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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Southbank Centre: Unlimited

A scene from the Southbank Centre Unlimited festival.

Sept 7–11, 2022
Southbank Centre, South Bank, London SE1, UK

Southbank Centre’s biennial Unlimited festival does not so much accommodate disabled artists as make room for an art world in their image. A “masked” ball calls for N95 respirators. Digital graffiti records wheelchair trails. Sonic landscapes dampen, then hush, in an installation on hearing and environmental loss. Spread out over five days and across Southbank Centre’s venues—or available online—are 30 offerings from disabled, D/deaf, neurodivergent, and chronically ill creatives. The program includes talks, performances, installations, and workshops. Embedded in many of these are parallels to other kinds of precarity, such as climate change and identity. Irreverence, play, and joy are also embedded. The Not F**kin’ Sorry Cabaret embraces “punk-crip” while the show Leave The Light On For Me takes on climate justice. Both feature learning disabled and neurodivergent artists. The Unlimited commissioning fund has partnered with Southbank Centre since 2012. Thankfully, they’ve pledged to “commission extraordinary work from disabled artists until the whole of the cultural sector does.” —Grazie Sophia Christie