As part of this year's London Festival of Architecture, the British Council has joined forces with Central Saint Martins to organise this special event where Finn Beames, Lina Bo Bardi Fellow 2015, will present the outcomes of his research following a 6-week trip to Brazil. The talk will be followed by a panel discussion to reflect on Bo Bardi's approach to 'dramatising spaces'.

The celebrated Italo-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi once described architecture as ‘an adventure in which people are called to intimately participate as actors.’ In this talk and panel discussion, theatre and opera director and writer Finn Beames reflects on his experience as the Lina Bo Bardi Fellow 2015, during his research trip to Brazil and his current work to bring architecture and theatre together in performance.

Finn will talk about his enquiries into Bo Bardi’s stage design and, more widely, the relations between theatre making and her architectural practice. His research centred around viewing built environments as theatre spaces, focusing on the behaviours of people occupying Bo Bardi's built projects. Allowing himself to be led by emotion, rather than pursuing a scholarly position, Finn sought to understand how Bo Bardi's curated spaces offer a unique experience in the way they animate their occupants, and how they support particular kinds of communal activity.

The talk will be followed by a panel discussion with:

Noemi Blager, curator – Lina Bo Bardi: Together;
Melanie Dodd, Programme Director Spatial Practices – Central Saint Martins;
Alastair Donald, Architecture Programme Manager – British Council (chair);
Gavin Green, Senior Partner – Charcoal Blue

As his work develops, Finn will share the progress of a new performance project which teaches an audience basic self-build skills, and then asks them to use them to support and/or intervene in a staged scenario with actors. Inspired by Bo Bardi's approach to materials and community programming, this project is supported in the UK by the British Council and Stroom Den Haag in the Netherlands.

DATE: Friday 17 June

TIME: 18:00-19:30

VENUE:  LVMH Lecture Theatre 2, Central St Martins, 1 Granary Square, Kings Cross, London, N1C 4AA

Attendance is free but registration is required: jacob.demunnik@britishcouncil.org

About Finn Beames: Finn is currently artistic director at bodycorps, an opera and theatre company which he founded in 2011. bodycorps commissions original work in song, speech and music for live performance, often in unconventional spaces. Finn is the winner of the 2015 Genesis Future Directors Award at the Young Vic, is a director/librettist on the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme at Aldeburgh Music and is a member of the Lincoln Theater Directors Lab in New York.

About the Lina Bo Bardi Fellowship: The Lina Bo Bardi Fellowship was initiated by the British Council in 2013 to give architects and designers based in the UK the opportunity to travel to Brazil to explore the work and legacy of Lina Bo Bardi. The Fellowship is part of the British Council’s four-year Transform programme - a series of arts and cultural exchanges between the UK and Brazil in the run up to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and seeks to raise awareness and understanding of the important contribution of Lina Bo Bardi to architecture, culture and society. The Fellowship is organised in partnership with SESC SP and Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi.