This summer, we are pleased to present No Passive Mingling, a daily private view experience, including works by contemporary London-based artists Sarah Duffy, Faissal El-Malak and Karl Liang. We invite visitors to come prepared with high spirits and open minds, and we promise to provide a space for revelry and co-mingling with artists and friends from across the city and beyond. No Passive Mingling kicks off on 19 June and continues each day until 23 June.

During the repeated activations,* guests can expect an awe-inspiring environment for artistic and interpersonal engagement with refreshments. After receiving a VIP ticket enter the space to enjoy the seductive light and soundscape of Chinese artist Karl Liang, the mind-bending visuals of multidisciplinary Palestinian artist Faissal El-Malak and answer a phone call or two to chat with others and British sound and performance artist Sarah Duffy, aided by a series of prompts.

This special, daily recurring temporary opening celebration is facilitated by a group of international curators – Albby Hanxu Zhang, Giada Holland, Hee Jo Kang, Tai-Hsiang Huang, Sabina Eastman and Safiyah Abaalkhail – from the MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art.

We look forward to seeing you there.

*The space is open for passive viewing from noon when we’ll be recovering from the previous day’s revelry. Come by during opening hours for the real entertainment.

Private View 19 June 6-9 pm

20-23 June 2-5 pm

Venue: Royal College of Art Battersea Campus, Studio Building, STU 1.004, entrance  Howie Street

In the art world, meeting people, engaging in conversation and collaborative reflection tend to happen during fleeting moments. Visiting exhibitions, museums and collections is often seen as a solitary and silent activity that may foster creative thinking on a highly personal level. Activation by a greater presence of people and conversation takes place during exhibition openings, private views, and more recently, late-night programming initiatives. These events mark singular points during which the – written and unwritten – rules of the gallery or museum space are temporarily loosened or even suspended. Rooms are crowded with people, drinks are circulated, and chatter and music fill the space. The very next morning, that same space is once again sparsely occupied, conversation is kept to hushed tones and interaction returns to quiet forms of contemplation. 

This project takes the format of an extended gallery opening, recreating, day after day, the kind of social attraction of a private view. You, our audience, are essential participants in this environment, where we wholeheartedly invite you to interact with the artworks, each other and us, the curators – even though you may not know who we are. Creating the kind of buzzing fictional social event that we wish to see at the institutions we interact and engage with, our project aims to actively generate meaningful experiences together.  

As a group we immediately identified our shared desire for in-person partnership and collaboration, reflective of our collective fatigue with the virtual communication that characterised the Covid-19 pandemic. In response to our personal needs and those of other art lovers, we present an experience that relies on the interaction that real-life exhibition openings offer. As creatives from across the globe who came to London for the sole purpose of being part of this metropolitan art world, we hope that our group’s desire for this experience can be shared with diverse communities. 

The artists we have collaborated with have inspired us in the generation of this project. Their work is intended to provoke and encourage our principle of active co-mingling, reflecting the themes and critical social dynamics of the gallery openings we all frequent. 

We hope that you enjoy your time with us; we’re so glad you came!