Mikhail Karikis

Thursday 4th November 2021, 6.30pm

Tessa Blackstone Lecture Theatre [0003]

Can noise be political, culture and gender-specific? Can sound mobilise socio-political and physical change? And can listening be a form of activism? Working across film, sound and performance, the artist Mikhail Karikis presents a selection of projects he created with diverse communities of people ranging from age five to eighty-five. In his talk, Karikis will trace the evolution of his sculptural and political use of noise. Shedding light on issues of social marginalisation and presenting examples of collective action, activist imagination, pride and joy, the projects he will discuss were produced with people in different parts of the world, including a disused English coal mine, a remote North Pacific island, an imposing geothermal industrial site in Italy and a primary school classroom in east London. 

Mikhail Karikis has worked across art and music, collaborated with Dj Spooky, Bjork, Royal Opera House and Netherland Dance Theatre, and over the past decade his artworks have been exhibited in leading biennials including 54th Venice Biennale, (2011); Manifesta 9, Ghenk (2012); 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, IN (2016); MediaCity Seoul, KR (2015), 2ndRiga International Biennale of Contemporary Art, LV (2020) and elsewhere. Recent solo exhibitions include Ferocious Love, Tate Liverpool (2020); For Many Voices, MIMA, UK (2019-20); Children of Unquiet, TATE St Ives, UK (2019-20); I Hear You, De la Warr Pavilion, UK (2019-20); Mikhail Karikis, MORI Art Museum, Tokyo, JP (2019); Children of Unquiet, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, IT (2019); No Ordinary Protest, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2018); Ain’t Got No Fear, Turku Art Museum, FI (2018); The Chalk Factory, Aarhus 2017European Capital of Culture, DK (2017) and Love Is the Institution of Revolution, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art Contemporain, LU (2017). Karikis studied architecture at the Bartlett, and completed an MA and PhD at Slade School of Fine Art (UCL). He holds a professorial position and leads the post-graduate research at MIMA School of Art & Design, Teesside University, UK.