience learning from a critically focused contemporary art organisation,
to transform and situate their research interests into practical exhibitions and
events production. Funds have been raised from Tower Hamlets Community
Chest to a self-initiated project- three events titled 'Permit to Dream,
organised by the gallery's Train¢e Fellows, Michelle Lee Johnson, Khadija
Niang, Chinaza Ruth Okonkwo
The completed new Forest Park premises in Waltham Forest buildings for
studio workspace is now sustainable. All maintenance, repairs and
refurbishments have been completed and Cell Project Space Ltd hav¢
reduced donations by £90.000 as the Forest Park Premises now continues its
full occupancy to pay back their company loan and to contribute charitable
donations of £6000 per month to Cell Foundation - totaling £72.000 per
annum.
En(ragement and support with additional stakeholders Blackhorse
Activators. Feminist Duration Reading Group, Arcadia Missa Gallery,
Goethe Institute London, Alvaro Barringqon Studio, Goethe Institute
London, British Art Network, artist Stuart Middleton,
We worked with and developed commissions with artists from Senegal,United States
(Coumba Samba and École De Sables) Sweden, (Max Goran, Josefin Amell)
Gem]any (Niklas Taleb), UK (Felix Melia) Albania (Silvi NaFi, Doruntina Vinca,
and Leah Whitman-salkin), Croatia (Sanja Ivekovic) Yugloslavia (Tanja Ostojic)
Bosnia (Selma Selman) Bosnia (Darija Radakovic)
Our 400 square ft g%round floor event space is now clos¢d, due to the
increased 150 % rental cost during c.ambridge Heath Road's leasehold
renewal and therefore vacating the adjacent property.
The year was critically successful in serving our audiences, artists and achieving Cell
Foundatioii s aims and objectives. Our audience incr¢ased expon¢iitiall)'- however, staff
costs have risen due to increased inflatioii and labour shortages. along with increas¢d
material costs and services. The teain are struggling to find sufficient funding opportunities
to maintain or increase income for growth. Funding in the UK has been cut for
ommissioning resident UK artists, therefore 800/0 of our programme funding is sourced
from overseas.
Financial Review
Principal Funding Sources:
Cell Project Space Ltd, British Council Biennials Connect, Embassy of Estonia in
London, Patrick Collins, IFA, Mondriaan Fund, Region Orebro lan, Film I
Vasterbotten, Cockayne Foundation and the Netherlands Embassy in the United
Kingdom, Arts Council England, Kunststiftung NRW, British Art Network
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Investment Policy:
Cell Foundation's aim to develop an Investment Policy and to source an organisational 'Friends
and Patrons Group, has proved unsuccessful. Further funding initiatives need to be researched
in Spring - Summer to reach targets for the following Autumn- Winter programm¢ year 20251
2026
Reserve Policy:
Cell Foundation has an assurancc from a key-funding source Cell Project Space Ltd to hold
6 months of core cost aside to safeguard the organisation's future in case of financial
pi'obleins. This is being reviewed bimonthly as a matter of urgyency.
There is a need for enough resources for Cell Foundation to carry out its present and
futur¢ activities et"fectively aiid to be less reliant on C¢ll Project Space Ltd:s
donations due to the studios development neèding to see growth. ie; major
refurbishnient and the purchase of freehold buildings to maintain the organisation's
location.
Identifyingy the level of risk and how to manage it.
Maintain the organisation's ethical approach to investment.
A pi'oactive approach in regyards to applkying for National Portfolio status to reduce the 24
years of majority funding and running costs by Cell Project Space Ltd.
CELL FOUNDATION
{LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Plans for Future Periods
Cell Foundation is going to:
Source larger funding pots that cover running costs- such as Foyle Foundation, British Art
Network, Garfield Weston, and Paul Hamlyn. These funding initiatives require a long and
timely application proccss.
Develop relations with Education Departments and research funding in Universities for the
fellowship programme. Direcector, Milika Muritu will apply for research funds via hcr
occasional Associate Lecturer status at UAL, Chelsea School of Art.
Improve Cell Foundation's voice in local policy and planning and decision-making-
attention to building the charity board.
Risk Management
The Management Committee has identified that they need to conduct a review of the major
risks to which the Charity is exposed, and a risk register has been established. The three areas
highlighted are funding (developing varied funding streams), appropriate financial procedures
in place. They have identified a need to improve govemance within the organisation. with more
diverse representation of varying skills to target th¢ inain areas of risk.
Responsibilities of the Management Committee
Company and charity laws rcquire the trustees to prepare financial statements for each
financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company
as at the balance sheet date and of its incoming resources and application of resources,
including iiicome and expenditure, for the financial year. In preparing those financial
statements the management committee should follow b¢st practice and:
Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.
Make judgements and estimatcs that are reasonable and prudent.
State whether the policies adopted are in accordance with the Chariti¢s Statement of
Recommended Practice - SORP and with applicable accounting standards: subjcct to
any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.
Prepare the financial ststements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriat¢ to
assume that the C,harity will continue operating.
Thc ManaLyeinent Committee members are responsible for keeping proper accounting
records, which disclosc wilh reasonable accuracy at any time, the financial position of the
charitable company aiid to enable them to ensure that the financial ststements comply with
the Companies Act 2006. The Management Committee members are also responsible for
safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for
the prevention and detection of fraud or other irregularities.
Members of the Management Committee
Members of the Management Committee, who are directors for the purpose of company law,
and trustees for the purpose of charity law, who served during the year and up to the date of
the report are set out on page J.
In accordance with company law, as the company's directors, we certify that:
As so far as we are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the
CKLL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
company, s accountants are unaware.
As the directors of the company we have taken all steps that we ought to have tsken in
order to make ourselves aware of any relevant audit information and to cstablish that
the Charity's auditor is aware of that infomiation.
io
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OFTHE DIRECTORS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Review and Results
The directors I tnistees report a net deficit of £12.203 on operations for the year.
