Southbank Centre Rolls Out Skate 50 to Back London’s Skating Community
London’s Southbank Centre continues its support of skating communities with Skate 50.
It can be hard to find exhibitions that appeal to everyone. Whilst fashion and art installations are right up our street, they’re notoriously not the most digestible forms of culture for those not already in the know. The Southbank Centre, however, has something for everyone with Skate 50. If you’re hungry for culture, eat up. You’ve come to just the right place.
Bear with us on this one… we know skateboarding isn’t everyone’s thing (I personally can’t even ride a bike, let alone attempt a kickflip), but this exhibition definitely is. A blend of fashion, film and photography all related to British skating culture, Skate 50 is a buzzy multimedia experience unlike any other exhibition London has to offer.
The exhibition has been curated to celebrate 50 years of the Undercroft Skate Space that sits under the Southbank Centre. Skate culture is known for bringing people together, a community united in their love for the sport and the artforms it inspires, and you really can’t find any better display of this than in the Undercroft. One skater, Shane O’Brian, first visited the space at just 10 years old, and is still proudly a regular at 60. SO wholesome.
As for the exhibition itself, the crown jewels are a series of documentary films combining images, videos and stop-frame animations, curated from a series of workshops hosted by filmmakers, animators, sound artists and skate collective Keep Rolling Project. Alongside the main exhibition, which runs from April-June, the BFI (which sits in the Southbank) is also hosting PUSH PLAY in June: a skate cinema programme with premieres, workshops and talks. Sound like a bit of you? Us too. Exhibition tickets come at a suggested price of £8, but are pay-what-you-can and even free to anyone who brings a skateboard with them. Check it out here.
Credits:
Images courtesy of Southbank Centre
Words: Cable Writers
