Established in October 2012, UGLY DUCK has transformed a spacious, empty Victorian warehouse in SE London into a thriving, creative hub. Over a decade of revitalising underused buildings and supporting marginalized artists, some 1500 artists and arts collectives have collaborated with Ugly Duck
Following the success of previous programmes championing LGBTQIA+ performance, video and digital artists, it is excited to announce the first ever summer edition of @Disturbance. It’s a surreal outdoor party which will lead to an interactive indoor set, full of wonder and the unexpected.
Disturbance is an interdisciplinary, experimental artistic residency & development programme. It champions & supports emerging LGBTQIA+ artists with: space, technical assistance, mentoring, press training. The program culminates in hybrid & immersive public performances showcased live at Ugly Duck & online. Their goal is to enhance experimentation, documentation and accessibility of queer performance art through cutting-edge live streaming and online tools.
June’s live performances will be accompanied by a simultaneous online stream, enabling audiences unable to travel to experience @Disturbance in full effect. @Disturbance remains committed to promoting accessibility and fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for radical, diverse and queer artists.
This year, @Disturbance features five artists: Alex Billingham, Samiir Saunders, Ace Rahman, Kobi Essah Ayensuo and Ella Frost, performing live and on giant video screens. @Distrubance is entirely artist-led and is curated by Deen Atger. Other contributions come courtesy of Lucy Nurnberg who will design the exterior installation, Mahalia Henry-Richards taking care of graphic design, set designer Knives, who has a film background and poet Oduenyi Nwike lending their multifaceted skills to @Disturbance as a key part of the team.
Ugly Duck Creative Director and founder of @Disturbance Deen Atger says: “This year we look forward to seeing our regular, fabulous @Disturbance crowd as well as new audiences discovering our work. We’re partnering with disabled-led organisations Care-fuffle and Shape Arts to embark on a journey around accessibility. All artists will create new work where captioning, audio description and BSL translation will not only be embedded but considered as the work is being created. By employing livestream, projections and other technologies, we aim to explore and learn what accessibility can mean and look like for artists and audiences. Through this edition of @Disturbance we question how to make this an integral part of the show, rather than approaching it as an afterthought, so that we can not only come together but show up for each other as a larger community.”
Ugly Duck Bermondsey is excited to announce, taking place on Saturday June 22 & Sunday June 23.
@Disturbance makes maximum use of Ugly Duck’s Tanner Street location, a former Victorian factory
with multiple spaces