The management committee has been working on a fundraising strategy to increase long
and short-terin fundingl for artists, projects.
Balance Sheet
Details of the major items on the balance sheet can be found in the notes to the accounts.
The fluctuations in debtors and creditors year on year arc purely the result of the timing of
receipts and payments around the year-end.
Accountants
Gench & Company was appoint¢d as the charitable company's accountant during the year.
This report has been prepared in accordancc with the Statement of Recommended Practice:
Accounting and Reporting by Charities issued in January 2015 and iii accordance with the
special provisions of the Compani¢s Act 2006 relating to small entities.
Approved by the Management Committee and signed on behalf of the Management.
Carot<
ilika Muritu
Richard Michael Priestley
Date: ...251011?025
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT
TO THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE ON THE UNAUDITED ACCOUNTS OF
CELL FOUNDATION
I report on the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024 set on pages l O to I l and
notes to the accounts on pages 12 to 13.
Respective Responsibilities of directors and independent examiner:
As described on page 7 the company's directors are responsible for the preparation of the
financial statements: and they consider that the company is exempt from an audit. It is my
responsibility to carry out procedures d¢signed to enable mc to report my opinion.
Basis of Opinion
My examination was carried out in accordance with the Statement of Standards for Reporting
Accountants, and so my procedures consisted of comparing the financial statements with the
accounting records kept by the company, and making such limited enquiries of the otyicers of
the company as I considered necessary for the purposes of this report. These procedures
provide only the assurance expressed in my opinion.
Independent Examiner's Statement
In my opinion:
a) I'lie financial statements are in agreem¢nt with those accounting records kept by the
company under section 221 of the Coinpanies Act 2006.
b) Having regard only to, and on the basis of, the information contained in those
accountingv records-
Thc financial statements have been drawn up in a manner consistent with the
accounting requirements specified in section 249C {6) of the Act" and
The company satisfied the conditions for the exemption from an audit of the
financial statements for the period sp¢citied in s¢ction 249A (4) of the Act and
did not, at any time within that period, fall within any of the categorics of
companies not entitled to the exemption specified in section 249B (I).
ii)
Guvench G Gench FAIA
Gench & Company
International Accountants, Tax & Business Advisers
3 Jarvis Close
Barking, Essex
IGII 7PZ
Date:
25- 01-J925
12
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Unrestricted Restricted
Notes Funds
Funds
2024
2023
INCO1
Donations
Grants
67,979
67,979
51,065
162,993
19,922
51,065
Total Income
119044
182,915
EXPENDITURE
Salaries and National Insurance
Canteen and Cleaning Expenses
Renewals and Maintenance
Telephone aiid Kntemet
Transport and Travel
Postage and Stationeries
Exhibition Expenses
Legal and Professional Fees
Independent Examiner's F¢¢s
Bank Charges
Donations
31,081
382
540
409
1,565
994
85,125
29,772
236
913
501
1,504
598
66.446
3,465
2,700
94
3,208
1,800
123
300
Depreciation
7.576
9,470
Total Expenditure
131247
118,907
Net (Deficit) Surplus
(12,203)
64,008
Amortisation for Leas¢hold Premises
(91,591)
(91,591)
Net (Deficit) After Amortisation
(103,794)
{27,583)
Balance brought t"orward
959,644
987,227
Balance carried forward
50 959,644
The notes on pagyes 12 to 13 fom part of these Financial Statements.
13
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 31 MARCH 2024
Notes
2024
2023
Fixed Assets
Tangible Assets
854,621
953,788
Current Assets
Cash at Bank and in Hand
5,505
13,573
Liabilities
Amounts falling due within one year
(4,276)
(7,717)
Net Assets
855 850
959 644
Funds
Unrestricted Funds
Restricted Funds
30,303
825,547
37,879
921,765
Total Funds
855 850
959 644
For the year ended 31 March 2024 the company wa5 entitled to exemption from audit under
section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.
Directors, responsibilities:
The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the
year in question in accordance with section 476; and
The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of
the Act with r¢spect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.
These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies
subject to the small compaiiies, regime. The accounts were approved by the Board and signed
on its behalf by-.
Carol Milika Muritu
Richard Michael Pri¢stley
Date:
25101120?5...
Th¢ notes on pages 12 to 13 form part of these Financial Statements.
14
CELL FOUNDATION
(LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
Accounting Policies
These Accounts have been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards
and the Statem¢nt of Recommending Practice on Accounting by Charities, and relevant
legislation.
Accounting Convention
The Accounts hav¢ been pr¢par¢d under th¢ historical cost convention.
Amortisation
Ainortisation is calculated to write off the cost of tangible fixed assets over their
estimated useful economic life using the straight line method.
The rates of amortisation used is the following:
Leasehold Premises
Depreciation
Depreciation is calculated to write off th¢ cost of tangible fixed assets over their
estimated useful economic life using the r¢ducing method.
The rates of depreciation iised are the following:
Equipinent, Fixtures and Fittings
200/0
Motor Veliicles
Remuneration of Directors l Trustees
No directors / trustees received any r¢muneratRon in the year.
