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Professional mourner Chen Jian in An Occupation of Loss, London, 2018. Photograph: Hugo Glendinning
Professional mourner Chen Jian in An Occupation of Loss, London, 2018. Photograph: Hugo Glendinning

An Occupation of Loss

Taryn Simon

17.04.18 - 28.04.18

Status: Complete

The culmination of seven years' work with professional mourners, anthropologists, and historians, Taryn Simon's first major performance explored the relationship between life and death, grief and performance.

Each night audiences visiting An Occupation of Loss descended from the busy Essex Road into a half-built, subterranean, concrete opera-house where professional mourners simultaneously broadcast their lamentations, enacting rituals of grief from around the world.

Their sonic mourning is performed in recitations that include northern Albanian laments, which seek to excavate “uncried words”; Venezuelan laments, which safeguard the soul’s passage to the Milky Way; Greek Epirotic laments, which bind the story of a life with its afterlife; and Yezidi laments, which map a topography of displacement and exile.

★★★★★ “the soaring song of a Yezidi man is so devastatingly beautiful it’s like a blow to the solar plexus.” – Ben Luke, Evening Standard
★★★★★ “Simon’s work is everything art should be, and it’s the best show of the year by far.”  Eddy Frankel, Time Out
★★★★ “The small spaces for the performers are beautifully austere. Freestanding walls are positioned in such a way to create different angles of approach and carefully orchestrated degrees of intimacy.” – Adrian Searle, the Guardian
Visitors in the subterranean, concrete opera house Artangel used for the London edition of Taryn Simon's An Occupation of Loss, 2018. Photo: Hugo Glendinning
People inside An Occupation of Loss, London, 2018. Photograph: Hugo Glendinning

An audience clatters down a stairway down into a huge empty concrete space 3 levels deep. In darkness below, 20 or so performers stand ready to remember the dead. Michael Morris of Artangel said massive effort went into finding exactly the right space to celebrate an ancient art now often lost: powerful laments for those who are gone — Vincent Dowd, Today, BBC Radio 4

Greece credit: Nikos Menoudakis and Vangelis Kotsos, Courtesy of the artists.
Nikos Menoudakis and Vangelis Kotsos, Courtesy of the artists.

Laments from Quarantine

Laments from Quarantine is a collection of recent recordings compiled by artist Taryn Simon from collaborating artists in her 2018 performance An Occupation of Loss. Many of the artists are unable to mourn at funerals due to coronavirus restrictions, while some continue to attend funerals despite social distancing recommendations.

In An Occupation of Loss, professional mourners enact sonic rituals of grief, mapping the intricate systems devised to manage the abstract certainty of death. Their recitations include northern Albanian laments, which seek to excavate “uncried words”; Wayuu laments, which safeguard the soul’s passage to the Milky Way; Greek Epirotic laments, which bind the story of a life with its afterlife; and Yazidi laments, which trace a topography of displacement and exile.

Co-commissioned by Artangel and Park Avenue Armory, An Occupation of Loss was first presented in September 2016 at Park Avenue Armory, New York. The London performance took place below Islington Green in a cavernous concrete space selected for its unusual sonic properties.

Watch here

Video: Documentation of An Occupation of Loss in London 2018

Artangel is pleased to present video documentation of Taryn Simon's April 2018 performance of "An Occupation of Loss" in London, captured by filmmaker Boris Bertram.

Video documentation credits:
Director - Boris Benjamin Bertram
Editor - Rikke Selin
Cinematographer - Henrik Bohn Ipsen
Colorgrading - Norman Nisbet
Soundmix - Thomas Jæger
Consultant - Ida Nicolaisen

Also available to view on Vimeo and YouTube.

An Occupation of Loss is an artist's book by Taryn Simon published by Hatje Cantz in 2017 which leads the reader through the complicated visa application processes required for the professional mourners to enter the countries in which they are hired to perform.

An Occupation of Loss – Book

€48.00 from Hatje Cantz

Available to buy via Artangel at the special price of £23 (UK) and £30 (Rest of Europe). Call to buy +44 (0)20 7713 1400.

In the publication, An Occupation of Loss artist Taryn Simon creates a detailed record of her years researching professional mourning, which culminated in a performance co-commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory and Artangel.

The book leads the reader through the complicated visa application process for the mourners invited to enter the United States, revealing the underlying structures governing global exchange, the movement of bodies, and the hierarchy of art and culture.

  • Published by Hatje Cantz
  • 220pp
  • Illustrations colour
  • Paperback
  • ISBN: 9783775743198
An Occupation of Loss limited art edition of the album by Taryn Simon

An Occupation of Loss – Vinyl

£50 standard edition Available to buy via the Vinyl Factory

£500 special edition Available to buy via the Vinyl Factory

The double album includes live and studio recordings of each lament performed by the professional mourners who collaborated on the London performance.

The accompanying 80-page book presents the laments, their English translations, and Simon’s portraits of the performers. A section documenting the performers’ visa application processes foregrounds the underlying structures of global exchange, the movement of bodies across borders, and the hierarchies of art and culture.

Both editions include:

  • Recitations of grief and mourning recorded on the occasion of the London performance of Taryn Simon’s An Occupation of Loss
  • Released as a limited, combined book and vinyl edition
  • 2 x 180g heavy weight Onyx Black vinyl records
  • 80pp hard-bound book
  • Design: Joseph Logan and Taryn Simon
  • Mastered: Finyl Tweek and Dan Green
  • Manufacturing: The Vinyl Factory

The special edition also includes:

  • 20 x silk printed photographic prints taken by the collaborating artists
  • Signed and numbered art certificate from the artist
  • Bespoke, custom-made magnetic envelope, to enclose art certificate and prints
  • All items displayed within a bespoke designed box set
  • Edition of 350

Taryn Simon

Taryn Simon is a multidisciplinary artist working in photography, text, sculpture and performance. Like much of her work, An Occupation of Loss considers state power, borders and the precarious nature of survival. It is the artist’s first major performance work.

Most recently she has had solo exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2016 – 2017); The Albertinum, Dresden (2016); Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2016); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2016); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2015); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Tate Modern, London (2011); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2011); and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007).