Following the success of the first season last December, Making Connections has returned to The Old Waiting Room with a brand-new series of free and affordable art events.
Running from now until 14th July 2024, this summer’s series will include film screenings, large scale artworks and site-specific theatre, plus several talks and community workshops. Hidden above Peckham Rye station and closed to the public since 1965, The Old Waiting Room has been dormant, derelict and waiting to be repurposed. It sits between two working platforms, with trains and passengers visible beyond its windows. Originally a waiting room, it has been a billiards hall, an illegal rave venue, and a pop-up art space. Making Connections 24 will engage new audiences and maximise the potential of the space as architects, artists and activists reimagine and reinterpret it.
Designed and directed by majority female, marginalised or under-represented artists, Making Connections focuses on community, care and social connection through creative experiences. The series highlights the importance of these narratives and the need to stand together in the face of adversity and conflict. Work presented explores how healing and solidarity have an impact on mental-wellbeing and our sense of belonging. Produced by Lost Text/Found Space, the series aims to be a platform to share and connect, to enable future collaborations in Peckham and beyond.
Highlights
HOMETOWN
7th – 14th June, free
Launch event: 7th June, 4-9pm
An exhibition of large-scale canvas by Russian artist Pavel Otdelnov, who moved his family to London on
a Global Talent visa after protesting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Otdelnov casts an exile’s
jaded eye on his birthplace, uncovering the lives of those who have worked and of those who remain
working in Dzerzhinsk, a Soviet city built on sand, once a chemical capital and now one of Russia’s largest
munitions hubs. Otdelnov’s paintings, which are often populated by ghosts, feel tailor-made for the Old
Waiting room – a space haunted by exoduses. These fantastical ghosts, from his grandmother standing in
what was once her plexiglass workshop to gang members who are now often in positions of power, depict
the toxic legacy that has poisoned the environment. Hometown narrows in on Otdelno’s first London
exhibition, Acting Out, which looked at the wider signs hidden in Russia’s history that led to the ongoing
humanitarian catastrophe.
HOMETOWN ARTIST/AUTHOR TALK
9th June 5-6pm, free
Svetlana Stephenson, Professor of Sociology at London Metropolitan University and the acclaimed author
of Gangs of Russia, from the streets to the corridors of power, will discuss street gangs with Otdelnov, who
has been a keen observer of the notorious gangs of Dzerzhinsk for many years. In this unique talk he and
Stephenson will discuss why these gangs were so common, their unique nature, how their ethos pervaded
society, and how their members rose to become influential and notable politicians.
A BRIEF ENCOUNTER – PECKHAM’S OLD WAITING ROOM
Presented within London Festival of Architecture’s ‘South Focus’ week
Thurs 13th June 6-9pm, tickets £6/11.50 price includes free drink and nibbles
An innovative event to explore the Old Waiting Room’s history and its present. A panel discussion will be
followed by a Brief Encounter conversation, which will invite people to hear about the process of
rediscovering the space and the ambitions for its future from the architects, artists and activists involved.
Small, one-to-one conversations with strangers will explore what we can imagine and dream from our
public, civic and community spaces. Chaired by Rumi Bose, the event will feature architect Benny Looney,
and artists/creatives Anna Burns, Pavel Otdelnov and Creative Director Rebecca McCutcheon.
GUT FEELINGS
18th – 23rd June, free
Launch event: June 18th, 6-9pm
Peckham-based artist and set designer Anna Burns will question human intuition’s role in the current age
of algorithmic monotony. Apps now tell us when to get up, when to get pregnant, who to date, and what to listen to. Burns urges us to pay attention to our gut – encouraging us all to allow the analogue sound, vibrant
colours, ritualistic iconography and literal spilling of guts to physically move us through a speculative, ritual
space of the future. 13 female doll figures spill their guts and attempt to connect, to tap into an
interconnected, cosmic and divine feminine spectacle.
OVER EXPOSED
26th – 30th June, free/PWYC
Junkerry’s Together Apart London preview: 26th June 6 & 8pm
Fulldome Gathering: 28th June 6-9pm
South London based film-maker Em BW curates a four-day immersive 360 dome film festival celebrating
experiences of connection and togetherness. Audio-visual experiences will illuminate the collective space
to explore our mental state with softness, creativity and without judgement. Visitors will step into the
immersive dome and discover untold narratives of female, non-binary and non-human vulnerability.
The film festival also includes the London preview of Junkerry’s Together Apart. This 55-minute immersive
feast unfolds in five chapters, delivering strong positive messages of how we disconnect, divide, belong
and unite. The piece uses music, songs and spoken voices, along with beautiful, intriguing visuals tailored
for the full dome, by artists Alice Kilkenny, Lucy Hardcastle and Natalia Oliwaik to transport audiences into
another reality.
STILL LIVES
2nd – 14th July, Tuesday – Saturday, 7.30pm (& 4pm matinees Saturday) tickets £22.38/13.70 or PWYC
Press performance: 3rd July 7.30pm
90 mins
A new, site-specific production of Noel Coward’s Still Lives, which inspired the film Brief Encounter.
Directed by Peckham-based Rebecca McCutcheon and adapted by award-winning playwright Dan
Rebellato, this version interweaves Still Lives with Coward’s lesser-known Quadrille, creating a world of
shifting relationships, desires and missed opportunities for love in the comings and goings of a station
platform. Delicately written and deceptively light, the play explores life’s deepest dilemmas, the sliding doors
effect of each of our decisions, which carry us along, away from other lives which might have been. With
an all-female cast playing cross-gender roles, women’s desire and agency is placed at the heart of the
production. With live music, installations and movement, Still Lives will create a world of charged beginnings
and endings in the symbolic and literal space of The Old Waiting Room. The production will combine
emotionally engaging narrative with immersive theatre techniques to create an unforgettable experience.
MAKING CONNECTIONS 24
Peckham Rye Station, Station Way, London SE15 4RX
www.losttextfoundspace.com