Donations and Grants Receivable
2024
2023
Cell Project Space
Auslandsbeziehung¢
Cortez Resourc¢s
Henry Moore Foundation
Kunstsiftung
Lietuvos Kulturos
Ministerie Van Buitenlandse
National Art College
Pablo Genoves Pa
Slots OG Kulturst - Denmark
St Mondriaaii Fonds
Tate Gallery
The British Council
The Embassy of Lithuania
The London Community Foundation
Sundiy Donations
67,979
4,415
5,000
5,000
2,905
600
3,065
7,744
3,700
162,993
5,000
1,707
1,736
6,2?5
5,250
7,000
1,425
10,000
54
161
Total
119044
182915
15
CELL FOUNDATION
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS (Continued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
The breakdown of exhibition expenses
2024
2023
Advertising
Insurance
Canteeii and Cleaning Expenses
Exhibition Materials
Telephone and Internet
Transport and Travel Expenses
Printino
Postage and Stationeries
Legal and Prolessional Fees
3,695
1,777
1,575
9,868
1,361
9,956
1,249
55,644
5,852
1,270
1,734
7.702
512
2,360
3,350
43,666
Total
Liabilities: Amounts falling due within one year
2024
2U23
Trade Creditors
Other Taxes and social Security
Independent Examiner's Fees
1,000
1,476
1,800
1.090
3,927
2,700
Total
Tangible Assets
Equipmenl
Leasehold Fiylures &
Premisgs
Fillings
Motor
Vehicles
Total
Cost:
At O l April 2023
Additions
1,099,091
46,684
57.490
1.203.265
Cost at 31 March 2024
1,099,091
46,684
57,490
1203 265
Depreciation:
At 01 April 2023
Charged for the year
183,182
91,591
29,763
3,384
36,532
4,192
249,477
99,167
Depreciation at 31 March 2024
274,773
33.147
40.724
348 644
Net Book Volue 31 Mareh 2024
824,318
13,537
16,766
854 621
Ivel Book Value 31 March 2023
915,909
16,921
20,958
953 788
Share Capital
The company is limited by guarantee and does not have a share capital.
16
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Cell Project Space Ltd.
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Company No: 5109053 "9 ie
Cell Foundation Charity No: 1156554
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**Five main strands of activity support our mission:** :
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“Who knows what might become possible [...] through concerted effort, imaginative powers, determination, trans allyship, an independent gallery behind you and maybe a little funding? Spectacular scenes.”
– Isabel Weidner on Alex Margo Arden & Caspar Heineman at Cell Project Space for Frieze, Feb 2020. Author of _We are Made of Diamond Stuff_ , Goldsmiths-prize shortlist.
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## **`About Cell Project Space`**
Cell Project Space is a not-for-profit contemporary art gallery founded in 1999. The gallery was initiated as an artist-run space and, in 2014, formed a registered charity, Cell Foundation. The Project Space supports emerging and underrepresented artists by developing ambitious new commissions and revisiting historically overlooked projects, playing a unique role between an artist-run organisation and a larger institution. Throughout the 24-year history of the organisation, Cell Project Space has provided affo dable workspace for visual artists, which, in turn, financially supports the gallery’s core operational costs.
Cell Project Space’s initial experimental ethos continues to guide the gallery’s vision and approach.
Over more than two decades, Cell has established an international reputation for significant solo commissions with artists at an early or pivotal point in their careers. Part of a dynamic international network of artists and organisations, the gallery has grown into a widely-recognised site for artistic experimentation, with a proven track record of celebrating innovative practices and responding to politically urgent issues.
Accessed through an industrial yard in Bethnal Green, and brimming with sub-tropical plants, the gallery is situated in the heart of a diverse residential neighbourhood in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Cell facilitates local networks and partnerships, which support young people, academics and community groups London-wide and in the local area, taking a proactive role in supporting urgent conversations drawing from a breadth of diverse cultural perspectives and celebrating historically overlooked projects. Developed against the backdrop of a buoyant art market in the early 2000s, and a period of political austerity, Cell Project Space foregrounded the advancement of new cultural capital in the UK by developing emerging practices that focus on research, multimedia, digital culture, group work, DIY methods and collaboration.
Early collaborators include multi-award winning artists and writers Goshka Macuga, Paul O’Neil, Caroline Achaintre, Barbara T Smith, Laura McLean-Ferris (curator Swiss Institute, NYC), Celia Hempton, Peles Empire, Morgan Quaintance (acclaimed writer and filmmaker), Rebecca Lewin (curator Serpentine Gallery), Ursula Mayer, Benedict Drew, Lillian Lijn, Mark Aerial Waller, Eddie Peake, Kathy Noble (curator Performance Space, NYC), Emma Hart, Yuri Pattison, Jonathan Baldock, Angelo Plessas, Céline Condorelli, Jessica Warboys, Adham Faramawy, David Blandy, Athanasios Argianas, Anne De Vries, Attilia Fattori Franchini (curator Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna and Director Emergent section of miart Milan).
_Cell Project Space Gallery & Event Space (pictured to the right) accessed through an industrial yard in Bethnal Green, via an entryway brimming with subtropical plants._
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Caspar Heinemann, Ghislaine Leung, Anne Sophie Berger, Mimosa Echard, Aude Pariset, Eglė Kulbokaitė & Dorota Gawęda, Jenna Bliss, Anharad Williams, Emanuel Almborg are all recent collaborators that have gone on to present in major public institutions worldwide including KW Institute, Kiasma International, Swiss Institute, NYC, Basel Kunsthalle, Chisenhale Gallery, British Art Show 9, Lux Moving Image, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Mostyn Gallery, Kunstverein München, Palais De Tokyo, Walker Art Centre, Nottingham Contemporary, and Pompidou Centre and appearing in international press world-wide. Recent and past successes include Jenna Bliss winning the Massimo Giorgetti Prize in 2023, Mimosa Echard’s prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2022, and Eglė Kulbokaitė & Dorota Gawęda winning the Collide Award in 2021. Since exhibiting at the gallery, Caspar Heinemann, Ghislaine Leung and Atiéna R. Kilfa are currently represented by Cabinet Gallery, London and have had solo presentations at Basel, Liste, and Armory art fairs.
Three years of generous support from partners have included Art Fund, Boris Lurie Foundation, NYC, Cockayne Foundation, Phileas Fund, Fluxus Art projects, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, The Elephant Trust, Pro Helvetia, and The Austrian Cultural Foundation and London Borough of Hackney.
