Verdurin /vəʁdyrɛ̃/ is a project space in East London hosted by Pierre d’Alancaisez and programmed with Benjamin Devin and friends.

Verdurin presents an idiosyncratic mix of exhibitions and events addressing urgent cultural, political, and philosophical questions through visual culture.

Verdurin is also a concept store providing the essentials an aesthete will need to survive cultural doomsday: daring literature, artefacts deserving of perdurance, and artisanal provisions.

d’Alancaisez was first inspired to marshal an audience to discuss politics, art, and ideas critically in response to the failure of institutions and the breakdown in the cultural order following the pandemic.

The name Verdurin is borrowed from Proust’s literary character Mme Verdurin who in À la recherche du temps perdu hosts a literary salon. Verdurin today carries on her spirit of conviviality and mutual edification.

Team

  • Pierre d’Alancaisez

    Pierre d’Alancaisez

    Pierre d’Alancaisez is a curator and critic.

  • Benjamin Devin

    Benjamin Devin

    Benjamin Devin is an independent researcher in the intellectual history and art of northern Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Guests and contributors

  • Aimee Armstrong

    Aimee Armstrong

    Aimee Armstrong’s work portrays modern relationships in a post-internet, post-woke, post-infographic world.

  • Ed McKeon

    Ed McKeon

    Ed is a music programmer who explores the aesthetic implications of shifts in understanding of history.

  • Daniel Hadas

    Daniel Hadas

    Daniel Hadas specializes in early Christian literature, medieval Latin, and the study of manuscripts.

  • Alfie Bown

    Alfie Bown

    Alfie Bown is the editor of Sublation Magazine, founder of Everyday Analysis, and a lectured in digital media.

  • Nina Power

    Nina Power

    Nina Power is a philosopher and critic.

  • Michael Roberts

    Michael Roberts

    Michael Roberts is an economist.

  • Jacob Koster

    Jacob Koster

    Jacob Koster is a researcher who explores socially engaged art and social movement practice, as well as aesthetics and the philosophy of art.

  • Kristin Milward

    Kristin Milward

    Kristin Milward is an actress known for her work on the stage.

  • Elena Louisa Lange

    Elena Louisa Lange

    Elena Lange is a philosopher, Japanologist, writer, former musician, and former assistant professor. She is the editor of Café Américain.

  • Oliver Bennett

    Oliver Bennett

    Oliver Bennett is a writer, actor, and director and co-founder of The Base Creates.

  • Bryce Nance

    Bryce Nance

    Bryce Nance always wanted to go to college. Not for a degree or career, but to be “a man of letters”.

  • Chris Bateman

    Chris Bateman

    Chris Bateman is an award-winning game designer, philosopher, and an intellectual mercenary fleeing the smouldering ruins of academia.

  • Georg Kurz

    Georg Kurz

    Georg Kurz is a German politician associated with the Die Linke.

  • Malcom Kyeyune

    Malcom Kyeyune

    Malcom Kyeyune is a writer living in Uppsala, Sweden.

  • George Hoare

    George Hoare

    George Hoare is a political theorist, podcaster, and author.

  • Jamieson Webster

    Jamieson Webster

    Jamieson Webster is a writer and psychoanalyst, and a founding member of Das Unbehagen.

  • Philip Cunliffe

    Philip Cunliffe

    Philip Cunliffe is Associate Professor in International Relations at UCL and co-host of the Bungacast podcast.

  • Ann Snelgrove-McKerracher

    Ann Snelgrove-McKerracher

    Ann is a co-instructor at Theory Underground. She is interested in the question of the ‘Good Life’.

  • Helen Rollins

    Helen Rollins

    Helen Rollins is a writer and filmmaker interested in the intersection between art and philosophy.

  • Anna Sebastian

    Anna Sebastian

    Anna Sebastian’s painting practice follows alternative and imagined realities, myth, history, and religion.

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