Verdurin /vəʁdyrɛ̃/ is a project space in East London hosted by Pierre d’Alancaisez and programmed with friends.
Verdurin presents an idiosyncratic mix of events, courses, and exhibitions addressing urgent cultural, political, and philosophical questions through visual culture.
Verdurin is also a concept store and publisher, 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.
We are happy to receive pitches and ideas for events, performances, launches, screenings, talks relating to art, culture, politics, and philosophy.
Team
Pierre d’Alancaisez
Pierre d’Alancaisez is a curator and critic, and the founder of Verdurin.
Amir Naaman
Amir Naaman is a novelist and a personal trainer.
Nina Power
Nina Power is a philosopher and critic.
Travis Jeppesen
Travis Jeppesen is the author of numerous books and the creator of object-oriented writing.
Emma Bielecki
Emma Bielecki is a lecturer, writer, and researcher. She splits her time between London and nineteenth-century Paris.
Lola Salem
Lola Salem is a researcher and cultural strategist.
Artists, contributors, guests
John Gillam
John Gillam is the founder of Thinking Class, an inquiry intothe political, cultural, and civilisational questions shaping England, Britain, and the West.
Sohrab Ahmari
Ahmari is the US editor of UnHerd and the author of Tyranny, Inc.
Bruce Benderson
Bruce Benderson is a writer and translator, best known for his novel User and memoir The Romanian.
Tony D. Sampson
Tony D. Sampson examines the influence of intangible environments on our experiences.
Neema Parvini
Neema Parvini is the author of ten books, including The Populist Delusion, The Prophets of Doom, and Applied Elite Theory. His YouTube channel, Academic Agent, has received over 37 million views.
Jo Bartosch
Jo Bartosch is a journalist and women’s rights campaigner.
Hamilton Morrin
Hamilton Morrin is a neuropsychiatrist researching brain-computer interface technology and human-AI interactions.
Isobel McCrum
Isobel McCrum is an AI systems architect.
Sam Riviere
Sam Riviere is a poet, novelist, and publisher at If a Leaf Falls Press.
Ronan McCrea
Ronan McCrea is the author of The End of the Gay Rights Revolution, an academic, and columnist.
Jack Hunter
Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology, and the paranormal.
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a philosopher of mind and metaphysics.
Ester Freider
Ester Freider is a writer and ‘creative academic’.
J.F. Martel
J.F. Martel is a writer and lecturer on art, culture, and philosophy, and the the author of ‘Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice’.
Daniel Corrick
Daniel Corrick is a literary historian specialising in the Decadent movement and evolution of supernatural fiction.
Noah Perez
Noah Perez is a writer from London and an editor at The Toe Rag.
Quentin S. Crisp
Quentin S. Crisp is the author of The Hermitage, Hamster Dam, and numerous other novels and short story collections.
Victoria Comstock-Kershaw
Victoria Comstock-Kershaw is an arts journalist, reviewer, and God’s favourite critic.
Daniel Neill
Daniel is a writer, and protégé at Verdurin.
Daniel Howard James
Daniel James is an independent researcher working on a conspiracy-free theory of ‘consumer-communism’.
Lee Jones
Lee Jones’ researches sovereignty, intervention, and state transformation and the ‘New Cold War’ between the US and China.
