Meet Forefront, a cultural platform redefining the relationship between art and architecture

Forefront is a new cultural platform founded by Professor Sadie Morgan OBE, co-founder of dRMM, and Dicle Guntas, the managing director of developer HGG, with the mission of fostering dialogue between artists, cultural institutions, developers and landowners. Its inaugural exhibition, ‘Living Cornice’, features a presentation of lumino-kinetic sculptures by Jason Bruges Studio at Forefront's base within Milieu, a new building on Old Street in London.

Forefront offers a glimpse of what might happen when architecture allows art to become an integral part of how we experience space. For Guntas, it’s just the beginning of a conversation she hopes will ripple far beyond its central London location. We caught up with her to talk about the idea, the collaboration and why the boundaries between architecture and art are ready to be redrawn.

Dicle Guntas on Forefront, the new platform blending art and architecture

Wallpaper*: Could you start by introducing HGG and how the Forefront initiative came about?

Dicle Guntas: HGG London is a design-driven property developer that creates sustainable places for people to live, work and gather. We work closely with architects and designers to propose innovative solutions to technical complexities and constraints of urban sites. I am very keen on supporting art and emerging artists and have been a patron of various art institutions and museums over the years.

Ever since our first development project, The Interlock, I have been very interested in the intersection of art and architecture and how they influence each other. In recent years, we have been having more specific conversations around this topic, which resulted in interesting collaborations and commissions. This was happening organically and not necessarily in a curated way, so I started to think about how we could structure these dialogues intentionally. That is when the conversations with Sadie began about Forefront.

W*: The current Forefront show features work by Jason Bruges Studio; what was the curatorial reasoning behind leading with their work?

DG: Jason is a multidisciplinary artist and designer who blends art, architecture and technology. We commissioned them for a public art project, a light installation that will go under a passageway in one of HGG London’s projects.

What particularly interested us was the way the team responded to the building’s architecture and the physical constraints of the site while experimenting with new forms of design through passive kinetic movement. This territory was previously unexplored in their work. The exhibition developed as a research-led showcase, offering a view into that creative evolution. The studio translated their ideas into the gallery setting by generating dynamic computational caustics through choreographed metallic topologies, animating what might otherwise have been a still space.

W*: Forefront positions itself as a platform facilitating a mutual exchange between art and architecture. What does that mean in practice for clients, architects and artists?

DG: While we aim to facilitate mutual exchange between art and architecture, we are still developing, experimenting and forming what that means in practice. We believe that it should be shaped by the conversations we are having, depending on the needs of a space, place, or project.

W*: Do you see this initiative as a response to something missing in architectural discourse or practice today?

DG: I do think that we need more architecture programming within art and cultural institutions; however, Forefront is not a direct response to this. We are hoping to create a platform and act as a facilitator to have more of it.

W*: How do you choose who to work with? Are you looking for artists whose practices already engage architecture, or is part of the goal to create new encounters?

DG: We are forming a creative advisory panel consisting of artists from various disciplines who will support shaping the cultural programming. Absolutely, I think it is very interesting to create new encounters, and we would love to enable those via our programme.

W*: How do you see Forefront growing? Is this the start of a series, a network, or perhaps a model for integrating art into development projects more directly?

DG: Can I say all of the above!? When we describe Forefront, we explain it as a cross-sector initiative, cultural platform and a creative task force. Through this position, it intends to provide a replicable model to integrate more art and culture into placemaking, while also aiming to be a space where raw creative ideas can be explored, tested and realised through the right mix of people and resources.

W*: Finally, what do you hope visitors take away from this first show and what might come next?

DG: Curiosity.

'orefront's first show, ‘Living Cornice' by Jason Bruges Studio, is on show at Milieu, 134 Old Street, London, EC1V 9BL (visits by appointment)
hgglondon.co.uk