Performance : A funeral for Joiners Arms 1997-2015

“Dear All,

We have all gathered here today to celebrate the life of our beloved pub- the Joiners Arms, who suddenly passed away on the 15th of January 2015 under suspicious circumstances. This is a rather belated funeral, but only seems appropriate at a time when we witness the closure of multiple LGBTQ venues across the capital, one after the other... most recently the cabaret venue Madame Jojo’s in Soho and the Black cap in Camden. When Joiners arms first opened its doors on Hackney road back in 1997, London was a different place. Labour government has just got into power and LGBTQ rights were on the long run towards equality. But still, you got the sense that the nation was becoming more acceptive of queer people and their lifestyles. It is therefore astonishing to think that two decades later, queer culture is now part of the mainstream.

As writer Paul Flynn rightfully put it, Joiners was lawless, in a joyful, lunatic, sexy way. It was indeed anarchic and sinister, but also incredibly friendly! Joiners was welcoming to everybody. From the estate lad next door to well established figures like Wolfang Tillmans and Alexander McQueen. Everyone got along, a mix and match like nowhere else in the city...”

Extract from the funeral speech. 05/12/2018

Concerned with the significant closures of queer venues across the city, Kleanthis took upon acting, film, performance and installation art as means to present those concerns. For his revelatory performance Kleanthis ‘brought to life’ 4 queer characters from the past, present and future, by performing 4 different monologues. Each character revealed their respective identities: a queer of colour living among the bohemians in 1930s London, a stigmatised actor facing the threat of AIDS epidemic in 1980s, a young closeted gay man experiencing London’s Gay scene pre- Grindr to a political drag queen who wants to change the Future.

In “A funeral for Joiners Arms” Kleanthis is staging an imaginary funeral -presented in a recorded and live form- for Joiners, a notorious pub and queer space that became a victim of gentrification. Familiar characters from his previous performance are facilitating the sequence of the funeral ceremonials (rituals) and invite the guests to participate in the proceedings. By personifying a physical space, Kleanthis is questioning how we deal with the loss of the spaces we surround ourselves...and well...party.