Alongside exhibitions, Cell Project Space delivers a longstanding public programme through gallery tours, talks, events, workshops and screenings to disseminate artists’ ideas to a host of audiences, community partners, local schools and universities led by a diverse range of leading artists, theorists, curators and researchers that have included; Yates Norton (curator Robert Institute, London), Hans Ulrich Obrist (artistic director, Serpentine Gallery), Derica Shields (writer, author and researcher) Mathieu Copeland (author and philosopher), Cedric Fauq (director, CAPC Musee, Bordeaux), Philipp Kleinmichel, (philosopher and cultural theorist), Omar Koleif (Sharjah Art Foundation’s director of collections and senior curator) and Lisa Le Feuvre (executive director Holt/Smithson Foundation) artists including Matilda Tjader, Ayesha Tan-Jones, Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings.
For 2019/21 press coverage included Flash Art, Art Review, Elephant Mag, The Guardian, Art Monthly and Frieze magazine and social media channels, extending the programme’s reach to new audiences, which have continued a steady following ever since.
## **`Publishing`**
The gallery continues to develop its short-run editions of artists’ publications in conjunction with the exhibitions which include the acclaimed publication ‘Partners’ 2009 by Ghislaine Leung, ‘Shit and Doom, NoArt’ 2019, with an introduction by Mathieu Copeland, and ‘Hindsights’ 2022 by Peng Zuqiang.
_Hindsights_ Publication, Peng Zuqiang, 2022, Cell Project
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6 **`Programme 2021-22`**
In 2021 the gallery received an Arts Council England ‘Cultural Recovery Grant’ to develop ambitious new bodies of work that reached out to local and international audiences after the pandemic; many of who identified with the programme through collective lived experiences. Highlights included intimate gatherings of music, discussion and readings. Acclaimed scholar and writer Kara Blackmore responded to Renée Akitelek Mboya’s film ‘A Glossary of Words My Mother Never Taught Me’; Latin American Youth Forum’s Cajón Drum Remix, a percussive workshop explored languages of migration as coded communication with Bryan Giuseppi Rodriguez Cambana. As a continuation of Cell’s publishing initiatives, the gallery produced Peng Zuqiang’s debut 120-page publication ‘Hindsights’ during his solo exhibition at the gallery and launched it together with an evening of public readings by the book’s contributors – curator Alvin Li (Adjunct Curator, Tate Modern), and artist and writer Sanaz Sohrabi. Marking the latest project in a string of multi-disciplinary collaborations, US musicians and recording artists, Pink Siifu and ConQuest Tony Phillips presented an evening of live experimental sound sets in collaboration with the artist Cudelice Brazelton IV.
_Sideways Looking,_ solo exhibition, Peng Zuqiang, 2022, Cell Project Space
Supporters and partners in 2022, which included Arts Council England, Antenna Space, Beijing, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, USA, Henry Moore Foundation, Finnish Institute, Lithuanian Culture Institute, Embassy of Lithuania in the United Kingdom and the Danish Arts Foundation. Subsequent to their exhibitions Peng Zuqiang won the Illy Present Future award at Artissima 2022, receiving a scholarship at Rijksakademie, NL. Rodriguez-Cambana received a residency and commission at Gasworks, London and
_Opera Balcon_ , Bryan Giuseppi Rodriguez Cambana 2022, Cell
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Cudelice Brazelton’s installation for his solo exhibition was acquired by the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art in collaboration with Wschod Gallery, Warsaw. The 2022 programme received wide-press coverage appearing in Art Review, Art Monthly, Contemporary Art Daily and Mousse alongside a range of online aggregates such as Art Viewer, Kuba Paris and many more. Each exhibition reached a record 1221-1435visitors on-site (a 20% increase from pre-pandemic 2019), an audience of up to 3500 for each digital programme engagement, and extended. visibility of 60 000+ unique views via online press and social media mentions.
Renée Akitelek Mboya, _A Glossary of Words My Mother Never Taught Me_ , 2020. HD digital video, 14:40.
Alongside the film, to interlocute in the violent history its imagery evidences, Renée Akitelek Mboya reimagines a songbook of 1960s and 1970s ideological ‘freedom’ songs as part of a nation-building tool kit, presented alongside an audio-conversation between the artist and academic Kara Blackmore as well as reading companions offering methodological inroads into the ongoing operations of coloniality.
Renée Akitelek Mboya, _A Glossary of Words My Mother Never Taught Me, Songbook_ , Detail, 2021
**`Partners & Supporters 2021- 2023`**
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## **`2022-2023`**
Cell Project Space’s programmes in 2023 were centred around the notion of ‘home’ in relation to class belonging, access to housing, identity formation, parenthood and forms of kinship inside and outside of the nuclear family structure. In June 2023, German-Algerian artist Niklas Taleb presented his fi st solo exhibition in the United Kingdom which considered the process of self-identific tion as a child, adolescent, and parent, critically revisiting genres of family photography and vernacular snapshot. In Autumn 2023, Ukrainian artist Ksenia Pedan created an installation of paintings and sculpture, forging a claustrophobic intimate space of a home with that of a non-descript public space.
Josefin Arnell and Max Göran’s exhibition completed and concluded Cell’s 18-month-long engagement with questions regarding the domestic space. ‘Cowboy Hell’ (working title) examining upbringing and coming-ofage as both a time of potential emancipation and the establishment of normative behaviours. Making use of the site of Cell Project Space as a former stable, Josefin A nell’s in part auto-biographical installation environment and moving image work will prompt themes of friendship, misfit, normativity, fetishisation, and female empowerment, starring a pack of teenage girls.
