Tate Liverpool and Future Yard announce new music and arts partnership

Tate Liverpool and Future Yard have today announced a new collaboration that will merge the worlds of contemporary art and contemporary music.

Selector will present the artist ‘In Conversation’ at Tate where the musical inspirations on their work are explored, followed by a series of live music events curated by visual artists to celebrate the influence music has on their art. The series will launch with Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Leckey in June.

Visual and performing artists have been combining their artforms for centuries. Since the latter half of the 20^th century the relationship between music and art in contemporary culture has become increasingly intwined. Artists across genres are inspiring each other, breaking boundaries and experimenting with their practices. 

Originally from the Wirral, Mark Leckey returns to his roots in leading the curation of three nights of performances, drawing on his love of musical subcultures, sound systems, and collective experiences of sound. 

The series opens at Tate Liverpool with an evening of conversation as Mark discusses the influence of music culture on his art. The event will be hosted by DJ, curator and multidisciplinary cultural producer Thristian, the founder of Global Roots, and co-founder of both Boiler Room and Worldwide FM.  

The live programme at Future Yard features a line-up that spans national figures and local innovators. Many of the acts are multidisciplinary artists who trace a strong northern narrative through their music, expressed through hypnotic layering of electronic beats and sound collages that are both intimate and expansive.

Expect a mix of DJ sets, artists performing to visuals in real time and acts that will create a shared, immersive experience including Aya, Richie Culver, Rainy Miller and Moolakii Club Audio Interface, as well as a DJ set from Mark Leckey. 

Mark Leckey (born 1964) is a British contemporary artist whose work looks at the relationship between popular culture and technology as well as themes of youth, class and nostalgia. He works with sculpture, film, sound and performance⁠ – and sometimes all four at once – often using found object art in video pieces.  

Music, in particular rave and pop, is central to some of Lecky’s best-known works, including Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, 1999; Industrial Light and Magic, 2008; and Dream English Kid, 1964 – 1999 AD 2015. His work Exorcism of the Bridge at Eastham Rake 2018 has been performed at New York’s MoMA PS1 and Tate Modern. Lecky is also a member of several bands including Jack 2 Jack and donAteller.

The collaboration between Future Yard and Tate Liverpool strengthens the cultural offer across the Liverpool City Region with two organisations from across the Mersey joining for this series of events. The multidisciplinary approach blends the worlds of music and art in an innovative and creative way that audiences will find exciting and reinforces the region’s status as a Cultural Capital.  

Selector with Mark Leckey will begin with a Meet the Artist at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North on Wednesday 10 June from 18.30 – 20.00, followed by three nights of performances at Future Yard from 11 June to 13 June 19.00 – midnight. 

Shaun Curtis, Head of Learning, Tate Liverpool, said:

“Tate Liverpool is delighted to be collaborating with Future Yard on this programme, continuing Tate’s long tradition of boundary-pushing projects that bring contemporary visual art and music together. We are also thrilled to be working with Mark Leckey on Selector —an artist whose influential work and ongoing practice consistently blur the lines between music and art, the museum and the club, and the experimental and the popular.”

See more events at Tate Liverpool here.

Future Yard recently announced ambitious plans for a new 600 capacity venue, read more here.

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