For immediate release Barbican July and August 2017 highlights Barbican Art Gallery presents Trajal Harrell:Hoochie Koochie, the first ever performance exhibition of the New York-based choreographer and dancer Trajal Harrell. The exhibition is an ambitious project staging over 14 of Harrell’s performances in a changing, daily programme of live performances. Visitors can explore the immersive space, choosing their own route between performances and stage installations. Taking place across the Centre, major exhibition Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction is a genre-defining exploration of one of popular culture’s most celebrated realms. Alongside the exhibition the Barbican hosts its first-ever outdoor, on-site cinema, which will screen classic science fiction movies 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tron and Gravity surrounded by the Centre’s dramatic architecture. Inside, Sci-Fi Sundays continue with O-bi, O-ba: The End of Civilization, Warning From Space and George Lucas’ directorial debut THX 1138. To celebrate Bella Union’s 20th birthday, Ezra Furman and Mercury Rev each play shows at the Barbican. Shubbak Festival returns with a double-bill, featuring Egyptian band Cairokee and Lebanese singer-songwriter and visual artist Tania Saleh. The Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling make their only UK appearance and Laura Mvula performs with the London Symphony Orchestra. Reggae and ska legends Toots and the Maytals play classics from their back catalogue, and Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason bring their collaboration Music for Sólaris to the Barbican, with a video accompaniment by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson. Ongoing season Cinema Matters looks at stars, scale and close-ups with screenings including The Incredible Shrinking Man, introduced by author Sarah Bakewell. Complementing Hoochie Koochie in the Art Gallery, the Barbican presents three films by or featuring other artists and performers whose work has informed Trajal Harrell’s own. The Royal Shakespeare Company employs cutting edge technology in a bold reimagining of The Tempest, featuring Simon Russell Beale as Prospero. VISUAL ARTS Trajal Harrell: Hoochie Koochie A performance exhibition Every Thursday to Sunday; 20 – 23 July; 27 – 30 July; 3 – 6 Aug; 10 – 13 Aug 2017 Thu & Fri: 2pm – 9pm; Sat & Sun: 12pm – 6pm Media View, Wed 19 Jul, 10am – 1pm This summer, Barbican Art Gallery presents the first ever performance exhibition of the New York-based choreographer and dancer Trajal Harrell. Following a two year residency at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014–2016), this ambitious project stages over 14 of Harrell’s performances including one of the earliest works he created in 1999, right through to now in a changing, daily programme of live performances. The Art Gallery will be transformed into a space where performances, featuring a selection of different dancers, some including Harrell himself, are scheduled to activate at certain points with film projections elsewhere. Visitors can explore the immersive space, choosing their own route between performances and stage installations. The selection of works for the exhibition reflect Harrell’s experiments with dance and exploration of diverse dance forms from Japanese butoh dancing to hoochie koochie, postmodern and modern dance, Classical Greek dancing, erotic dancing, voguing and entertainment, alongside his signature use of fashion runway movement, to create performances that are an exquisite blend of fact and fiction. He imagines how historical scenarios could have happened differently and in doing so is able to explore ideas around emotion, the body, gender, femininity and culture. Events include a high drama performance from Trajal Harrell's seminal series Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church, Vogue-Chi, a movement therapy that mixes the principals of Tai-Chi and voguing and late night voguing event Trajal Harrell: London is Burning celebrating London’s burgeoning voguing scene with performances from international superstars Mister Eric Wallace and Kiddy Smiles CINEMA: Three Looks with Trajal Harrell Tue 25 July –Tue 8 Aug 2017, Cinema 2 Complementing the exhibition, the Barbican presents three films by or featuring other artists and performers whose work has informed his own. Includes screenings of Lives of Performers (1972) by Yvonne Rainer, founding member of the legendary Judson Dance Theater; Mr O’s Book of the Dead (1973) from experimental filmmaker Chiaki Nagano and choreographer Kazuo Ohno; and Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together (1997). For full press release and images please visit; www.barbican.org.uk/TrajalHarrellNews For event information, please visit: http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery MUSIC Cairokee / Tania Saleh Sat 1 Jul 2017, Barbican Hall, 8pm Shubbak Festival – a window on contemporary Arab culture – returns to the Barbican with a double-bill, featuring Egyptian five-piece band Cairokee and Lebanese singer-songwriter and visual artist Tania Saleh. Both will be celebrating the songs of the modern Middle