A Matter of Life and Death - A Night To Die For
Free public event from Wellcome Collection explores life and death
Premiere of a short film from two leading British artists

5 February 2007: A heavenly portal, the premiere of a short film about near-death experiences, chilli chocolate and tequila are all part of A Matter of Life and Death, a free one-off event celebrating and exploring the fine line between life and death, commissioned by Wellcome Collection (www.wellcomecollection.org.uk) and curated by Scarlet Projects.

A Matter of Life and Death, Thursday 15 March 2007,
19.30-22.00
 Venue: Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, EC1V 9LT
 Tickets: Free. Book in advance by emailing events@wellcome.ac.uk

A Matter of Life and Death is a foretaste to the public events planned for Wellcome Collection, a new £30 million public venue from the Wellcome Trust that opens in June 2007. Wellcome Collection will explore the relationships between medicine, life and art through permanent and temporary exhibitions and events, to provide radical insights into the human condition.

A Matter of Life and Death Death is a contemporary take on Memento Mori - a Latin phrase meaning 'remember that you must die' and used to describe artworks that portray the brevity of life and the futility of material longing.

The event will premiere a specially commissioned short film from artists Onkar Singh Kular and Noam Toran. The film's three chapters, Falling, Faking and Freezing, provide distinct interpretations of the term 'near-death' and are the focal point of an evening that encourages visitors to consider the fine line between life and death, and to reflect upon the celebration and apprehension of mortality. In addition, Onkar Singh Kular and Noam Toran will also present a multi-screen installation featuring clips from over 200 films presenting characters' dying moments: a collage of celluloid representations of the final moment. Designers åbäke and Martino Gamper created the exhibition space.

An angelic gatekeeper will greet visitors and guide them into the heart of the installation. Here they can sample life-affirming food and drink such as chili chocolate and tequila (served in edible pretzel glasses) and enjoy this alternative take on the traditional Mexican Day of the Dead festival.

Lisa Jamieson, Events Manager, said: "We're fascinated by our mortality and medicine is obsessed with trying to delay the inevitable and enable us, in theory, to live forever. Yet is that really what we want? A Matter Of Life And Death explores our fear of dying in an innovative and experimental way, and illustrates the type of contemporary events possible in Wellcome Collection.

"The event also illustrates how activity at Wellcome Collection will not be limited to just the building. Wellcome Collection will be a focal point of collaboration and exploration between the arts and science and we're pleased to be running an event in the heart of London's contemporary art scene."

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Press Tickets
Press tickets for the event can be booked through Kallaway on 020 7221 7883 or emailing william@kallaway.co.uk

Kallaway: www.kallaway.co.uk
Public Relations, Wellcome Collection
Will Kallaway   020 7221 7883   will.kallaway@kallaway.co.uk
Anna Cusden   020 7221 7883   anna.cusden@kallaway.co.uk

Wellcome Collection: www.wellcomecollection.org.uk
Wellcome Collection Events Team
Lisa Jamieson   020 7611 8265   l.jamieson@wellcome.ac.uk


Film stills and other images
Example stills from Onkar Singh Kular and Noam Toran's film and example Memento Mori exhibits are below. A full range stills and images can be viewed and downloaded from www.kallaway.co.uk/wellcome-picture-library.asp

Credit: Stills from chapter one Falling, © Noam Toran and Onkar Singh Kular, courtesy of the Wellcome Trust, 2007.

Credit: Stills from chapter two Faking © Noam Toran and Onkar Singh Kular, courtesy of the Wellcome Trust, 2007.

Credit: Stills from chapter three Freezing © Noam Toran and Onkar Singh Kular, courtesy of the Wellcome Trust, 2007.

Caption: Male and female Memento Mori figures, c.1800, used for spiritual contemplation. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

Artists' Biographies

Onkar Singh Kular: www.designmuseum.org/design/index.php?id=74
Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2002, Onkar Singh Kular has firmly established himself as a leading product design talent. His critically acclaimed Machines of Living series of products has successfully toured Tokyo, Stockholm and Eindhoven. Supported by the Droog design group, his work was also showcased at the Milan Furniture Fair in April 2003. Kular uses design as a vehicle to engage with daily rituals, from tea drinking to watching television. Kular designs innovatively respond to domestic thematics. His acclaimed degree show included a visionary solution to an everyday domestic problem, good tea making. A set of mugs in each of the 128 Pantone shades of brown was developed so that each tea drinker could accurately and easily specify the strength of their tea in correspondence with the colour of their chosen mug. They were so successfully received, they are now in mass production. Kular currently holds a teaching post at Kingston University and works at the MIT Media Lab in Dublin whilst designing a new range of products relating to our use of the television.