In Autumn 2023 Cell Project Space led a British Art Network (BAN) research group in collaboration with the Feminist Duration Reading Group, to form a research group exploring the role of feminist thinking in constructing cultural narratives about Central Eastern Europe and British Central Eastern European diaspora in relation to concerns cutting across Cell Project Space’s 2022/3 programmes. This included Lithuanian artists Agnė Jokšė and Anastasia Sosunova’s exhibition ‘Dance As You Wrestle’ and the live performances celebrating queer, ‘Eastern’ European solidarity featuring Lithuanian bedroom pop collective Liudmila, alongside Polish artist spalarnia, and a major new solo exhibition by Ksenia Pedan. Building on the Feminist Duration Reading Group’s tried and tested methodology of reading under-known and under-appreciated feminist texts from outside the Anglo-American canon out loud, together, activities developed collaboratively amongst invited practitioners. BAN is a Subject Specialist Network supported by Tate and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, with additional public funding provided by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
_Dance As You Wrestle,_ Agnė Jokšė, Anastasia Sosunova, 2023, Cell Project Space
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_Queer ‘Eastern’ European Anti-Colonial Solidarity Fundraiser_ with spalarnia, Liudmila, Taras Gembik, Vlad(a) & T Vazheyevskyy 11th March 2023
Agnė Jokšė, _‘Dear Friend’_ , 2022 _Dance As you Wrestle,_ 2022
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Anastasia Sosunova, _The Visitation, Messed Up Terrains, Dance As you Wrestle,_ 2022
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CEED Fe.mini8m8 .8, ce.ll Pr(Jjec.t spac.e, 2023
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CEED Feminisms Bibliography 3, Cell Project Space, 2023
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Niklas Taleb, _Simon_ , 2023, Cell Project Space
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Private View Documentation _Solo Yolo,_ Niklas Taleb, Cell Project Space
Ksenia Pedan, _Autonomy_ , 2023, oil pastel on board, 50 x 38 x 3 cm
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Exhibition view, Ksenia Pedan, _Reversion_ , Cell Project Space, 2023 (From top: _FOG_ , 2023, oil pastel on board, 60 x 47 x 3 cm; _Storage 2_ , 2023, installation, 2023, melamine chipboard, 120 x 89.5 x 17 cm)
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Private View Documentation _Reversion,_ Ksenia Pedan, Cell Project Space
Ksenia Pedan, _Gate 57_ , 2023, oil pastel on board, 40 x 31 x 3 cm
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Josefin A nell, _Beast and Feast_ , Installation View, 2023, HD video, 25:10, single-channel video installation
Max Göran, Exhibition view, _brave and pathetic is better than drowning in sham_ e, 2023, Cell Project Space, 2023
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Coumba Samba and École des Sables, Performance FIFA, 2024, Coumba Samba, Capital, 2024, Cell Project Space
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Private View Documentation Reversion, Ksenia Pedan, Cell Project Space
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**`Partners & Supporters 2022 & 2023`**
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## 20 **`2023/24 Programme Report`**
Cell Project Space’s successful completion of the ‘2023-24’ exhibition and events programme included solo exhibitions by Algerian-German artist Niklas Taleb (‘Solo Yolo’), Ukrainian-bor artist Ksenia Pedan (‘Reversion’), and a two-person exhibition by Swedish artists Josefin A nell and Max Göran (‘brave and pathetic is better than drowning in shame’) and (‘Capital’) the fi st UK solo exhibition by US/ Senegalese artist Coumba Samba. Additionally, it featured the Central Eastern European & Diasporic (CEED) Feminisms research group and public programme. For most of these artists, except Josefin A nell, this was their fi st major solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.
The programme aligned with Cell Project Space’s long-term goals: supporting risk-taking visual vocabularies and material art-making responsive to the current social and political landscape while fostering dialogue, knowledge exchange, and solidarity-building among art professionals globally. The programme addressed contemporary art issues and debates, including non-Western Feminisms in Eastern Europe, working-class and sub-cultural irreverence, and the artistic refusal to conform to dominant politics of representation. These themes were particularly evident in the projects by Ksenia Pedan and Niklas Taleb. This year of programming, supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, has underscored Cell’s role as London’s leading artist-centric exhibiting platform.
## **CEED Feminisms Research Group and Public Programme**
Cell Project Space launched the CEED Feminisms research group and public programme in partnership with the London-based Feminist Duration Reading Group (FDRG). FDRG is a non-hierarchical knowledge-sharing platform focusing on lesser-known feminist texts, movements, and struggles from outside the Anglo-American canon.
The programme, informed by Cell Project Space’s team and FDRG founding members, academics Helena Reckitt and Lina Džuverović, addressed Russia’s colonial and imperialist history and the xenophobia faced by ‘Eastern European’ immigrants in the UK, particularly in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The recurring reading groups addressed subjects such as feminism, anti-colonialism, parenthood, domestic labour, desire, power, humour, and repression.
## **CEED Feminisms Public Events:**
1. CEED Feminisms 1 (September 2023): An in-person reading group examined Central Eastern European feminisms through extracts from Ewa Majewska’s Feminist Antifascism (2021) and discussions on ‘Border Thinking and Disidentific tion’.
2. CEED Feminisms 2 (October 2023): An online reading group led by Ukrainian scholars explored transnational feminist solidarity in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
3. CEED Feminisms 3 (November 2023): A screening event featured performance documentation and moving image works by feminist artists from the former Yugoslavia, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Lina Džuverović
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4. January 2024: A 24-hour online screening of Sanja Iveković’s ‘The Invisible Women of Erste Campus’(2016) focused on the labour of cleaning staff t a bank’s headquarters.
5. CEED Feminisms 4 (March 2024): An online session by the Tirana-based Radical Sense reading group introduced contemporary Albanian feminist discourse through a dialogue and a microreader exploring radical feminist texts.
6. CEED Feminisms 5 (April 2024): The series concluded with the launch of a pamphlet and digital document, distilling the CEED Feminisms network’s research into a published bibliography.