East, reflecting the social and political turmoil experienced in their regions and the world today. In the opening set, Tania Saleh mixes traditional styles such as tarab, mawwal and dabke with folk, alternative rock, bossa nova and jazz. Saleh has released four albums to date and many of her songs have been used in television and radio programmes and film soundtracks worldwide. The second set sees a performance by Cairokee, featuring their trademark mix of rock, rap and traditional Egyptian sounds as well as new material from their upcoming album.. Produced by the Barbican in association with Marsm Part of Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture runs 1-16 July 2017. Ezra Furman: That’s When It Hit Me + Broen Thu 13 Jul 2017, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm Mercury Rev with Royal Northern Sinfonia + Lowly Fri 14 Jul 2017, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm To celebrate Bella Union’s 20th birthday, American musician and songwriter Ezra Furman and guests will present an evening of vicious songs, bold experiments and bizarre epiphanies. Following the release in July 2015 of Perpetual Motion People via Bella Union to great critical acclaim, Ezra put out a 6 track EP entitled Big Fugitive Life, which he dedicated to refugees of all kinds, all over the world. Up and coming Norwegian five-piece Broen support. On Friday 14 July, American Indie rock band Mercury Rev will be joined on stage by Simon Raymonde and the Royal Northern Sinfonia for an intimate orchestral performance of music from across their catalogue. Mercury Rev’s eighth studio album, The Light In You, was released by Bella Union in Autumn 2015, marking a return to critical prominence for a band whose ability to deliver majestic and intensely personal sweeps of sound has never faltered and who routinely feature on “best of” lists. The concert will encompass rare and first time song performances alongside selections from their legendary back catalogue – all delivered with the Rev's trademark widescreen arrangements and their iconic flair for the modern fairytale. Supporting Mercury Rev are Danish purveyors of noise pop Lowly. Produced by the Barbican in association with Bella Union Part of Bella Union 20 Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling Sun 16 Jul 2017, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm In this special Barbican date and their only UK performance, the Branford Marsalis Quartet – saxophonist and band leader Branford Marsalis, pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner – share their freewheeling and joyous take on the jazz tradition with the voice of one of today’s most gifted vocalists, Kurt Elling. Together, they perform songs from their collaborative album Upward Spiral – one of the landmark jazz recordings of 2016 – ranging from Gershwin to Sting to Antonio Carlos Jobim, alongside original songs from Marsalis and Elling themselves. Produced by the Barbican in association with Serious Laura Mvula + London Symphony Orchestra Fri 21 Jul 2017, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm Following her April 2013 Barbican programme debut at the London Edition of Other Voices festival at Wilton’s Music Hall, soulful vocalist Laura Mvula returns this July. She teams up with the Barbican’s Resident Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, who played on her critically acclaimed second studio album The Dreaming Room (2016), which followed on from her highly praised debut album Sing to the Moon (2013). Together they will present a cross- section of Mvula’s material, with the orchestral versions arranged by Guildhall School of Music & Drama alumnus Troy Miller. Miller, who will also conduct the concert, is a critically acclaimed composer, drummer and conductor as well as producer of artists such as Gregory Porter, Rebecca Ferguson and Laura Mvula's The Dreaming Room. Double Mercury Prize nominee composer, singer and songwriter Mvula is one of the most exciting musical talents to come out of the UK in recent years. Her striking vocals and unpredictable compositions have drawn comparisons to Nina Simone and Prince. Produced by the Barbican Toots and the Maytals + Captain Accident Fri 28 Jul 2017, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm Reggae and Ska founding fathers Toots and the Maytals bring the summer spirit to the Barbican with a performance of classics from their back catalogue. Toots Hibbert is a consummate performer and old-school entertainer. Drawing on his church choir upbringing, his soulful voice is carried by the funk-infused Reggae of the band. Their live shows are renowned for their exuberance, and the audience becomes more than spectator when Toots unleashes his call-and-response routines. Releasing their first album in the early 60s, Toots and the Maytals quickly established themselves as leading purveyors of the reggae sound, and were pivotal in popularising the genre beyond Jamaica. Their take on the style, drawing on funk, rock, soul and even country was unique, revolutionising not only reggae, but influencing countless others and they have been covered by artists as diverse as The Clash, The Specials and Amy Winehouse.