An immersive night of ritual, music and metamorphosis to launch EPOCH issue 2 with Panjabi Hit Squad, Yohan Kebede, James Massiah, Hannah Catherine Jones, Bones Tan Jones, Ben Pitcher, Mehrnoosh Khadivi.

Inspired by the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain on October 31. Expect live music, DJs, multisensory performance, conversation, film, poetry and dancing. A ceremonial celebratory take on All Hallows Eve with free Halloween cocktails.

EPOCH is a new publication from Creative Director Leonard Vernhet and Editor in Chief Francesca Gavin and look at the now in dialogue with history.

Schedule

19.00 ICA opens

19.30 Theatre Doors Open

A soundscape knitting the night together from Dr Hannah Catherine Jones aka Foxy Moron (NTS) playing everything from opera to body altering frequencies

19:45 A mind-blowing, multisensory performance ritual from scent researcher Mehrnoosh Khadivi, sitting somewhere between movement and our noses. Please note - this 10 minute performance is limited capacity first come first served.

19:55 A film intervention by EPOCH 

20:15 A panel conversation about ritual, excess and contemporary culture with artist Bones Tan Jones, broadcaster writer Ben Pitcher, artist, musician, composer, conductor and performer Hannah Catherine Jones and EPOCH Editor in Chief Francesca Gavin, led by the ICA’s Susanna Davies-Crook.

21.00 Intermission

21.20 Live poetry set drawing on sexuality, mortality and philosophy from South London’s iconic James Massiah

21.55 A film intervention by EPOCH

22:00 A live music set from keyboardist and composer Yohan Kebede (KOKOROKO, Church of Sound) fusing jazz, hip hop and alternative RnB.

23.00 - 0100 A two hour DJ set from iconic British Asian DJs Punjabi hit squad for a hedonistic finish.

ICA x EPOCH Samhain marks the launch of issue two of EPOCH Review which is themed around the idea of metamorphosis and features interviews and visual projects from Arthur Jafa, Sampha, Harley Weir, Liz Johnson Artur, Elizabeth Peyton, Tyler Mitchell, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Adam Curtis, Cali Thornhill Dewitt, Alessio Bolzoni and more. The aim of the issue is to highlight the infinite possibilities opened up by transformation. EPOCH is a new publication from Creative Director Leonard Vernhet and Editor in Chief Francesca Gavin and aims to develop new narratives for the present by looking at and connections with the past, drawing on archaeology, anthropology, visual art, fashion, technology, cultural studies, science, geology, music, language and sociology.

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Panjabi Hit Squad aka Rav & Dee are DJs and producers, and three times winners of the UK Asian Music Awards. The duo have a long-running show on Radio One Xtra, produced and released four full studio albums including Desi Beats Vol 1 released on Def Jam and have worked with artists including Mariah Carey and Beenie Man.

Yohan Kebede is a composer and keyboardist from North West London. Though he has up until now featured most notably as one-eighth of afrobeat outfit KOKOROKO, he has recently sold out both Church of Sound and Reference Point. His debut Opia is set for release in 2024, which fuses his love for jazz, hip hop and alternative RnB.

James Massiah is a poet and musician from South London whose work explores ideas about sexuality, mortality & philosophy through performance, writing & visual media. A monthly resident on NTS, he has performed readings of his work at the Tate Modern, the Courtauld and curated events for Boiler Room.

Mehrnoosh Khadivi is an artist and designer focused on researching scent as a material, as a method of expression or a device to communicate. Mixing different practices, she creates expansive immersive works that include ritual, performance and installation to invoke deeper visceral connections to ideas, one another or beyond. The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence’ is an agglomerative work – an invitation towards wholeness that encompasses a performance by choreographer Daniela Neugebauer, performer Sofia Larriera and composer Tony Nwachukwu.

Dr Hannah Catherine Jones aka Foxy Moron is a London-based artist, musician, composer, conductor and performer. The founder of the Peckham Chamber Orchestra and Chiron Choir, and hosts The Opera Show on NTS. Her expansive practice centers on ideas of healing, inclusivity and decolonisation through sound-based performance.

bones tan jones is a London-based artist, musician and performer. bones’ work is a spiritual practice that seeks to present an alternative, queer, optimistic dystopia. They work through ritual, meditating through craft, dancing through the veil betwixt nature and the other. bones weaves a mycelial web of diverse, ecoconscious narratives which aim to connect, enthrall and induce audiences to think more sustainably and ethically. Traversing pop music, sculpture, alter-egos, digital image and video work, bones sanctifies these mediums as tools in their craft.

Ben Pitcher is an academic who writes about race and the politics of culture, amongst other things. He is the author of Back to the Stone Age: Race and prehistory in contemporary culture’ (2022), Consuming Race (2014) and The Politics of Multiculturalism (2009) and is a reader in sociology at the University of Westminster.

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