Åbäke Design Collective and the staff and residents of Westmead Care Home, with instructions by Markus Miessen
In 2006, architect Markus Miessen visited the Westmead Care Home in Westminster, speaking to its staff and residents as part of the Serpentine Gallery’s Skills Exchange Project. He began to imagine simple changes to improve the lives of its residents and work against the isolation experienced by those who live there. In a short text titled Sound of Home: A Manual for Action, he made a number of propositions which we’ve passed to design collective Åbäke to interpret and develop with participants from Westmead. Included in these were systems of public and private signage, and technologies for communication with the ‘outside’ world.
Taking the title of the project Skills Exchange literally, Åbäke spent time with Westmead staff and residents discussing the range of interests and vocational skills present in the home. They reasoned that with the combined age of the residents alone being 3500 years, staff and residents offer a tremendous learning resource to each other and those who might come to the Serpentine Gallery.
The installation in the Serpentine’s Process Room marks the beginning of an exchange between staff and residents of Westmead and the gallery. During two weeks there will be a swap of furniture and artwork in each institution, as well as an exchange of interests and expertise. Staff at the Serpentine Gallery will tour the limited edition prints at Westmead and invite colleagues from other cultural organisations to comment on issues of copyright and image distribution. Staff and residents will share their experiences of the last century, and of living and working in residential care. This process is a starting point for discussion of future possibilities at Westmead.
To imagine the futures of the participating artists and creative professionals and to make the reality of old age less unreal, portraits of the team involved in the project have been aged 40 years by Åbäke & Kees de Klein. These provide context for a Family Day in which people of all ages will visualise and imagine their future selves through discussion with Yanki Lee, PhD Research Fellow with the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art.
Other events include a bus trip and birthday celebrations in honour of a 93-year-old resident of Westmead, cake and decoration workshops with staff, school students and community members, and a series of Skype exchanges between residents and visitors to Serpentine Gallery.
For more information contact
Janna Graham
020 7298 1535
Public Events
Book Launch and Private View
Tuesday 26 January 6.30 – 8.30pm
Book Launch of Celine Conderelli’s Support Structures
Introduction to Barter with the Future Self, by members of Åbäke Design Collective
Serpentine Family Day
Saturday 6 February 12 – 5pm
Join Åbäke Design Collective and Yan-Ki Lee from the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art, for a pre-registered afternoon workshop to imagine the family of the future. Or, drop in anytime to work with artists Polly Brannan and Imogen Luddy to create new artwork and discuss your ‘future self’.
School and community workshop day
Tuesday 26 January
Education events are free.
For more information and booking group visits contact:
Eleanor Farrington
+44 (0)20 7298 1516
eleanorf@serpentinegallery.org
Barter with the Future Self is part of the ongoing Serpentine Gallery Project Skills Exchange: Urban Transformation and the Politics of Care. Through Skills Exchange, artists work in collaboration with elderly people, and a range of local constituents, from market traders to students and care workers exchanging skills and ideas for social and architectural change. Other Skills Exchange Collaborations include:
Barby Asante and Inspire, Southwark
Marcus Coates with St. John’s Hospice
Beatrice Gibson with Camden Homes for Older People
Tom Hunter with Age Concern, Hackney
Each project includes researchers from Goldsmiths Centre for Urban and Community Research.
Serpentine Gallery Projects supported by:
