Press Release

97 & 99 HOXTON STREET LONDON N1 6QL

020 7739 8080 [email protected] WWW.PEERUK.ORG CROCODILE CRADLE Simon Moretti 20 February – 20 March 2021

PEER is delighted to presentCrocodile Cradle, a new exhibition on three platforms: a filmed performance online and via QR code; a text collage on the gallery's glass façade; and a book, to be published this summer. The gallery doors remain closed during current government restrictions. Artist Simon Moretti has invited 51 artists including Fiona Banner, Tacita Dean, Lubaina Himid, Christian Marclay and Cerith Wyn Evans to supply a text that they have written or found for this collaborative project.

The artists' texts have been brought to life with a reading by actor Alastair Mackenzie; a 38-minute-film of his one-take performance will be viewable on smartphones via a QR code, accessible from the gallery windows and online at peeruk.org. A live performance and publication will follow later in the year.

Moretti said,"I have always been interested in the possibilities of different exhibition structures and to have a collaged text that can be exhibited, read or performed online or physically in a gallery. At this time while we are all dealing with social distancing or isolating in one way or another, in and out of lockdowns, I like the idea for all of us to be connected through a single work."

Some of the artists have contributed original texts, while others have selected excerpts by writers and poets such as Daniel Defoe, Andrew Marvel, Samuel Coleridge, Emily Dickinson, John Cage and Christopher Isherwood. PEER will co-publish a book version of this project, designed by A Practice for Everyday Life, which will be launched with a live performance event at the gallery later in 2021.

About Simon Moretti Simon Moretti (b.1974) lives and works in London. Select projects include The Enigma of the Hour: 100 Years of Psychoanalytic Thought, Freud Museum, London( 2019); Dadadandy Boutique, ARTPROJX SPACE, London (2008); Le Palais des Etoiles, Selfridges, London (2007); Space is the Place, Ritter Zamett London (2006); and EXPO 21: Strategies of Display, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham and Mead Gallery, Coventry (2004). Select exhibitions include None of the Above, KanalCentre Pompidou, Brussels (2020); To Be Free is to Lose Sight of the Shore, Archaeology of the Final Decade, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka (2018); The Camera Exposed, works from the collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2016); Revolt of the Sage, Blain Southern, London (2016); L’Intime, Le Collectioneur Derrier la Porte, La Maison Rouge, Paris (2011); The Art Parade, Deitch Projects, New York (2007); The Sleep of Ulro, Liverpool Biennial 06, Liverpool (2006); Thank You for the Music, Sprueth Magers, Munich/London (2005); From A to B and Back Again, Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris (2005); and None of the Above, Swiss Institute, New York (2004). Awards include the Selfridges Commission as part of Surreal Things in collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (2007); the Fondazione Teseco commission, Pisa (2006); the Henry Moore Institute Award; the Art Council of England Artist Award (2002); and Tate Modern Turbine Hall commission (2000).

For further press information, please contact Alison Wright PR [email protected], 07814 796930

PEERUK PEER_UK

DIRECTOR: INGRID SWENSON MBE / TRUSTEES: ISABELLE NOWAK (CHAIR), CRAIG BURNETT, MARTIN COOMER, JEFF MCMILLAN, JANICE MCLAREN, CLAIRE

REAY, ALEXANDRIA SMITH, KAREN SMITH / PEER UK LTD IS A REGISTERED CHARITY / CHARITY NUMBER: 1115091 AND COMPANY NUMBER: 5757614