Opening Reception: ‘Hospital Rooms. Holding Space’

Join us to celebrate the opening of ‘Holding Space,’ a new multisensory exhibition that will transform Hauser & Wirth London, in partnership with arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms.

‘Holding Space’ is an interactive presentation made up of components drawn directly from artist programs developed within NHS mental health services, filling the gallery with immersive commissions, mixed media artworks and site specific installations. The exhibition follows last year’s collaborative exhibition ‘Like there is hope and I can dream of another world’ and is part of Hauser & Wirth’s ongoing three-year collaboration with Hospital Rooms, which aims to raise £1 million for the charity to dramatically expand and deepen their impact.

‘Holding Space’ features artists Valerie Asiimwe Amani, Sutapa Biswas, Victoria Cantons, Rachael Champion, Giles Deacon, Alvin Kofi, Katharine Lazenby, Richard Mark Rawlins, Jonathan Trayte, Richard Wentworth and Abbas Zahedi, as well as Hospital Rooms Lived Experience Team, National Opera Studio with South West London Recovery College Students.

Tickets are free, with no advance booking required, however please be aware that entry is not guaranteed during busy times. To accompany the exhibition, there will be performances by mezzo soprano Joanna Harries and cellist Lucas Robson at 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm.

‘Hospital Rooms. Holding Space’ is on view from Thursday 17 August through Tuesday 12 September 2023.

About Hospital Rooms
The charity Hospital Rooms was founded when a friend of artist Tim A Shaw and curator Niamh White was sectioned and admitted to a NHS mental health hospital. On visiting her, they were shocked to find the hospital environment was cold and clinical at a time when she was so vulnerable. Having both worked in the arts for 10 years, Shaw and White felt they had the skills and community to be able to transform these spaces with unique and site specific artworks. Hospital Rooms envisions a new world where abundant and meaningful creative opportunities are readily accessible to people with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses, and where mental health hospital environments are inventive cultural spaces offering solace, comfort and dignity. Since 2016, Hospital Rooms has undertaken a number of acclaimed projects, completed in some of the most challenging mental health settings. A roster of artists is carefully selected for each Hospital Rooms’ project according to the needs of each community.

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This event will run alongside the opening reception for ‘Strange Friends’ and ‘Connect. Reveal. Conceal’, two new Make Hauser & Wirth exhibitions in London. Please be advised that photographs will be taken at this event for use on the Hauser & Wirth website, social media and in other marketing materials.