The 2019 Edition of DRAF’s Evening of Performances took place this year at Ministry of Sound welcoming more than 1,000 Londoners and international guests. Inviting a guest curator, Louise O’Kelly (founder of Block Universe), for the first time in its twelve years, an Evening of Performances sought to explore the importance of alternative subcultures and London’s nightlife as a space for freedom of expression in an era of rising conservatism.
A range of international artists working across music, installation, performance, poetry, and dance were invited to present new works that dealt with questions of representation, identity politics and self-expression, weaving club culture in with the socio-political context of the UK in 2019.
Jimmy Robert (FR) bridged the gap between the art fair and the context of a club by working with a photograph by Valie Export (Body Sign Action 2, 1970), borrowed from the David Roberts Collection. Robert’s performance explored how we position ourselves in relation to works of art, and how the environment of a club can be used to disrupt the politics of spectatorship, objectification and representation within the canon.