## **Exhibitions:**
## **1. Solo Yolo by Niklas Taleb (24 June – 13 August 2023):**
This exhibition featured twelve newly commissioned photographic prints exploring contemporary social contracts in the West, family dynamics, and generational aspirations. Taleb’s work defamiliarised intimate family moments, highlighting the social reproduction of habits and mechanisms.
The exhibition included an artist and curator tour and was selected as a ‘Must See’ exhibition in Artforum International’s Artguide. Online, it reached approximately 150,000 users through the combined effect o advertising in Art Monthly, a review by Marcus Verhagen for e-flux Criticism, a review on Artforum by Daniel Neofetou, a feature in Mousse Magazine, Cell’s website, regular posts on Instagram (15,400 subscribers), Facebook, Twitter, and Cell’s monthly newsletter (8,000 subscribers).
## **2. Reversion by Ksenia Pedan (14 September – 19 November 2023):**
This exhibition transformed the gallery into a site-specific install tion, addressing the mundane apocalypse and drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine and London’s housing crisis. Pedan’s work featured handmade pigments and ready-made furniture sculptures.
The project included artist and curator tours, and a workshop titled ‘Mouldings’ with Blackhorse Responders. It bolstered Cell’s engagement with the Central Eastern European and Ukrainian diaspora communities in London. The exhibition was noted among the best exhibitions in London during Frieze Week by Mousse Magazine.
## **3. brave and pathetic is better than drowning in shame by Max Göran and Josefin Arnell (7 December 2023 – 25 February 2024):**
This exhibition premiered new film and photo raphic works, featuring bespoke video installations utilising the gallery’s space. It included a film sc eening, Q&A event, and a workshop for sociallydisadvantaged young adults.
The exhibition was advertised in print in the December 2023 issue of Art Monthly, reaching an approximate audience of 20,000. It was recommended in Mousse Magazine online, featured on Frieze magazine’s ‘Top Picks’, and the Evening Standard’s ‘Best Exhibitions in London’ bulletin. It received a review by art writer Michael Kurtz in Art Monthly’s February 2024 print issue and in the Spring 2024 print issue of Zerodeux magazine. Online, it reached an extended audience of approximately 150,000 users through advertising in Art Agenda (e-flux), Cell s website, regular posts on Instagram (16,200 subscribers), Facebook, Twitter, and Cell’s monthly newsletter (8,500 subscribers).
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## **5. Capital by Coumba Samba, collaborations with Gretchen Lawrence and Ecole Des Sables (28 March 2024 – 2 June 2024):**
This exhibition premiered the fi st major UK solo exhibition by Senegalese-American artist Coumba Samba, featuring a room-sized mud enclosure, photographic prints, and a commissioned performance titled ‘FIFA’ produced in collaboration with École Des Sables (Dakar, Senegal), and artist Gretchen Lawrence (UK/Estonia) to produce a permanent soundscape for the exhibition. The project revolved around the circulation of objects, forms, materials and ideologies between the West and West Africa; a feedback loop of defined futu es, economic suppression, and the event of hope.
The exhibition received substantial support from British Council’s Connect programme and was featured in Contemporary Art Library, Mousse, Emergent, Art Viewer, and Art basel online. The exhibition was filmed y Occula and was ‘an Artist to watch’ by Emalin gallery’s founding director, Leopold Thun. Online, it reached an extended audience of approximately 150,000 users through advertising in Art Agenda (e-flux), Cell s website, regular posts on Instagram (16,700 subscribers), Facebook, Twitter, and Cell’s monthly newsletter (8,500 subscribers).
Cell Project Space is dedicated to supporting emerging artists and fostering boundary-pushing visual art practices that responsively address contemporary artistic, social and political issues. The exhibition and public programme exemplified this mission y showcasing the work of international artists, engaging local Tower Hamlets communities, and creating opportunities for knowledge exchange and solidaritybuilding among art professionals. The programme’s themes, such as non-Western Feminisms in Eastern Europe and the refusal to conform to dominant politics of representation, reflected Cell s commitment to risk-taking and responsive art-making. This initiative reinforced Cell Project Space’s role as a leading artist-centric contemporary art platform in London, facilitating significant partne ships and leveraging additional funding to sustain its impactful work.
## **Evaluation and Assessment**
Throughout the project, Cell Project Space monitored website and social media analytics, visitor attendance, and feedback from participants and visitors. The gallery team held bi-weekly meetings to discuss exhibition planning and implementation. Visitor surveys and feedback forms were used to assess the impact and effecti eness of the programme.
Feedback from artists, partners, and visitors was collated and discussed by the gallery team to refine and improve future projects. This data was also included in the charity’s annual report for review by the Trustees.
## **a. Number of Beneficiaries**
Artists: First UK solo exhibition opportunity of an international scale for 4 emerging artists, 3 of them from under-represented backgrounds; 20+ emerging art professionals from CEE diaspora involved in CEED Feminisms public programmes and working groups with a network-building opportunity.
Local Communities: 150+ local residents engaging with the programmes through public artist & curator
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Cell Project Space’s inclusive approach has engaged diverse demographics in the approximation of (through visitor surveys, guest book sign-ins and written feedback): 18% of beneficiaries ere from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, 22% were LGBTQ+, and 16% were from Central and Eastern European or/and CEE diaspora.
## **b. Geographic Location of Beneficiaries**
The majority of beneficiaries ere located in London, specifically Cell s local area of Tower Hamlets, and young people participating in Blackhorse Workshop in Walthamstow. Additionally, Cell paid a particular focus on fostering local artist’s international representation and representation of earlycareer emerging international art practitioners in the UK. The programming reached a wide array of participants from various boroughs of London, leveraging Cell’s extensive resources and global networks to platform early career artists.
