Watch The Last Seven Years live performance

For one night only, Jay Bernard presented an experimental performance informed by the voices of people across the UK who opened up to the artist about the last seven years. In collaboration with Musarc, one of the UK’s foremost experimental choirs and multi-instrumentalist Petero Kalulé (petals), a performance was devised that presents memories of people across the UK from the post-Brexit landscape, and thoughts on how they and the country have changed. Bernard’s work spans poetry, audio-visual media, graphic illustration, theatre-making, archiving, and film programming. Their work brings together personal recollections with grand political narratives presenting themes of injustice, queerness, family relationships and state surveillance, in critical and unexpected ways. The Last Seven Years was presented in collaboration with Bold tendencies.

The Last Seven Years by Jay Bernard was produced by Artangel and presented in collaboration with Bold tendencies in September 2023. A prelude to the digital commission, it was devised and delivered by Joseph Kohlmaier and Musarc with Petero Kalulé (petals). Performers include Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Jeni Be, Thomas Boudier, Serena Braida, Elizabeth Chan, Ilenia Cipollari, Raphel Famotibe, Rozhina Ghasemizadeh, and Loren McK.

The Last Seven Years Recording credits:
Directed by Anthony Comber-Badu
Camera Operators: Jack Barraclough, Radford Nicholls
Sound Design and mixing: Panos Chountoulidis