LCMF 2022

18 June: The Big Sad Talk

Walmer Yard
239 Walmer Rd, London, W11 4EY


THE BIG SAD poster designed by Joseph Kohlmaier

Panel:
Rachel Rose, Mariam RezaeiMarikiscrycrycry
and Alex Mazey

Moderator:
Igor Toronyi-Lalic

As one of the four humours of ancient Greek medicine, melancholy – μέλαινα χολή (black bile) – traditionally caused two qualities to bubble up within the recipient: insanity and creativity. By the 17th century it was a badge worn with pride (Semper Dowland, semper dolens). 

Melancholia is now ‘the fundamental passion of the hyperreal order’, writes Alex Mazey in Sad Boy Aesthetics (2021). Why? What can we gain from the tools of relinquishment and ruination? How creative can states of loss and exhaustion be?

Teaming up with our friends at Walmer Yard in Holland Park, we explore Sad Boys, sweet melancholy and the affective turn with artist Rachel Rose, turntablist composer Mariam Rezaei, choreographer Marikiscrycrycry, author of Sad Boy Aesthetics (2021) Alex Mazey and LCMF artistic director Igor Toronyi-Lalic.