Koki Tanaka: Night Market Revisited from 19th Century to Take a Stand

Wednesday 8 June 2016, 6pm until dark
Free, all welcome

(This event will take place around the corner from The Showroom on Church Street)

A night market once existed in the Church Street area but it disappeared after WW2.

The European Union was set up after WW2 as an initiative of peace and coexistence, with the aim of ending conflicts between neighbours. On 23 June 2016 the UK will hold a referendum to decide whether it should remain in or leave the EU. If the UK leaves, does it means a failure of peace and coexistence with others?

It will be logistically difficult to realise a night market on Church Street, however we hope to be able to keep at least a few stands open until it gets dark. Will it be a symbolic action to stay there until twilight, while around us other vendors close their stands? Can we make any connections between the thinking around the EU referendum and the past history of the night market?

Koki Tanaka, 2016

With stands from:

Britain Is Not An Island, a low-fi, high-impact, artist-led campaign for a Remain vote in the EU referendum. Britain Is Not An Island have set up an unfunded website www.eu-uk.info to share posters, actions and events. On the night, they will launch their recent sticker series of 8 posters at the event, designed by Mia Frostner, Margherita Huntley and Rosalie Schweiker.

Ismail Ali. Ismail has been a resident of Salisbury Street for over a decade. At the time the original Church Street night market operated Ismail wasn’t in existence. The estate he calls home did exist (built 1904) and its occupants in that time will have browsed, bought or sold there. Ismail is fascinated by markets as a trading, social and cultural space. Sometimes trades collectable curios and coffee products, here and there, flexing the latent mercantile muscle linked to his Turkish Cypriot origins. Cyprus is a divided island - Greek Cypriots live in the European Union and, just north of the border, Turkish Cypriots do not.

Laila’s Creole Cusine, a food trader on Church Street market. Laila has traded on Church Street Market for over a year, serving home cooked food and flavours from the Seychelles. Laila will serve a selection of her dishes on the night.

Part of Koki Tanaka’s commission Provisional Studies: Action ## 5 Conceiving the Past, Perceiving the Present, which is in the third and final round of How to work together commissions.

How to work together is a shared programme of contemporary art commissioning and research organised by The Showroom, Chisenhale Gallery and Studio Voltaire, and is supported by a capacity building and match-funding grant from Arts Council England through Catalyst Arts, with additional funding from Bloomberg and Jerwood Charitable Foundation. With additional funding for the 2016 commissions from Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation.

The commission is also supported by Vitamin Creative Space, The Japan Foundation, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

Liverpool Biennial and The Showroom are working in partnership on the commissioning of Koki Tanaka’s work in 2016.