Noam Toran: www.noamtoran.com
Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Noam Toran studied fine art and combined commissions with set designs for theatre and film before receiving an MA in design at the Royal College of Art in London. Noam creates films and installations which use the language of products and their distinctive position in culture as a means with which to investigate anomalies in human behaviour; anomalies which specifically reflect a retaliation against imposed social conformity. Often the products are developed for individuals as vehicles for self-expression and a celebration of uniqueness based on personal "quirks", desires and fantasies. The work serves to simultaneously expand upon the conflict between citizens, corporations and popular culture and to question the role of objects (and their designers) as protagonists of conventionality. In almost all his work there is a darkly humorous conflict: What types of identity do we project onto objects? How and why do we subvert objects in order for them to achieve more complex functionality? What does this reveal about the human condition and the systems that organize society? His recent work has been exhibited in London, Tokyo, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris and Jerusalem and has been published internationally. He currently teaches at the Royal College of Art.


About Wellcome Collection

Wellcome Collection www.wellcomecollection.org.uk
Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936), founder of the Wellcome Trust, was a pharmacist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and collector. His passionate interest in medicine and its history, as well as ethnography and anthropology, led him to gather more than a million objects from across the globe. In 1932 the Wellcome Building at 183 Euston Road was built to his specification and housed the majority of his collections.

Wellcome Collection is a £30m transformation of this building into a major new visitor destination, the first of its kind in the UK. Wellcome Collection, opening summer 2007, explores the connections between medicine, life and art using a contemporary and experimental approach. Audiences from all backgrounds and interests will be inspired to consider afresh issues of wellbeing and human identity. Wellcome Collection will comprise three galleries of permanent and temporary exhibitions totalling 1350 m2, a flexible events space, the Wellcome Library, a Conference Centre, a café, a bookshop and a members' club. The building will also house the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine (part of University College London).

There will be two permanent exhibitions: Medicine Man, originally held at the British Museum, will showcase a mix of 900 fascinating objects from Sir Henry's original collection. Medicine Now will look at contemporary medical topics through the eyes of scientists, artists and popular culture, illustrating developments in aspects of these topics in the era after Sir Henry's death. The largest gallery (650 m²) will host temporary exhibitions and shows, presenting newly commissioned works and thematic exhibitions built around topics of medical, cultural and ethical significance. A lively programme of public events will expand on exhibition themes, bringing together experts from the worlds of arts, science and medicine to explore the current issues and ancient mysteries of human wellbeing. 183 Euston Road is the site of the Wellcome Trust's former headquarters. Hopkins Architects is managing the building's transformation.

Pricing and target age range
Wellcome Collection is free to enter. Most events will be free, although Wellcome Collection reserves the right to charge. Wellcome Collection is principally aimed at adults and young people over 14 years old. Resources for children will be available.

Wellcome Library http://library.wellcome.ac.uk
The Wellcome Library is one of the world's major resources for the study of medical history. Over 600 000 books and journals, an extensive range of manuscripts, archives, films, and more than 100 000 pictures are available for study. The Wellcome Library will be housed in Wellcome Collection. It is currently in a temporary location at 210 Euston Road London, NW1 2BE.

Past exhibitions www.wellcome.ac.uk/pastexhibitions
During the past decade the Wellcome Trust has organised more than 20 exhibitions covering a vast range of biomedical topics, from jellyfish to autism, metamorphosis to pain. In 2003, Medicine Man at the British Museum (a showcase of roughly 700 objects from Henry Wellcome's original collection of more than one million) attracted approximately 200 000 visits. Between 2002 and 2005 the Trust presented a series of five major exhibitions at the Science Museum, culminating with Future Face in late 2004, which attracted 120 000 visits. The Trust also hosted numerous exhibitions in its TwoTen Gallery and funded major projects such as the Wellcome Trust Gallery (home to the Living and Dying exhibition) at the British Museum.


The Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK and the second largest medical research charity in the world. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.

Wellcome Trust funding has supported a number of major successes including:

• Sequencing of the human genome
• Establishing the UK Biobank
• Development of the antimalarial drug Artemisinin
• Pioneering cognitive behavioural therapies for psychological disorders
• Building of the Wellcome Wing at the Science Museum.

The Wellcome Trust is a charity registered in England, number 210183.

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