About Rational Rec
Rational Rec commissions collaborative, interdisciplinary art projects, inviting artists from different artistic mediums to work together to produce new work. Rational Rec is a London-based organisation, but we work with artists from anywhere in the world.
Rational Rec’s unique contribution to the contemporary London art scene has been an insistence on interdisciplinarity. Through a programme of invited commissions Rational Rec began by encouraging artists to collaborate in ways they have not previously considered; composers working with dancers and writers, filmmakers working with poets and cellists, musicians working with live artists and printmakers. Our focus on pairing artists by the concerns they explore in their practice instead of medium has led to some surprising collaborations and works, and we are keen to continue and emphasise this unique methodology of Rational Rec.
The last few years have seen a significant proportion of international artistic practice concerned less with the presentation of objects and more with social relationships mediated by artists, process-driven practices where the traditional ‘object in the gallery’ model of artistic display has been problematised. As an organisation with a strong history in creating one-off events, Rational Rec is ideally placed to research these emerging practices, working with artists from any medium or field who share an interest in developing work in these ways. Past examples of our work in this field include Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre’s Company (November 2007, Southbank Centre), evaluation by marketing consultant Felicity Mukherjee (developed by live artist Lucy Panesar during season three) and the Henningham Family Press book project Inter Inter Inter (March 2008).
From 2005-2008 Rational Rec ran monthly interdisciplinary arts events mostly at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club but also at Whitechapel Gallery, Southbank Centre, Wilton’s Music Hall and Old Spitalfield’s Market (as part of Spitalfield’s Festival). During our first three years of activity Rational Rec worked with over 90 artists, commissioned 60 new works from a variety of different artists working in the visual arts, film, theatre, performance, music and literature - presenting these to a diverse audience at over 30 events around London. See our Archive for details of all of these past events.
We have completed successful partnerships with Whitechapel Gallery, Southbank Centre, the BBC, LUX, Artquest, Spitalfield’s Festival and Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club and have received funding from Arts Council England, the PRS Foundation, the Holst Foundation and the Hinrichsen Foundation.
Rational Rec continues to receive financial support from Arts Council England for our first commissioning round, beginning January 2010
Right: Sheila Ghelani at Wilton's Music Hall, June 2008