Passengers

Home
United Kingdom
London
Passengers

Passengers is a site-specific exhibition series exploring various sites and architectures. Brunswick

Passengers is a site-specific exhibition series conceived and curated by Julie F Hill that explores the historical, social and material contexts of various sites and architecture. For its inaugural series artists presented work that explored the real and imaginative associations of The Brunswick Centre – a Modernist, mixed residential and commercial development in Bloomsbury, London – which is als

o our headquarters. The series has since expanded to include off-site exhibitions, residencies and publications. The title Passengers references the 1975 film The Passenger by Michelangelo Antonioni that features the Brunswick Centre as a location and exploits it as a powerful mise-en-scene. The plot follows a journalist who assumes the identity of a dead businessman while working on a documentary in Chad, unaware that he is impersonating an arms dealer with connections to the rebels in the current civil war. This notion of a ‘passenger’ as someone who inhabits transient identities and spaces, relates to how each artist is rendered a passenger within the larger exhibition structure. This structure is generative and multi-directional, allowing different ideas, themes and narratives to emerge, overlap and intersect, creating dialogue with each other over time. The Brunswick Centre is a grade II listed residential and shopping centre designed by Patrick Hodgkinson in the mid-1960s and has an interesting history. It’s often misinterpreted as a Brutalist megastructure and likened to a bunker or space-ship from sci-fi movie set – in contrast to the architect’s vision: ‘…it was to be a village, not a megastructure, and never ‘Brutalist’, but would rather create a poetic construct of feel and not look…’. Inspired by Existentialist philosophy, features such as the cascading glass facades of the ‘winter gardens’ were to give contemplative views of open skies ‘… allow[ing] an engagement with an existential awareness of self in the world.’

Our programme is run in collaboration with Gauld Architecture. The inaugural series was supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

For all enquiries please contact:
Julie F Hill, Artist/Curator
[email protected]

23/05/2026

🎉 Join us on Friday 5 June, 6-9pm to celebrate the launch of 𝗘𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗞𝗮𝘇𝘂𝗼 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮’𝘀 𝗨𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲, a new publication developed by in collaboration with 20 international artists, architects and writers.

Live readings at 7pm from: translator Polly Barton; artist filmmaker Emily Richardson; writer/curator Yuki Sumner; and architect and calligraphy artist Mónica Verdejo Ruiz. (These will also be broadcast on our Instagram Live)

Artworks + Films: Kevin Gauld & Julie F Hill, Sawako Nakayasu, Michaela Nettell, Emily Richardson, Ana Ruepp and Emily Speed

Please RSVP by Eventbrite (link in bio)

Built in Tokyo in 1961, Kazuo Shinohara’s Umbrella House was recently saved from demolition and reconstructed on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Considered a masterpiece of his First Style, it represents a pivotal moment in Shinohara’s career as he began moving away from decorative concerns towards his search for an abstract space.

Bringing together contemporary responses to the building by international artists, architects and writers, Encounters offers timely new readings of Shinohara’s work.

Contributors:
Marcela Aragüez
Estefania Araujo Bianchi
Christian Dehli & Andrea Grolimund
Simona Ferrari
Kyoko Hanawa (Emi Kawai) & Yuki Sumner
Takashi Hayatsu
Kevin Gauld & Julie F Hill
Sawako Nakayasu
Ana Ruepp
Emily Richardson
Lera Samovich
Tomoka Shibasaki (tr. Polly Barton )
Emily Speed
Mónica Verdejo Ruiz
Leigh Wells

Editor: Anjana Janardhan
Designer: Marit Münzberg
Published by

With thanks to all of our Crowdfunder supporters, Arts Council England & 🙏

Image 1+3:

05/12/2025

Congratulations on a brilliant end of residency event. We very much enjoyed having you with us for the past few months and connecting the celestial with the architecture of The Brunswick Centre 🔭🌌🪐  For those who missed it here are a few images of From Starlight to Stone. Work in progress included cyanotypes of Jupiter (Image 5+6) and Venus (Image 6+7) - the first a duotone and the second using calcium carbonate as a wash in place of soda crystals; a cyanotype film of the moon, film strips (Image 1-4) and photographs taken by a pinhole camera installed around the A-frame and third floor balcony (Image 10+11).

Image 8 is a piece by artist (and Passengers curator) showing mineral residues of calcium carbonate on stainless steel — a remnant from a previous installation that has formed part of a shared dialogue around RAW planetary data (Image 9), materiality and new materialisms. Melanie and Julie will be continuing research along these lines as part of — more on that in 2026 👀🪐✨

29/11/2025

🔭🪐🪨 What a great evening! 🔭🪐🪨Thank you to everyone who joined us for ‘s end of residency event where she is showing these cyanotypes made from telescope data of planets Jupiter and Venus. Alongside these we were treated to a live telescope viewing with astronomer Paul Hill on the terrace where we marvelled at views of the Moon and Saturn! Paul also brought along some meteorites for people to handle and a spacesuit fashioned here by during the brief cloudy moments.

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 continues tomorrow Sun 12-5pm, do pop in and see what Melanie has been up to over her residency with us and hear about what’s to come with her and collaboration as part of her In Praise of Raw Data project

17/11/2025

🪐🪐CELEBRATE 🪐🪐 the end of ’s Being-in-Architecture residency with us, opening on Fri 28 Nov with a live telescope viewing with astronomer Paul Hill on the terrace* — continuing to Sun 30 Nov. All welcome.

