Interzone by The London Paper
It's Guerrilla Warfare
The big show: Interzone
"Japanese rope bondage artist Esinem will be tying people up from a height," says James Elphick. "We also have Syban V who does entertaining things with needles."
It’s clear that Interzone, the multimedia event Elphick is putting on with his art collective Guerrilla Zoo, isn’t your run-of-the-mill gallery do.
Along with eye-popping performance art, there’s going to be opera, tarot, market stalls, light and sound installations, poets, a speakers’ corner and circus performers dressed as characters from William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. In Camberwell.
"William Burroughs was the inspiration," says James. "Interzone is where he set most of his novels. It was the International Zone in Tangiers, Morocco, in the late 40s, where tycoons and bohe-mians hung out. It became quite decadent and seedy.
"It’s a real place that got warped in Burroughs’ interpretation, and that’s what we’re trying to recreate."
The Synergy Centre venue will be decked out like a Moroccan bazaar, with performers rubbing shoulders with the audience, passport control at the door, and a special Interzone currency.
Another invention of Burroughs’ that Elphick plans to recreate is a "dream machine" – a flicker device you "look" at through closed eyes. Then, Elphick says: "You basically hallucinate. You see geometric patterns and colours."
Guerrilla Zoo will also build an "orgone accumulator" – a contraption to charge you up with "organic energy". Apparently Burroughs used to sit in one in the 30s when he had writer’s block. "I don’t know how it works," James confesses, "but we’re going to get people to try it ."
It sounds like the kind of Warhol-style happening that has "arty hipster" stamped all over it. But James vows you don’t have to be a creative type to feel welcome.
"It’s a chance to showcase underground artists and performers and to mix up different art forms," he says. "There’s nothing else like this in London."
Guerrilla Zoo presents Interzone, Synergy Centre, 220 Farmers Road, SE5, 10pm-7am, £6, £8 after 12pm, guerrillazoo.co.uk
Interzone Performers
Twisted Cirque
Fetish burlesque troupe dress up as "mugwumps" – "gaunt, odd-looking creatures" with tubes coming out of them
Le Couteau Jaune
Shoreditch band-cum-live art collective make a bizarre mash-up of electro, hip hop, drum and bass and poetry samples
Article by Jessica Holland
The big show: Interzone
"Japanese rope bondage artist Esinem will be tying people up from a height," says James Elphick. "We also have Syban V who does entertaining things with needles."
It’s clear that Interzone, the multimedia event Elphick is putting on with his art collective Guerrilla Zoo, isn’t your run-of-the-mill gallery do.
Along with eye-popping performance art, there’s going to be opera, tarot, market stalls, light and sound installations, poets, a speakers’ corner and circus performers dressed as characters from William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. In Camberwell.
"William Burroughs was the inspiration," says James. "Interzone is where he set most of his novels. It was the International Zone in Tangiers, Morocco, in the late 40s, where tycoons and bohe-mians hung out. It became quite decadent and seedy.
"It’s a real place that got warped in Burroughs’ interpretation, and that’s what we’re trying to recreate."
The Synergy Centre venue will be decked out like a Moroccan bazaar, with performers rubbing shoulders with the audience, passport control at the door, and a special Interzone currency.
Another invention of Burroughs’ that Elphick plans to recreate is a "dream machine" – a flicker device you "look" at through closed eyes. Then, Elphick says: "You basically hallucinate. You see geometric patterns and colours."
Guerrilla Zoo will also build an "orgone accumulator" – a contraption to charge you up with "organic energy". Apparently Burroughs used to sit in one in the 30s when he had writer’s block. "I don’t know how it works," James confesses, "but we’re going to get people to try it ."
It sounds like the kind of Warhol-style happening that has "arty hipster" stamped all over it. But James vows you don’t have to be a creative type to feel welcome.
"It’s a chance to showcase underground artists and performers and to mix up different art forms," he says. "There’s nothing else like this in London."
Guerrilla Zoo presents Interzone, Synergy Centre, 220 Farmers Road, SE5, 10pm-7am, £6, £8 after 12pm, guerrillazoo.co.uk
Interzone Performers
Twisted Cirque
Fetish burlesque troupe dress up as "mugwumps" – "gaunt, odd-looking creatures" with tubes coming out of them
Le Couteau Jaune
Shoreditch band-cum-live art collective make a bizarre mash-up of electro, hip hop, drum and bass and poetry samples
Article by Jessica Holland