Keyword Barbican

A video diary of a month-long immersion in the life of the Barbican, from the top floors of the towers to the underground levels of the arts centre. An intimate and lively map of this brutalist masterpiece.

After discovering that John Milton is buried within London's Barbican grounds, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard reimagined his epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ as part of Doug Aitken's Station to Station project. The piece uses the architecture and atmosphere of the Barbican to update the story, which is told in three parts.

An unbroken sequence of fragments, last thoughts, elegies and absences by Schubert, Mozart, Wagner, Janáček, Stravinsky, Jacquet de la Guerre and Schumann, inter-leaved with movements from John Woolrich's Pianobooks. The programme is performed alongside images from the Quay Brothers.

It was quite unlike anything Sasha had undertaken in his 30 year DJ career. To help him, he pulled together a team that included longtime collaborators Charlie May, Dennis White, Dave Gardner, with technical help from Barry Jamieson and behind the scenes advice from the immensely experienced Tommy D – who’s worked with everyone from Right Said Fred to Jess Glynne – and whose wife Rosie Danvers led Wired Strings for both shows. Alongside this core team, orchestral percussionist Joby Burgess and vocalist Julie Daske were added, as well as a plethora of guest singers that included John Graham and Abigail Wyles.

The Barbican Estate in the City of London is arguably England's finest example of Brutalist architecture. This film explores the history of the estate from the perspective of its residents