Vision Quest - A Ritual For Elephant & Castle:

A film by Marcus Coates

Unit 237 (upper floor)

Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre

SE1 6TE

12th April – 29th  April

Screenings times: 18.30 / 20.00 / 21.30

Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday

Vision Quest - A Ritual for Elephant & Castle' is a feature-length film, part documentary, part performance, exploring the major transitions currently taking place in this south London neighbourhood. The film follows Coates on an unlikely suburban adventure as he sets out on a Vision Quest, seeking animal spirits to help gain insight into a possible future for the ongoing redevelopment scheme.

In response to the Council’s formal vision and master plan for Elephant and Castle, Coates involves residents from the soon to be demolished Heygate Estate, local council and property developers to evoke an alternative collective vision of what it could be, a new kind of consultation for the council planners.

Nomad is proud to announce the debut presentation of Vision Quest as part of a site-specific installation within the iconic Shopping Centre in the heart of Elephant & Castle, London.

There will be three screening of the feature length documentary each evening at 18.30pm, 20.00pm & 21.30 (Thursday through Sunday only). Please visit nomad.org.uk for further information.

Vision Quest: A Ritual for Elephant & Castle is the conclusion of an ongoing residency undertaken by Marcus Coates over the last 3 years. At the centre of the film is the improvised live rock-shamanic-ritual collaboration between Coates and Chrome Hoof staged within the legendary Coronet Theatre, one of the oldest buildings in the area. Coates performs a visceral shape-shifting act supported by Chrome Hoof to mark the passing of the neighbourhood and envisage a new strategy for development that does not repeat the mistakes of the last redevelopment in the 60’s that can to epitomise inner city urban decay.

Coates previous projects include The Trip (2011), his real-life trip to the Amazon on behalf of a dying man, screened at Serpentine Gallery, Dawn Chorus (2007), in which he recreated the early morning birdsong using human voice voices, and Journey to the Lower World (2004) in which he performed a shamanic ritual in the front room of a Liverpool tower block scheduled for demolition.

Marcus Coates creates ‘useful’, humorous and often dark cultural events for specific communities through the exploration of imagination and ritual within contemporary society. His work draws on the role of performance as celebration, problem solver and healer amongst indigenous peoples, as well as his extensive knowledge of British birds and mammals to examine how we perceive human-ness through imagined non-human realities.

For further screening information please contact the Nomad website - www.nomad.org.uk or Eventbrite contact's page.