PRESS RELEASE: 27 February 2013

Launch of the Quarter Public Art Strategy Tracing Venus

The Vice-Chancellor of University and Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, are delighted to announce the launch of Tracing Venus, the public art strategy and programme for the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ), curated and managed by Modus Operandi. The ROQ is one of the biggest development projects the University has undertaken for more than a century.

The public art strategy is designed to provide an overarching framework for an holistic approach to public art across the ROQ site. This reflects the University’s vision for an integrated campus that encourages collaboration between disciplines. The aim is for the ROQ to become a new cultural quarter in Oxford, which will become widely known as the site of an evolving programme of artistic experiment, open-ended research and interdisciplinary collaboration. An imaginatively curated public art programme is intended to act as a creative catalyst, connecting people and places within and beyond the ROQ.

As part of this integrated vision, internationally renowned artist Simon Periton has been announced as site-wide artist, a role conceived for an artist to create a unique, distinctive and memorable cultural identity for the ROQ. Simon Periton’s proposal builds on the concept of cross-pollination and interaction between disciplines and will be developed with the University’s Humanities Division and the departments occupying the ROQ site. His proposal is for a central sculpture representing a golden Alchemical Tree, a symbol connected with growth and transformation and a quest for knowledge. This sculpture will be complemented by smaller satellite works placed across the site relating to the central tree both visually and materially.

Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University Professor Andrew Hamilton said:

‘I am delighted that the University has commissioned the ROQ public art strategy by Modus Operandi, who are also guiding us in the process of selecting artists as the site develops. Art has a key role to play in creating the new Quarter, forming the backbone of its future cultural life and linking it with the wider city.’

For further information contact Vivien Lovell, Ceri Lewis or Kate Pantling: [email protected]/ +44 (0)207 490 0009

Notes to editors:

The ROQ is a 10-acre site in central Oxford, bound by the Woodstock Road, Somerville College, , Observatory Street, and Green Templeton College, and will accommodate new teaching and learning space for the University over the next 20 years.

Simon Periton graduated from Central St Martin’s School of Art, London in 1990. He has exhibited widely in Britain and internationally. Commissions include public sculpture projects for Channel Four, the V&A and firstsite, Colchester. Periton is based in London and is represented by Sadie Coles HQ and The Modern Institute, Glasgow.