Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall is fantastic, not just as a location for the massive installations that populate it intermittently (sculptor Doris Salcedo was recently announced as the artist in charge of 2007’s commission) but also for the events that go on in the gaps between one huge sculpture and the next, squeezing in between boxes and slides, or between slides and whatever comes next.
(Picture by scratch n sniff)
This time it’s a series of debates on the Future of London. The Architecture Foundation is inviting Londoners to come along and discuss what sort of city they want to live in, come 2012. The first question up for discussion, on Friday 22 June, addresses whether London is “a united city”. Participants ranging from Boris JOhnson to Lynsey Hanley will be talking about whether increasing population pressure and housing prices are dividing the city into two halves, one for the rich and one for everyone else.
Over the following days, the debates will cover London and environmentalism, Londoners’ hopes for the city’s future, whether London can be “both big and beautiful”, and on the final day Generation London will bring two hundred school-children together to discuss their position in London, and changes to the city. Debaters include Alex James, Zoe Williams, a “Professor of Forecasting and Innovation”, John Bird and Janet Street-Porter.
Hearing-aids and signers are available if you let the Tate know in advance that you’ll need one; and although seating is on cushions by default, alternative arrangements can be made if that won’t work for you. And if you can’t make it to the debates at all, there’s a thirty-second poll on their website where you can participate anyway: answer five questions and find out whether Londoners think the Olympics will benefit the city (current consensus: yes), whether CCTV makes us feel safer (no), and whether London is really as cool as it thinks it is (yes, but only just).
Debate London: Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, 22-25 June. £8/£5 concession per debate.
