Joshua Sofaer

Museums in People’s Homes

Would you like a museum to come and visit you in your home? 

We have met with people across Leeds who collect things in their homes, we have heard stories about the things they collect, how they collect them, and why they do it.

There’s a woman that can’t resist a charity shop bargain, a man that has acquired hospitality gifts from around the world, a bomb disposal technician’s keepsakes, a Buffy superfan, a recycling obsessive, someone who can’t help but stoop to pick up her cat’s whiskers, and a guy who lives in a house of drums, among others.

Working with furniture designers Plaey, Joshua Sofaer has created a mobile museum comprising 14 separate artworks, each of which represents a collection housed by people he has met in Leeds.

Based on the Wunderkammer or cabinet of curiosities, Joshua will present a tour of objects from a portable museum and you can even visit a fun size café and tiny gift shop.

Using a variety of materials and processes, objects which sometimes have little to no monetary value, have been transformed into ‘museum standard’ artefacts, worthy of the high value we should place on people, their stories and personal collections.

Etheridge & Persighetti (Small Acts)

Public House: The Yorkshire Square

Public House: The Yorkshire Square is a 12ft x 12ft pop-up pub bringing a ferment of connections, conversations and experiences, to the heart of Leeds iconic Kirkgate Market.

Modelled on the dimensions of the fermenting vessel made famous by Tetley’s Brewery, The Yorkshire Square has been reimagined as a four-sided pub serving brews and views from across Leeds.

The unprecedented closure during 2020’s lockdown of the UK’s already endangered pubs has highlighted both the fragility and the importance of the Public House. From mediated social hub to traditional tavern, The Yorkshire Square invites you to explore the idea that the pub of the future has many faces.

Pick from a menu of tap talks and heritage tours from guest presenters, help create tomorrows heritage by adding your opinions and views to the brew, or simply pop in for a pint.

Since 2017 Katie Etheridge and Simon Persighetti (Small Acts) have been working with Leeds brewers, publicans, campaigners and individuals to explore the future of social landscapes by investigating the enduring role of pubs as places of community, intergenerational exchange, entertainment, (hi)story telling and activism. The Yorkshire Square is the culmination of this work shining a spotlight on the relationships between pubs, people and places.

ZU-UK

Pick Me Up (and hold me tight)

Pick Me Up (and hold me tight) is an invitation for collective listening, experienced through public pay-phones across Leeds. 

Created by award-winning theatre and digital art company ZU-UK in response to rising suicide rates across the country, Pick Me Up (and hold me tight) is an audio event which measure how good at listening we really are.

Public phone boxes across Leeds will ring every day at 11am until the end of the festival. When you pick up the phone, you’ll participate in a gentle but thought-provoking audio experience that explores contemporary loneliness, and exposes the edges of our humanness. It’s an invitation to pause, take stock, and explore what kind of listeners we are.

At a time when suicide is the most common cause of death for men in Britain aged 20-49 and 1 in 4 people are affected by mental health issues at some point in their lives, Pick Me Up (and hold me tight) offers an opportunity to engage in a mass act of contemplation about changes in the fabric of our communities post-Covid, the shrinking of public space and contact between fellow humans – on an ambitious yet intimate scale.

Festival 2021

More projects announced soon!

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