Feel the heat in our special Friday Lates: A Heat Wave! by The Queer Bible founder Jack Guinness, in celebration of A Hard Man is Good to Find!
Extended opening hours and free for all.
The Queer Bible celebrates our shared culture, amplifying LGBTQ+ voices through events, readings and a book of essays including contributions from Munroe Bergdorf, Elton John and Mae Martin.
5–9pm
Music: DJ Bestley, programmed
by The Queer Bible
Location: Café Bar
Bestley is a cosmic being that channels a disco life force back into the universe. Born from bright flashing neon lights and the smokey haze of dance floors, they are emerging as an artist, singer and creator of intergalactic good vibrations.
5–9pm
The red lounge
Location: Café Bar
In our café The Queer Bible will be hosting a get together of LGBTQIA+ communities. Based on a specific range of themes (photography, contemporary art, living in London, etc), this will be an opportunity to meet new people, network or even speed date!
Soft drinks sponsored by Something & Nothing
6–8pm
Film screenings programmed
by Sara Sassanelli
Location: Third floor
Curator Sara Sassanelli selects two films that reflect on masculinity, sexuality and desire. Both films explore euphoria and pleasure as conduits for different forms of intimacy, both with the self and others. A Bodiless Thing by Wet Mess is a frenzied and humorous meditation on selfhood as framed by complex desires beyond a binary representation of masculinity. Stephen Isaach-Wilson’s film Ajamu: Joyful Insurrection is a celebration of the life and career of artist Ajamu, whose work explores contemporary expressions of sexuality, desire and pleasure among the black LGBTQ+ community.
Ajamu: Joyful Insurrection
by Stephen Isaac-Wilson
In this experimental film, Stephen Isaac-Wilson celebrates the life and career of photographer and artist Ajamu, and use him as a conduit to explore the black British gay sexual experience. Since the 90s, his work has challenged understandings of sexualities, desire, pleasure and cultural production within contemporary Britain.
Stephen is a London based filmmaker who has made films for Tate, i-D magazine, Channel 4, Boiler Room, British Council and Victoria Miro, and worked with artists including Mykki Blanco, Isaac Julien, Klein and Jorja Smith. The director combines both his journalistic background with his visual art sensibilities, to tell beautifully emotive and thought-provoking stories. The films he makes explore the topics of race, sexuality and intimacy.
A Bodiless Thing
by Wet Mess
Horny for confusion, more chaos, more unknown than known, our mannerisms maximised by a thousand. The ego, the bodiless thing, the crotch grabbing, rubbing its quivering flesh against the rough surfaces of the city scape.
Wet Mess exposes us to the euphoria and the alienation of oneself in a frenzied yet blasé pursuit of masculinity. A Bodiless Thing takes us on a muscle fuelled carb killing search for belonging, which makes us question to what extent our material existence determines who we think we are and how we fit into the world. Can we really be that horny, sweaty, binary defying, ridiculously camp person beyond our flesh suits?
Sara Sassanelli is Curator of Live at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and associate of alternative education programme CONDITIONS. They have previously worked at Tate, Goldsmiths and the Royal Academy of Arts and have programmed events at Somerset House Studios, Southwark Platform, Guest Projects, Arts Admin, Fierce Festival and Block Universe. They are currently working on a research project titled ‘rave residues’ that will result in a series of events at ICA in 2024.