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 showcases work carried out by Melanie during her residency with us. Using alternative and sustainable photographic processes to explore the way celestial light interacts with architecture of The Brunswick Centre, Melanie has experimented with pinhole cameras, cyanotype prints and film. The residency has also provided a platform for the continuation of her research project in collaboration with Passengers artist and curator whose artistic practice shares a close connection to her own. They will share works-in-progress exploring planetary data and materiality following dialogue with astronomer and science communicator Dr Claudia Mignone and a research trip to view artefacts at the Royal Astronomical Association archives. Responding to the panoramic sky views from the second floor terrace, Astronomer and science communicator Paul Hill has been invited to host a live telescope viewing, free and open to all.

*An alternative, indoor event is planned if we experience poor weather/visibility.

Image 1: Melanie King, Jupiter: JWST, Cyanotype Duotone, 2025. Image 2: Melanie King, Detail of Venus: Magellan Mission, Cyanotype Duotone, 2025.

06/10/2025

🪐 RESIDENCY UPDATE 🪐

has been using the residency with us to learn more about the architecture of The Brunswick Centre, whilst also developing her practice-based research post PhD.

Whilst the solar cameras she installed around the building are recording away, Melanie has been making cyanotypes using archival NASA images of Jupiter and Venus; experimenting with chalk found in Ramsgate where she lives to create a natural ‘bleach’ for cyanotype. This continues her practice based research into the cyanotype duotone process and has led to a cyanotype animation of the Moon, following a workshop with artist .carr

Keep a look out for our End of Residency event in November, where Melanie will be sharing her developed research and work-in-progress. This will excitingly be accompanied by a telescope viewing with astronomer Paul Hill. 🔭🪐

melaniekatking

11/08/2025

It’s been great to see settling into her residency, exploring the different ways that light interacts with the architecture and different photographic processes that can record it — this solar can (solography camera) has been installed and is now recording from the a-frame 🌅🏙️

29/07/2025

Excited to welcome as the third artist in our current series of Being in Architecture residencies. 🪐🌱📷

Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. In her work, Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between photographic materials and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching several sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice. During the residency, Melanie aims to continue her practice-based research on astronomical imaging, sustainable analogue photographic processes and eco-friendly printing techniques. She is interested in how light from the sun, moon and stars may interact with the architecture of The Brunswick Centre. She is also keen to find out more about the community garden and how residents use the space.

Melanie is co-Director of , and founder of the . Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has recently completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the

21/07/2025

We were thrilled so see how .bilton responded to The Brunswick Centre architecture; here are a few more shots from his end of residency event where he presented community-engaged responses including totems using plant cuttings, terracotta and iron casts, thread and seeds through to reliefs of repaired concrete patches. It was wonderful to see the second floor terrace activated via various activities over the weekend and the conversations it ignited with residents and visitors alike. Thanks Josh for all your energies! Such rich generation of ideas, we look forward to seeing where the work goes from here.

More news on our next resident to follow later this week! 🤩

12/07/2025

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night for the opening evening of .bilton ‘s end of residency event which continues this weekend Sat and Sun 12-5pm, do pop in and see what Josh has been up to over his 6 month residency with us 🧶🌳

Last night on the terrace, people were invited to maypole around the Eucalyptus tree in a collective gesture of mending and repairing with others.

One of the first things Bilton noticed when he started his residency was the peeling bark of a eucalyptus tree on the second floor terrace, housed in what looks like a concrete pyramid with the top cut off. Eucalyptus trees shed their bark as a natural part of the tree’s growing process but
it can also be a sign of illness. A ritual of peeling and mending, shedding and healing – too much or too little water, that perhaps echoes the physical and social skin of the architecture.

02/07/2025

CELEBRATE 🎉 the end of .bilton ’s Being-in-Architecture residency with us between Fri 11 - Sun 13 July. Josh will be presenting his body of work-in-progress ‘Repair’. Opening Fri 11th, 6–9pm. All welcome

Repair is a meditation on the action of restoring and mending and its relationship with care.

Over the course of several months, Joshua has forged relationships with the people living in the Brunswick Centre to create a series of community-engaged responses to its long and complex history relating to repair and social care. From totems using plant cuttings, terracotta and iron casts, thread and seeds through to reliefs of repaired concrete patches – Bilton’s works grapple with the tension between the architecture as a model of the ideals of the post war welfare state in contrast to the everyday reality of living within a ‘concrete organism’ that wants to leak, crack, stain, peel and mould.

Patrick Hodgkinson, the architect who designed the Brunswick had imagined ‘a village…overlooking nature…(a) green valley’[1] but the trees and grasses he obtained planning consent for, were never planted. Green space, communal gardens, spaces of wellbeing, have been seen as additional, problematic even. Nature has been an afterthought within this architecture.

As the Brunswick community plans now to lift sacks of earth and plant herbs and flowers on the open terrace, the sharing of works-in-progress in Repair encapsulate the challenges and strength of thinking together. On Fri 11th at 7pm, join us on the second floor terrace where you are invited to collectively bind around the Eucalyptus tree in a gesture of repairing and mending with others.

Image: Joshua Bilton, Repair, terracotta and iron casts. 2025

Address

110 Foundling Court, The Brunswick Centre (Entrance 3), Marchmont Street
London
WC1N1AN

Website

http://www.passen-gers.co.uk/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Passengers posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Passengers:

Want your museum to be the top-listed Museum in London?