London Agenda: Erica Scourti @ Somerset House

Monday 30 May, h. 20:00

Somerset House,
River Rooms, New Wing
Somerset House, Strand
London, WC2R 1LA

Erica Scourti presents Personal Proxies, a new, humorous performance exploring the role of the artist in a society increasingly dominated by efficiency-enhancers at odds with the authentic presence of the artist.

Erica Scourti, You Could Have Said, 2014 © Erica Scourti

Presented as part of Block Universe, Erica Scourti returns to Somerset House after participating in Big Bang Data to explore the role of the artist in relation to technological proxies.

Erica Scourti’s mytho-biographic performance explores the automation of personality, drawing on ancient Greek tales of the underworld and the notion of human and technological proxies. The performance traces a speculative situation of the artist being fired from her own job and replaced by automated affective agents and human assistants, questioning the role of efficiency-enhancers in an economy that valorises the authentic presence of the artist. The performance humorously explores self-doubt, anxieties of legacy and self-improvement. Her performance is part of Block Universe, London’s first dedicated festival of performance art, showcasing the very best in international performance art across venues including Somerset House, the RA, British Museum, Sadler’s Wells and David Roberts Art Foundation, see the complete programme at www.blockuniverse.co.uk.

– words by Sophie von Hahn, Flint PR

Erica Scourti, Personal Proxies at Block Universe
Tickets: £7.50 / £5 concessions