Serpentine is delighted to announce a new season of its recently relaunched podcast, a curated series of six episodes, launching in August 2023 on all podcast streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
The second series of Serpentine Podcast since its relaunch in January 2023 will explore the complexities of closeness. Intimacies asks how we can expand and evolve our connection with ourselves, others, and the world around us.
Guided by the voice of host Gaylene Gould – an artist, experienced broadcaster, and creative director – the series will gather perspectives from artists, designers, writers, thinkers, and others on how we can rekindle trust, and open ourselves up to new possibilities for connection.
Delving into the feelings and experiences which we don’t always voice, this series interrogates intimacy in unexpected ways – from our relationships with family and our interactions with strangers, to the things we fear most and our deepest desires, to our surroundings and our innermost selves.
Each episode combines interviews, original audio works, conversations, pieces from the Serpentine archive, and tenderly crafted sound worlds to explore what is happening within and between us. The original audio commissions made for this series by artists including Adrian Piper, Pixy Liao and Black Power Naps range from songs to sonic landscapes to readings. Each offers space for an artist to explore their inner world and thinking around relationships.
This series itself is an exercise in intimacy: personal, emotional, reflective, and an exploration of vulnerability in many ways. It is produced by audio production company, Reduced Listening, Company of the Year winner at the Audio Production Awards (November 2022).
Since its inception in 2018, Serpentine Podcast has experimented with podcasting as a space for art and has evolved through different forms, from Serpentine Marathon broadcasts to hosted thematic series such as Back to Earth, and from the sound art features of Sound Galleries to in-depth topical mini-series such as Playtesting.
The launch of the REWORLDING series in January 2023 marked a new era for Serpentine’s Podcast, as Serpentine examined what an arts podcast could best offer to listeners in our current moment. Now, Intimacies continues this journey by looking sensitively at what is happening within and between us – asking courageous questions about how we do and don’t connect, and why that might be.
CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE
Adrian Piper, Tomás Saraceno, Olivia Laing, Lina Ghotmeh, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Brontez Purnell, Hetain Patel, and archival materials by P. Staff, Agnès Varda, Helen Cammock, Cecilia Vicuña, and others.
EPISODE 1. Intimacy with strangers
The new series starts by considering interactions with strangers. The unexpected crossing of paths between people who have no knowledge of each other can be emotionally impactful, whether these moments leave us unsettled, or uplifted by a sense of hope and connection.
What forms of proximity arise between strangers in public spaces? How and why do artists make work which invites new encounters between themselves and audience members – and what possibilities and risks can emerge when they do?
- Featuring a conversation with Adrian Piper, an interview with Scottee, a performance by Cecilia Vicuña from the Serpentine archive, and Serpentine curator Tamsin Hong in conversation with Gaylene Gould.
- Launching on Tuesday 22 August 2023.
We now turn to the people our lives are first entangled with: our families. Family is a contested and challenging space for some, while being a place where others find sanctuary, safety, and profound relationships. This episode considers different expectations and realities of love, care and identity within biological and chosen families, and asks how we intentionally nurture, negotiate and shift our family relationships.
How and why do artists involve their family members and homes in their work – and what do they need to take into consideration when bringing this to an audience?
- Featuring an original sound work by Angelo Madsen Minax, an interview with Hetain Patel, audio excerpts from projects led by Helen Cammock and Rehana Zaman from the Serpentine archive, and Serpentine curator Elizabeth Graham in conversation with Gaylene Gould.
- Launching on Tuesday 29 August 2023.
Sometimes the things we fear live as intimately within us than the things we love. These fears are rarely distant from us: we are sometimes closely implicated in them, and fear is a visceral, personal experience. Fear and anxiety can be irrational, or rooted in realities that threaten us unevenly.
When can we transform our phobia into an embrace? How do we find ways to live alongside the threats of the world? And how are artists working closely – and in nuanced ways – with this most instinctive feeling?
- Featuring an interview with Web(s) of Life – currently on view at Serpentine South and The Royal Parks – artist Tomás Saraceno, an original sound work by Lamin Fofana, a reading by P. Staff from the Serpentine archive, and Serpentine curator Claude Adjil in conversation with Gaylene Gould.
- Launching on Tuesday 5 September 2023.
We now move from a space of fear into desire – asking how art can be a space to express, explore and experience the supposedly private sphere of sexuality.
What is the interplay between distance and closeness within desire? How do desire, attraction and obsession intersect with other aspects of our lives in under-recognised ways? What happens when intimate pleasures and partnerships inform art-making – and when that work is brought before a public?
- Featuring an original sound work by Pixy Liao, an interview with Tiona Nekkia McClodden, an unpublished Sex Column reading by Brontez Purnell, and Serpentine curator Hanna Girma in conversation with Gaylene Gould.
- Launching on Tuesday 12 September 2023.
This episode opens up to consider intimacy with the world around us. Today, many of us feel – and are – disconnected from place, and not everyone feels equally at home in the spaces we move through. Ranging from urban and built environments to social and digital worlds, this episode asks what we need to be able to feel comfortable and intimate with our surroundings.
How are artists challenging and working with different forms of space and place? And what happens when we can reconnect with the elements, environments, people, and other beings around us?
- Featuring an interview with 2023 Serpentine Pavilion Architect Lina Ghotmeh, an original sound work by Black Power Naps, an audio excerpt from a project by Jakob Kudsk Steensen from the Serpentine archive, and Serpentine curator Kay Watson in conversation with Gaylene Gould.
- Launching on Tuesday 19 September 2023.
As our journey through intimacy draws to a close, it’s time to look inward and reflect on how we can get closer to ourselves. We’re considering ideas of self-knowledge, self-care and self-love, alongside what it means to draw on your own life and experiences in a creative practice.
What do artists who bring personal and intimate narratives into their work encounter? How can we open up to our vulnerability and decide when to safely share that with others? And could these acts bring us closer together – perhaps helping us build a deeper and more compassionate connection with both self and others?
- Featuring an interview with Olivia Laing, an original sound work by Axel Kacoutié, a reading by Agnès Varda and an interview with Luchita Hurtado from the Serpentine archive, and Serpentine Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Gaylene Gould.
- Launching on Tuesday 26 September 2023.
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