Expect performances, installations, gigs, talks and an amazing banquet, all taking place across two weeks, and all resonating this year's theme: ‘On Spirit’.

Serving audiences a vastly mixed programme that will take place in a series of venues across London, the festival will see over thirty five unique events take place in the cities best theatre and studio spaces, on the street, in a conservatory on a roof, and even in a hidden temple.

Curated and produced by Pacitti Company around the theme of ‘On Spirit’, SPILL returns to seamlessly present body based performance, live art, experimental theatre and installations, foregrounding upcoming talent alongside world famous performers, framed by salons, public discussions, talks and a banquet.

To date, SPILL Festival has presented the diverse works of over 1,500 artists and this year’s programme features a combination of world premieres and SPILL commissions by early makers and established artists alike. The SPILL Showcase, generously supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, also returns for 2015.

As a festival which champions the public response and role of art in society, SPILL will run a Think Tank programme with wonderful guest speakers alongside the performance schedule, specifically devised to spark public conversation and encourage active responses to the work on show.

Programme Highlights 

HEATHER CASSILS (USA)

Inextinguishable Fire

World Premiere / SPILL Commission

Sunday 8 November

National Theatre (Dorfman Theatre) then Southbank Centre (outdoors)

Using techniques borrowed from Hollywood stunts, Cassils experiences the very real human terror of being lit on fire. Cassils gesture of self-immolation speaks to both the desire for and the impossibility of knowing such horror, even while decisively aiming to approach it.

ZIERLE & CARTER (GERMANY/UK)

The Swan Song + Touching Silence + Walking The Dawn

World Premieres / SPILL Commissions

4-days across the festival:

The Swan Song - Saturday 31 October & Sunday 1 November - Andaz London Liverpool Street

Touching Silence - Friday 6 November - Barbican Conservatory

Walking The Dawn - Sunday 8 November - National Theatre, Weston Terrace

ALL FREE

Each free performance will investigate the shape shifting qualities and gifts of three different animal totems, through an embodied investigation into the realms of the Swan, the Moth and the Horse.

GEMMA MARMALADE & NOMAD (UK)

Food Séance: Dining Divinations

Thursday 29 October 

Andaz London Liverpool Street

Offering herself as conduit to the paranormal, Gemma Marmalade hosts a special séance banquet by chef Alex Claridge within the working Masonic Temple of the Andaz London Liverpool Street Hotel. Diners can expect multiple plates, a range of drinks, and also sip on a delicious cocktail specially created by SPILL and the Andaz ‘On Spirit’ for the festival.

KAREN FINLEY (USA)

Written In Sand

Wednesday 28 October – Saturday 31 October

Barbican (The Pit)

Karen Finley has been a star of performance art worldwide for over 3 decades. Written In Sand includes some of her most searing work on the subject of AIDS. The work was written at a time when medical treatment was ineffective and when Finley was losing her friends to the disease on a continual basis.

KAREN FINLEY (USA)

Ribbon Gate

Runs for 6 weeks - Wednesday 28 October – Tuesday 1 December

Barbican (Foyers)

FREE

Also from Karen Finley, Ribbon Gate is a public mourning sculpture where visitors participate by tying a ribbon in memory of a loved one. The installation runs from the opening of SPILL until World AIDS Day on December 1.

JUSTIN HOPPER (USA/UK)

I Made Some Low Enquiries

World Premiere

Saturday 7 November

Toynbee Studios

Combining texts, music and field recordings that repatriate American mountain ballads to their East Anglian origin, I Made Some Low Inquiries celebrates our absurd struggle to control the natural world through language and landscape; memory and myth. Including readings by Shirley Collins.

Full programme here.

28 October - 8 November

Portrait by © Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.