About this event
As part of Brighton and Sussex Medical School’s 20th anniversary celebrations, we are revisiting and refreshing a ground-breaking project created by artist Judith Alder in partnership with BSMS and the Brighton Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices.
The New Immortals explored our ongoing quest for immortality, offering 10 artists' responses to ideas about life, death and immortality.
The project began in 2013, culminating in a six-week exhibition of 10 artists’ work and an extensive public events programme at Phoenix Art Space Brighton in 2016, and a symposium at which the artists and academic colleagues from the medical school and partner universities reflected upon the themes raised by the work.
We are delighted that between 15 April to 17 May 2024 artworks by seven of the original New Immortals artists will be on display in the BSMS Teaching Building at the University of Sussex campus.
We are also hosting a very special day of talks, video screenings and a chance to meet some of the artists, scientists, and medical professionals involved in the original project on Saturday 27 April 2024, 11am–5pm.
Following a tour of the exhibition with Artist/Curator Judith Alder and some of the exhibiting artists, there will be a series of talks, with videos from the exhibition screened at various times. The event has been arranged by Prof Bobbie Farsides, Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at BSMS, and Dawn Hanna, DA to the Dean's Office and PA to the Medical School Secretary, and includes a range of BSMS and external speakers.
The day will begin at 11am with a tour of the exhibition with Artist/Curator Judith Alder and some of the exhibiting artists. After this there will be a series of talks, exact times of which will be circulated in advance. Videos from the exhibition will be screened at various times throughout the day. We will have a break for lunch between 1-2pm, and the event will finish at 5pm.
Exhibiting artists include: Murray Ballard; Rachel Cohen; Angela Smith; Duncan Poulton; Judith Alder; Gabriella Sancisi and Anna Macdonald. The original 2016 exhibition also included works by Guyan Porter, Fleur Alston and Cat Ingrams.
Speakers include: Prof Bobbie Farsides, Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at BSMS; Dr Muna Al Jawad, Senior lecturer in Medical Education and Consultant in Geriatric Medicine at UHS (East); Dr Khalid Ali, Reader in Geriatrics at BSMS; Dr Arianne Shahvisi, Senior Lecturer in Ethics at BSMS; Prof Matteo Santin, Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices at the University of Brighton and Rev Chris McDermott, retired Chaplain at the University of Sussex.
Please note that lunch is not provided – please feel free to bring a packed lunch. Some catering will be available on campus but not in the BSMS Teaching Building.
Entry is free but booking is essential. Please feel free to stay for as long as you like and come and go as you please, but please try not to interrupt speakers when arriving or leaving. You will receive a detailed timetable before the event.
If you are unable to attend the symposium but would like to visit the exhibition, you can do so on a drop-in basis between 10am-4pm, weekdays only, between 15 April and 17 May.
To see more information about the artists and their work, visit Judith Alder's website >
Book your place here >