In January to February 2026, Souvenir is the first exhibition by inaugural Curators-in-Residence – the award-winning artists and BAFTA-nominated filmmakers Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard.
DATE SHOWN
Drawing on strategies of filmmaking and storytelling and pulling from literature, performance, music, visual arts, craft and design, Souvenir is the first in a trilogy of exhibitions the duo will curate throughout 2026 in the Chapel’s glimmering and profound interior – an enchanting jewel of Byzantine-inspired architecture in the heart of London.
At the heart of Souvenir is Michael Bracewell’s haunting eulogy to the London of the late 1970s and early 1980s; a city poised between the twilight of one era and the dawn of the new digital era. With the novella as its touchstone, this singular exhibition will suspend visitors in an atmospheric state, harnessing the Chapel’s innate magical space as a kind of living keepsake – an architectural memory frozen momentarily outside of time and space.
Passages from Bracewell’s vivid text will be brought to life as a recorded sound piece, voiced by actor Paul Kaye, who was a student at Harrow School of Art during the period the book is set. This is accompanied by a new composition from composer and piano inventor Sarah Nicolls created on her radically modified upright grand piano. Her celebrated Inside-Out Piano will be dramatically installed before the Chapel’s marble altar.
Bristol-based artist Matthew Healey will reflect on the Chapel itself as a symbol of a vanishing London. Drawing on his expertise as a prop-maker, he is crafting a scale model of the Chapel as it stood after the demolition of the Middlesex Hospital – enshrined within an oversized snowglobe.
Alongside this, the London-based artist and filmmaker Sal Pittman will bring her cinematic, site-responsive approach to the exhibition, designing a series of unique vignettes within the audio environment.
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’s approach to curating – most recently seen in The Horror Show!, a blockbuster exhibition at Somerset House – draws heavily on their experience as storytellers and filmmakers, offering a bold, unconventional approach to contemporary exhibition-making.
Continuing their long-term collaboration, audio design will be led by Raj Patel at Arup, with Joseph Digerness and Matthew Lomax, bringing their unique combination of skills in acoustics and spatial sound design to craft the sonic experience with Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.
Souvenir will be followed by two further exhibitions curated by the artists: Miseris Succurrere Disco, from 6 – 25 March 2026 and Middlesex Hospital Blues, from 16 October – 18 November 2026.
Broken English, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s extraordinary new documentary film, made about and with Marianne Faithfull, will be released in the UK in early 2026. It features George MacKay, Tilda Swinton, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Suki Waterhouse, Beth Orton and Courtney Love, Zawe Ashton and Sophia di Martino.
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ABOUT
Artists, BAFTA Nominated Directors and Curators in Residence at Fitzrovia Chapel
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard are London based artists and BAFTA nominated film directors working across contemporary art, film, installation, performance, sound, documentary and television drama. Collaborating since meeting at Goldsmiths in the mid 1990s, they have built an internationally recognised practice that moves between gallery exhibitions and cinematic storytelling.
Their work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in major public collections including Tate and the British Government Art Collection. Known for their immersive and interdisciplinary approach, Forsyth and Pollard frequently bring together music, literature, performance and visual art to create powerful multi sensory experiences.
Their debut feature film, 20,000 Days on Earth, won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival and received nominations from BAFTA and the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2015, they were awarded the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director at the British Independent Film Awards. Alongside their film work, they have collaborated with leading musicians and were co curators of the major exhibition The Horror Show at Somerset House.
In 2026, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard were appointed as the inaugural Curators in Residence at Fitzrovia Chapel in central London. This significant annual initiative invited them to devise a programme of immersive exhibitions responding to the chapel’s unique architectural, historical and spiritual context. Across the year, their exhibitions transformed Fitzrovia Chapel into a series of resonant and atmospheric environments, challenging the conventions of the traditional white wall gallery and deepening the chapel’s cultural programme.
Through film, installation and curatorial practice, Forsyth and Pollard continue to shape contemporary exhibition making in the UK, creating ambitious projects that explore storytelling, memory, music and collective experience.
