Skate 50 commemorates Undercroft Skate Space
The Southbank Center has announced Skate 50, a multimedia exhibition running until 21st June that marks 50 years of the Undercroft Skate Space. Developed alongside active members of the Southbank skate community, it includes new commissions utilising photography, moving image, and sound to “delve into the stories and communities that have shaped one of the most recognisable spaces in skate culture.”
The Undercroft Skate Space is considered the birthplace of skateboarding in the UK. A space left open to the public when Queen Elizabeth Hall was built in the 1960s, its concrete ledges, ramps, and pillars were adopted by skateboarders in the 1970s, going on to become one of the oldest continuously used skateboarding locations in the UK.
Skate 50 will present a variety of documentary-style films, made up of moving image an photography, as well as stop-frame animations and soundscapes to tell the story of the Undercroft Skate Space. This includes everything from archive footage, to fashion-forward portraiture of the noughties and contemporary depictions of the skate space today.
Keeping the skate community “at the heart of the project Skate 50 stems from a series workshops facilitated by filmmaker Winstan Whitter, bringing together different generations who have used the space to identify notable events across the five decades,” the Southbank Cetnre said.
Featured artists, all of whom have a personal connection to skateboarding, include filmmakers Winstan Whitter, Dan Magee and Jack Brooks, founder of skatewear brand Palace, Lev Tanju, animator Sofia Negri, skate collective Keep Rolling Project and sound artist Beatrice Dillon.
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