CEREMONY Festival 2025 at Copeland Gallery: Performance Art, Dance & Installations in London
London’s art calendar is filled with phenomenal experiences, but few events encapsulate the energy of multidisciplinary creativity like the CEREMONY Festival 2025 London at Copeland Gallery. From April 23rd to 27th, Copeland Gallery in Peckham transforms into a vibrant stage for boundary-pushing performance art, choreography, dance, and installation. Featuring luminaries such as SERAFINE1369, Rubiane Maia, n:u, and a host of exceptional international artists, the festival is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated contemporary performance London happenings of the year.
If you are passionate about avant-garde performance, site-specific installations, or the evolving landscape of London dance and art festivals, this deep-dive review of CEREMONY 2025 will offer insight and inspiration.
CEREMONY Festival: Overview & Vision
Curated and produced by Future Ritual, the CEREMONY Festival 2025 London is conceived as a multi-day invitation to cross thresholds, awaken desires, and rekindle enchantment amid the complexity of contemporary urban life. By gathering international and local artists across genres and cultural narratives, the festival’s programming reflects the fusion of mythical storytelling, ritual action, endurance art, and multidisciplinary collaboration.
The festival is more than a showcase—it’s a collaborative space where artists and audiences converge to challenge norms, spark transformation, and experience the enchantment of live art.
Copeland Gallery: The Heart of Contemporary Art in Peckham
Copeland Gallery, at the heart of Peckham, is renowned for hosting exhibitions, performances, and art events that draw a diverse audience from across London and beyond. Its spacious, industrial interior provides a fitting environment for dynamic installations and live art—making it an ideal venue for a performance art festival London.
In addition to CEREMONY, Copeland Gallery regularly hosts emerging artist exhibitions, pop-up shows, and avant-garde installations, cementing its reputation as a hub for multidisciplinary art London.
Main Performers & Installations
SERAFINE1369: Dancing as Philosophy
One of the festival’s standout figures is SERAFINE1369—a London-born, body-focused researcher and performer. Their work treats dance as a philosophical undertaking, a deeply relational and cumulative practice responding to context and using movement as a means to dissolve boundaries between felt, remembered, and corporeal presence. SERAFINE1369’s performances, often durational and collaborative, enact movement as transformation and transcendence—the perfect synergy for a multidisciplinary festival.
Rubiane Maia: Ritual, Installation & Feminist Inquiry
Rubiane Maia is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist based in Folkestone, working across performance, installation, video, writing, and photography. Her contributions to CEREMONY draw on ritual actions, feminist inquiry, and hybrid forms that merge visual installation with participatory performance. Maia examines resilience, vulnerability, and the psychic impacts of contemporary life, inviting festival-goers into immersive environments charged with emotional and spatial depth.
n:u: Gender, Mythology & Un/Worlding
The artist n:u brings a deeply personal and mythological lens, exploring queer grief, gender non-conformity, and Baltic/Slavic mythologies through ritual performance. Their body-based practice blends folklore, endurance, and storytelling to confront hegemonic narratives and cultural silencing, engaging audiences in acts of collective transformation.
The CEREMONY 2025 Programme & Experience
Across five days, the CEREMONY Festival 2025 London hosts a rich array of events:
- Live Performances: From durational pieces to solo interventions and collaborations, performances spark dialogue and challenge sensory experiences.
- Art Installations: The gallery space is reimagined with immersive installations—dolls, wooden planks, and folklore-infused sculptures create uncanny landscapes laced with color, memory, and myth.
- Workshops & Discussions: Led by acclaimed practitioners like Marilyn Arsem and VestAndPage, workshops focus on artist development, ritual process, and experimental practice.
- Festival Gatherings: Opening and closing events bring audiences and artists together for shared reflection, celebration, and community.
- Discursive Panels: Conversations throughout the festival offer context, critical insight, and a platform for exchange on contemporary art practice.
These elements organically merge within the festival, amplifying the links between dance, performance, installation, and art activism.
Peckham Art Events April 2025: Why Copeland Gallery Stands Out
April is a lively month for Peckham art events, and CEREMONY at Copeland Gallery stands apart by championing deep experimentation and interdisciplinary dialogue. Beyond exhibiting visual masterpieces, the festival foregrounds process—the act of creation, transformation, and ritual as art.
This approach turns the gallery itself into an organism—alive with movement, sound, and collective participation—reflecting the best in London dance and art festival culture.
Importance of Multidisciplinary Art in London
London’s contemporary art scene is celebrated for its embrace of multidisciplinary practice. Festivals like CEREMONY invite audiences to experience art beyond traditional boundaries:
- Visual art melds with movement and sound.
- Performance merges with ritual and endurance.
- Installations become sites of contemplation and activism.
Supporting multidisciplinary art means engaging with new forms of storytelling and cultural critique that reflect the complexities and possibilities of modern life.
Highlights from CEREMONY Festival 2025
Some particularly notable moments and perspectives include:
- Pianka Pärna’s Installation: Exploring the haunting and vibrant resonance of Baltic folklore through hanging dolls and luminous sculptures.
- Endurance Art: Artists like Alastair MacLennan and Anne Bean push the boundaries of bodily resilience and spatial dynamics.
- International Collaboration: The participation of VestAndPage, Liz Rosenfeld, gustaf broms, and Marilyn Arsem signal the festival’s global reach.
- Community Workshops: Intensive artist development workshops cultivate the next wave of performance talent.
- Ritual Action & Transformation: Performances by Rubiane Maia and n:u focus on gender, home, and collective transformation, blurring the line between artwork and ritual experience.
How to Attend and What to Expect
Tickets for CEREMONY range from single performance entry (£14–£20) to all-access festival passes (£50–£75), with gatherings and some discursive events free or “pay what you can.” The festival encourages open participation, accessibility, and a welcoming community environment.
Expect to be challenged, moved, and inspired, whether you’re a seasoned art lover or a newcomer to performance and contemporary dance.
Two Perspectives on CEREMONY Festival 2025
Perspective 1: The Contemporary Art Enthusiast
For art professionals and critics, CEREMONY offers a rare opportunity to encounter leading-edge work from the UK and abroad. It is a platform for bold, risk-taking artists who shape conversations around performance, ritual, and multidisciplinary practice.
Perspective 2: The Local Community Member
For Peckham residents or Londoners seeking cultural adventure, the festival is an accessible window into international art trends—transforming Copeland Gallery into a neighborhood hub where curiosity, creativity, and communal experience thrive.
Conclusion: Why CEREMONY Festival at Copeland Gallery Matters
The CEREMONY Festival 2025 London is a pivotal celebration of contemporary performance art, dance, and installations—an event where artists and audiences are invited to experiment, reflect, and transform. With major contributions from stars like SERAFINE1369, Rubiane Maia, and n:u, and its home in Peckham’s dynamic Copeland Gallery, the festival marks an essential moment for multidisciplinary art in London.
Whether you are passionate about dance, moved by live performance, eager to explore ritual in art, or simply want to support Peckham’s growing creative scene, don’t miss CEREMONY Festival 2025.