Writer and tour guide Simon Cole is probably a psychogeographer, whatever that actually means. His evolving creative journey started in a seaside British city 48 years ago. This is how old Walter Benjamin was when he died in an obscure Spanish seaside town.

Benjamin is the latest prism through which Cole is trying to make sense of a fragmentary and complex world. From British arcades to their French equivalents and Benjamin’s grave on the France-Spain frontier, he is following threads to destinations unknown.

Though sometimes those places are closer to home than expected..

Cole will be in discussion with curator Rory Duckhouse to unravel some of these threads.

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Using cultural theorist Walter Benjamin’s book The Arcades Project as its inspiration, the exhibitions will relate to this text and the issues it explores. The Arcades Project is the culmination of Walter Benjamin’s notebooks, an unfinished text that is divided into a series of convolutes labelled A – r. Each convolute deals with a different topic, from Baudelaire, the Flaneur, ancient Paris, boredom, conspiracies, photography, the stock exchange to the commune and many more. The book is a wieldy tome that foresaw the evolution of the multi complex shopping centre and the mall. In this programme the work will look at the history and relation of the arcades to its larger neighbour St Davids 2 and how they can co-exist within the city centre.

The programme will include an exhibition, talks and performance programme.

 

 

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