With the highest concentration of contemporary art galleries anywhere in the world, the art world of Mayfair represents a formidable and seemingly impenetrable market for the aspiring and emerging artist. The Fete of Mayfair is a reimagination of a traditional village fete, conceived as protest and projected onto an urban context. It is a temporary event that aims to contrast and conflict with the polite and exclusive world that currently exists. The intervention proposes temporary space for artists to exhibit, perform, sell, and advertise their work. The site of the Tyburn River provides the perfect backdrop for the proposal. As a notable exception to Mayfair’s uniform grid patterns, the route of the historic river cuts and meanders its way through producing an urban conflict in space, scale, and form. Taking inspiration from the global Occupy Movement, the Fete of Mayfair will introduce temporary installations that will take over the forgotten, awkward, and leftover spaces along a circular route through Mayfair. Interventions will include pop-up installations, interactive performance art, and large-scale projections.

This work was developed as part of group work by Yiye Han, in collaboration with Samuel Langley and Anqi Liu.