Bold Tendencies 2024: COMMUNION

When we speak of communion, we address a world not of deities but social relations. From spiritual sacraments to the fanfare of political marches, the blissed-out rapture of dancefloors to the solemn intimacy of prayer; from practices of shared land tenure to radical platforms of open-source software, grand ceremonial mysticism to humdrum workplace rituals. History shows that at its heart society has long been reproduced through acts of daily communion. Together they articulate a world held in common. Upheld through principles of connection, reverence, transition and memorial. An analysis of the ways in which we come together – and often fail to do so – is central to understanding the emergencies we live in today. Established power thrives on dividing us from one another and our environment. Rivers are dammed, forests logged, waters and aquifers bottled and put to market. Labour movements are vilified, unions outlawed. Knowledge held in common is incarcerated in intellectual property and pharmaceutical patents, our social attention surrendered to bright atomising ledgers of spectacle. A vast architecture of desire and control suppresses the power of communities to connect with and for themselves. To exchange intimate thoughts and feelings is more crucial than ever. We must unshackle the carceral effects of alienation, extremism and catastrophe that evermore divide and suppress us. Create antidotes to our epidemics of loneliness, conflict and despair that run riot through the desiccating fractures of broken political and economic systems. Create space not only for moments of collective ecstasy and revolutionary ferment, fuelling the fight for change, but for deeper and more profound reflection of our past, our ancestry and what connects us all on this Earth; we must rediscover lost knowledge, unearth alternative forms of being and feeling in the world. There is no communion without community; no community without culture and creativity. Bold Tendencies gathers its 2024 programme under this broad and urgent theme, exploring how modern conceptions of communion structure the ways we experience, narrate and respond to social injustices and crises. How ritual, ecological connection and the consolidation of alternative communities gives meaning and power to artistic and political practice, energising Bold Tendencies and its principles of open access and enjoyment in its special, spectacular rooftop home.