The dire state of central London’s nightlife is no secret to anyone who’s tried to grab a drink in Soho after 11pm. But there is a savior, in the form of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), which, thanks to a late 6 a.m. license and its recently appointed director Bengi Unsal, has begun to hold nightly events that collaborate with the worlds of fashion, music and dance. The most recent of these was the launch of the latest edition of the underground gay culture magazine End last month, who rented the space for a knee in the air.
The party has raised the important question of what happens when marginal cultures are introduced into established institutions: is the former forced to bend to the shape of the latter or can it be an agent of transformation? I’m happy to report the latter, evidence of which can be found in the screening of a program of films during the event, hosted by Sam Ashby, the founder of queer film magazine Little Joe.
For his program, Ashby chose a selection of nine marginal films, mainly of a pornographic nature. “I was worried that showing these films in an ‘art space’ would neutralize them. But the reports of couples becoming intimate over a video of lesbian fisting reassured me that this was not the case,” he says.
And indeed, by 5 a.m., that lively spirit had spread to a variety of dark corners in the Regency building where revelers were revealed to have freed themselves from their clothes in order to “converse” more freely. Before leaving, I spoke to Kate Price, an ICA employee who served as social worker that evening. She was excited about the ability of such evenings to create much-needed new sources of revenue for the ICA, while helping to keep the 77-year-old institution relevant and bold. So it seems that from all parties involved, the ICA effort gets five stars – or should it be fingers?
