Creative Director, British House, Rio 2016

It was an honour to be selected to curate and direct a series of culture & creative industry showcases at the official British House for Rio 2016 Olympic & Paralympic Games.

Working on behalf of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, I developed three events at the House, ‘Made in London’, ‘Soundtrack to London’ and ‘Great British Afternoon Tea’ with the aim to showcase the best of British culture and creativity to local Brazilian curators, promoters and venues, on the global stage that the Olympics present.

We took over the beautiful venue of Parque Lage, based in the botanical gardens of Rio, beneath the watchful gaze of Christ the Redeemer. It presented a lush and tropical environment, and an old colonial building which is currently in use as an art school. But it was only when I discovered the background of why the building was originally built that it started to influence how I chose to curate the events there. It was the residence of industrailist Enrique Lage and he dedicated this building to his wife, opera singer Gabriella Besanzoni. Of course, we had to honour her an bring the wonderful talent from the Royal Opera House, London, to perform in this space.

‘Made in London’ took place on 19 August 2016, with a production that incorporated the Beatbox Collective, ballet from Royal Ballet performing Company Wayne McGregors work, with activations from our Sunk Punk immersive theatre troop, live London-Rio graffiti jam, Science Museum experiments and Shakespeare’s Globe.

A memorable night for all involved, representing London and the UK.