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.
Daniel Neill
Daniel is a writer, and protégé at Verdurin.
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
Kit Wilson
Kit Wilson is a writer and musician in London.
Olive Parker
Olive Parker writes stories about fuckboys, femcels, and sexual frustration.
David McKerracher
David is the founder and organisers of Theory Underground.
Thaïs Lenkiewicz
Thaïs Lenkiewicz collages science fiction, religion, conspiracy theories, game shows, and prehistory.
Aimee Armstrong
Aimee Armstrong’s work portrays modern relationships in a post-internet, post-woke, post-infographic world.
Justin Smith-Ruiu
Justin Smith-Ruiu is a writer and philosopher at the Université Paris Cité. He is the founder of The Hinternet.
Ronan McCrea
Ronan McCrea is the author of The End of the Gay Rights Revolution, an academic, and columnist.
Oliver Davis
Oliver Davis is Professor of French at University College Cork and co-author of Hatred of Sex.
Tim Abrahams
Tim Abrahams is an architecture critic, publisher at Machine Books, and host of the Superurbanism podcast.
Ewan Morrison
Ewan Morrison is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and essayist.
Elena Louisa Lange
Elena Lange is a philosopher, Japanologist, writer, former musician, and former assistant professor. She is the editor of Café Américain.
Bertie Marshall
Bertie Marshall is a writer and performer of plays, poems, and fiction.
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a philosopher of mind and metaphysics.
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.
Simon Fanshawe
Simon Fanshawe OBE is a broadcaster, writer, and activist. He was one of the founders of the LGBT charity Stonewall.
Marcas Lancaster
Marcas Lancaster is a writer, producer, and self confessed ‘failed gay’.
John Gillam
John Gillam is the founder of Thinking Class, an inquiry intothe political, cultural, and civilisational questions shaping England, Britain, and the West.
Philip Cunliffe
Philip Cunliffe is Associate Professor in International Relations at UCL, co-founder of Bungacast, and author of multiple books on international politics and security.
Ann Snelgrove-McKerracher
Ann is a co-instructor at Theory Underground. She is interested in the question of the ‘Good Life’.
Jamieson Webster
Jamieson Webster is a writer and psychoanalyst, and a founding member of Das Unbehagen.