## **c. Impact on Organisation and Additional Funds Leveraged**
The grant significantly impacted Cell P oject Space by enhancing its ability to continue to support risk-taking visual vocabularies and material art-making responsive to the current social and political landscape. This support has also acted as a leverage to attract funds from esteemed public funding bodies such as Paul Mellon Centre, British Art Network, Tate, Mondriaan Fonds, Art Fund.
## **Impact on Organisation:**
1. The exhibition and public programme underscored Cell’s role as London’s leading artist-centric exhibiting platform.
2. The grant enabled Cell to strengthen its connections with UK-based and international artists, partners, art professionals, and funding bodies resulting in invitations for the Cell team to professional development opportunities such as to attend funded curator trips and artists’ studio visits.
3. The inclusive programming approach has led to new methods of co-creation with diaspora communities and collaborations with grassroots organisations and collectives.
## **Additional Funds Leveraged:**
1. Mondriaan Fonds in relation to Josefin A nell project 2. British Art Network Grant (Paul Mellon Centre and Tate Partnership) in relation to CEED Feminisms project
3. IFA in relation to Max Göran; and Niklas Taleb projects
4. Art Fund in relation to Cell Project Space Student Fellowship
5. Henry Moore Foundation and Swedish Artist Council Mobility Grant in relation to Ksenia Pedan project
6. Kunststiftung NRW in relation Niklas Taleb project
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## `Public Programme, Live Art & Performance Overview`
Cell Project Space has developed a public programme, which forms a key component within Cell’s wider exhibitions programme. Recognizing the expanding practices of artists working today the programme intends to connect artists, writers and academics with new audiences through workshops, events, talks and performances to work with early career artists and provide them with a platform to either disseminate knowleged and parctive or to support early stage ideas for smaller events within the programme. The initiative offe s opportunities for artists to test out, and discuss their work with the others, enabling communities to become involved and be part of their conversation, to form understanding and relationships that otherwise may not occur. The aim of the public programme is to broaden our local community networks both locallly and on a wider scale to promote social cohesion.
Through tours and workshops the gallery has established relationships with local schools and charities including: _Mowlem Primary School, Globe Primary School, Clapton Girls’ Academy, Project Indigo, Step Out at Step Forward, Women’s Environmental Network, London Environmental Educators’ Forum, Arts for All, ReThink, Headway East London, Green Candle Dance Company, Hub Club ,Blackhorse Activators_ and many others.
_Cellular Sessions_ was a new strand of programming in 2020 at Cell Project Space that ran alongside the exhibitions programme at the gallery as an experimental event space that offe ed artists a sustained and prolonged period of residency to develop new research, test ideas and present a final li e work during the pandemic when audience contact was limited. The programme continued the gallery’s engagement with supporting emergent art practices, particularly those by under-represented artists, placing a strong focus on the use of the space to present works across time-base and media arts. This ethos has become a continued part of our programming.
Morpeth Primary at Aude Pariset’s _Greenhouses_ Exhibition 2017
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Hindsights, Publication Launch, 2022, Peng Zuqiang
Workshop; _Permit To Dream; Toch Method_ with Ocean Loren with Cell Project Space Fellows
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Systems for Sharing with Sean Roy Parker, , 2017 working with _ReThink_ , (Support to those affected y a mental illness)
The War Room, an Opera! by Harriet Middleton-Baker 2022, working with _The Green Candle Dance Group_ for Seniors
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January Noons, Josephine Callaghan 2018 with _London Environmental Educators’ Forum (LEEF)_ and _Women’s Environmental Network (WEN)_
Sistxrs Fight Club (SSFC), Xtracts, 2018, working with members from the QTIPoC community
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28 `Selected Press Coverage`
Cell Project Space exhibitions programme is regularly featured online and in print on a regular basis throughout the year. Selected publications include: Art Review, Frieze, Art Monthly, Mousse Magazine, Art Viewer, The Standard, Artforum
Further press for all projects can be accessed here: http://cellprojects.org/press
London. The show features a soundscape by Lawrence, adding an extra dimension to Samba’s artwork 28
Coumba Samba at Cell Project
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SEASON: SS 2018
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SEASON: SS 2018
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Young Girl Reading Group
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: 4 ‘i r seriouslyA extreme’ words by Federico Sargentone
f ff a SAF]= The artist talks shout unpicking the story of William
—_— - Hogarth’s
te - ‘ explore architecturalA Harlot's Invited to join the 2,895 members of a Facebook group whose de-scription reads “Young Girl, I did love you once,” I start skimming Progress form, power and using herdistributionlatest and thop e ra to ings enforcing the public, collective dimension of the text. “In our performances, the readers are placed in casual lounging positions,
‘ ‘ : 9 =\ ~ a* ambivalence of feminism the feed, wandering through art opening e-vites, installation views-and queer-theory articles. in a corporate climate bringing to mind bodies hanging out in bedrooms,” they explain. ”In doing so, a sense of intimacy and vulnerability is generated—a
The group’s admins, Dorota Gaweda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, send me sense of girl-on-the-Internet catharsis, where feminist theory rubs
a co-signed email on their arrival day in New York. They are embark- against ‘girlish’ reading practices.”
ing on a residency at Art in General after a busy year spent between Paul B. Preciado, Nina Powers, Ursula K. Le Guin, Richard Sen-
‘3 Zz eri, Basel and Athens (where the two live and work) and traveling around a nett and Donna Haraway are just a few of the key authors that
European art institutions; their solo show at Cell Project Space in have been, or will be, performed by the group. The out-loud or-
London has recently come to an end, while their work at the 13th atoria performed by breathing bodies, as well as the gestures
Baltic Triennial is still on view in Tallinn and Riga. Even though captured by a rounded iPhone flashlight, prompt a process of
Studio links ea Y I’ve never met Dorota and Eglė IRL, various interconnections, both virtual and factual, paved my way into their work. In our email ex- 1 self-affirmation, which is in turn livestreamed and disseminated. As Gaweda and Kulbokaitė put it, “By performing the text, as-
change, the answers they hand over are poignant, relaying an acute suming uncomfortable positions to read, or writing down some
Frances Starke ‘Tam _ consciousness of what Young Girl Reading Group (YGRG) is and of the words in the space and on their clothes, the readers com-
desperately trying , will be. Named after Tiqqun’s seminal text Wy Preliminary Materials for a plexify the perception of the body, the space and the text itself.”
