The Selfridges Eye: Bold Tendencies

How did the Bold Tendencies and Selfridges relationship come about?

“Two very special Multi-Story Orchestra performances (part of the Bold Tendencies programme) were made possible in 2017 with the support of Selfridges, as part of their Music Matters campaign. This was complemented by an extraordinary one-off performance of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms at the Old Selfridges Hotel, featuring a 44-piece orchestra and the renowned London Adventist Chorale.

In 2018 we continued our partnership, when Bold Tendencies, together with Polly Graham and her recently formed company, Loud Crowd, brought a new opera programme to Peckham. We believe opera can appeal to many more people, but it requires an active shift in mindset and a new, energetic and ambitious approach to making work. Selfridges helped us kick-start our work in this area.”

What prompted this year’s site-specific art theme: ‘Fiction’?

“Whether we consider past, future or present, fiction has a critical role. It provides ways of knowing, understanding and questioning ourselves and our histories, of analysing our cultures and dreaming of new futures.

Truth, reality and fiction are at the fore of our cultural landscape. It’s an urgent and multifaceted theme for the here and now, and following a precedent set last year with our theme ‘Ecology’, seemed right for the moment.” 

Can you tell us a bit more about this year’s artworks?

“From unearthed sewer networks to global FinTech skyscrapers, gothic carnival facades to suspicious and auditory happenings, our six new commissions – Matt Copson’s Agape (Infernal Cityscape), Liz Glynn’s Unearthed Underground, Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Wall, Lawrence Lek’s FTSE (Farsight Stock Exchange), Momtaza Mehri’s Towards A Quantifiable Measure of Longing, Konrad Smoleński’s B – create a wealth of speculative visions that haunt and excite our imagination, representing the diverse and tumultuous landscape of our media, politics, social environments and culture: here and now the confluence of appearance, fiction and reality is all to play for.” 

Do you think the digital revolution has made the art world more democratic/accessible?

“Our digitally networked world allows local work to be globally visible and applicable, and global learnings and behaviours to be observed and considered locally. Through the internet, its many portals, platforms and modes of communication, we are able to maintain and cultivate a multitude of dialogues and research across the world, and share our work with colleagues and audiences wherever they are.

Art’s great characteristic and abiding virtue is that it offers up a mirror to the moment. It allows us to view the world in a way we wouldn’t otherwise see and consider it.” 

What can we look forward to in the future at Bold Tendencies?

“Our ambition is to make and share, for and with everyone, experiences of art, orchestral music, dance, opera and architecture in a civic space that visitors and audiences can find memorable, inspiring and useful. Bold Tendencies is for everyone: it will remain committed to do more with and for the artists and creative people it works with, for and with our varied audiences, and for and with our workforce.” 

To find out more about Bold Tendencies’ summer programme, visit www.boldtendencies.com.