To provide a platform for multiple voices and interpretations of Island, the British Council and curators Caruso St John Architects and artist Marcus Taylor have invited cultural and arts organisations alongside universities to create a vibrant programme at the British Pavilion, responding to the central themes of the Pavilion through student-led workshops and events.

Students and professors from the departments of Architecture, Art History, Fine Art and Theory at The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf will reconsider the Raft of the Medusa through a continuous sound piece on Saturday 3 November.

The Raft of The Medusa is ‘a story of a catastrophic rescue, of hope and despair’ – the Medusa was a ship which ran aground off the coast of Senegal in 1816. Only 15 survived of the 147 left by their captain on a makeshift raft. Two survivors, Henry Savigny and Alexandre Corréard, drew a plan of the construction of the raft which The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and its students have used as the starting point to explore the idea of a raft as ‘a place of isolation and precariousness, but also as a means of escape and encounter, and an indirect provocation to established notions of society.’

The original illustration is transposed as a musical composition that floats through the rooms of the pavilion in a circular movement audible throughout the Pavilion. Mythological and historical stories analogous to the Medusa‘s raft tragedy are compiled and printed on flyers, which will be handed out to visitors by students and tutors of the Kunstakademie, supporting the encompassing sound with narrative and visual content.

Sound Concept: Arjan Stockhausen with technical assistance from Till Bödeker 

Generously funded by The Brenda R. Potter Kunstakademie Düsseldorf Fund for Community, Public Art and Travel