connectart world!outside of the Theory of the Young-Girl the performative entity develops from the formulation of a paradig- J ij , published in English by semiotext(e) in 1999, Self-described as a “sonar-social architecture of shared curiosity and synchronicity, a live Instagram hangout, and a self-conscious
matically centered identity, breaking similar ground in the spheres aesthetic chamber for intimacy and discovery,” Young Girl Reading
Monica Bonvicini: of identity politics, self-determination and economy of presence. Group happens simultaneously in real life, onscreen, and through
notsculpturesbutit meansamerelypraxisto andaprodacn, displayabout what objects‘tt of is a- : Initially operating on a weekly basis as an actual, queer-enthusiast bookclub from the artists’ apartment, Young Girl Reading Groupbecame a community seeking new ways for approaching text, read-ing, and sharing knowledge. Indeed, text is still at the core of their every activity, and is the central element of the performative instal- —aeca!“a language. This ubiquity of sorts allows their Young-Girl to act as a main character at the center of the stage. Her body is pivotal, her voice of paramount importance—both to herself and to bystanders, her daily experiences of sexuality, desire and legitimation framed and reclaimed through the public action.
showand display’ lations through which YGRG exists in the realm of contemporary Tiqqun writes, “The Young-Girl never creates anything; she re-
CenixanesCreatrix:kins, 200 by IZABELLA SCOTT art institutions. Their diverse and playful output, encompassing films, merchandise products and, most recently, fragrances, ulti-mately adheres to an overarching language. Selecting performers through word of mouth or from self-initiated communities such as creates herself”—and it’s the enactment of this particular, polar image that concerns Young Girl Reading Group most. With the body becoming a proxy for language, the “seductive power” of the Young-Girl becomes an exchangeable value—a dramatic yet ironic
YOUNG GIRL READING GROUP IS A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT INITIATED IN 2013 BY ARTISTS DOROTA GAWĘDA (POLISH, B. 1986) Simon Fujiwara: White Facebook groups, Dorota and Eglė stage Instagram-streamed read- replacement of the everyman’s “labor power.” K
13AND EGLĖ KULBOKAITĖ (LITHUANIAN, B. 1987). THEY ARE CURRENTLY IN RESIDENCE AT ART IN GENERAL IN NEW YORK, AND A NEW PRODUCTION WILL BE PRESENTED AS PART OF THE THIRD CHAPTER OF THE BALTIC TRIENNIAL IN RIGA (LT), THROUGH NOVEMBER 2018. [IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS AND MMOMA, MOSCOW.] DayWilliamFortuna Kentridge: SixHarrietHarlot’s Acts Middletorn-BakerProgress:(2017) shown Proposalat Guest(b1989)for ProjectsaNewdevises Operain feminist London,in the opera:Sci-Fiand, more The Genre in 14
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## **`Programme Hstory`**
2020-2021’s commissioning programme included notable solo presentations by Olu Ogunnaike, ‘London Plain’, Shenece Oretha, ‘Call To Respond’ and Atiéna R. Khalifa’s ‘Nevermind (Screen Test I)’, responding to questions of labour, production and regeneration as integral to the artists’ practices. Featured in Frieze magazine and Art Monthly, the projects’ institutional critique became a poignant reminder of the heightened social and political responsibilities of care during the pandemic. Ogunnaike has subsequently presented solo exhibitions at CAPC Musee, Bordeaux curated by Cedric Fauq, gb Agency, Paris in 2022, with a scheduled solo exhibition at Spike Island later this year; Oretha received public commissions at the British Museum, Jerwood Space, London and Brent Biennial 2022; Atiéna R. Kilfa presented her fi st institutional exhibition at KW Institute, Berlin and Camden Arts Centre, London in 2022-23.
_London Plain,_ solo exhibition, Olu Ogunnaike, 2020, Cell Project Space
Pivotal group exhibitions have included ‘Civic Duty’, featuring works by Carolyn Lazard, Sam Lipp, and Adrian Piper with the fi st airing of the late Donald Rodney’s pivotal and timely AI work ‘Psalms’ since his solo exhibition at South London Gallery in 1982. ‘Shit and Doom’ – No!art, showcased forgotten historical works by Stanley Fisher, Yayoi Kusama, Boris Lurie, and Stella Waitzkin, amongst many others using negation, pessimism and anti-aesthetics as a protest against the buoyant mainstream of Abstract Expressionism and Pop-Art that dominated the market of the period. ‘X6 Dance Space (1976–80): Liberation Notes’, was the fi st collective presentation of the X6 Collective and their work, which brought the former members together publically after 40 years.
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Installation Documentation - Liberation Notes, etc., 1987, Fergus Early, New Dance magazine, Issue 40, p.10-12
_Psalms_ , 1997, Donald Rodney, _Walk_ , 2019, Sam Lipp
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Suzanne Long, _Not without Men_ , c. 1962, Shit and Doom - NO!art, 2019
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Ghislaine Leung, _The Moves_ , 2017. Cell Project Space
Ghislaine Leung, _The Moves_ , 2017. Cell Project Space
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_Gulle,_ Julia Crabtree & William Evans, 2018. Cell Project Space
Performance: _Federico_ (2015 - ongoing), Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, 2017. Cell Project Space.
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_Shit and Doom - NO!art,_ 2019. Cell Project Space
_The Farmyward is not a Violent Place and I look Exactly Like Judy Garland,_ Alex Margo Arden & Caspar Heineman, 2020
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