The London Forum | Art in Motion: The Next Cultural Vanguards

In 1824, the political theorist Henri de Saint-Simon borrowed a military term “Avant Garde” and applied it to the arts. Artists, he argued, are the vanguard of society: the fastest, most immediate force for spreading new ideas and remaking the world. He was writing in a moment of profound upheaval; the wreckage of revolution, the dawn of industrialisation, old orders collapsing and new ones not yet formed. A world not so different from our own. Technological, social and economic change are once again transforming how we live and organise culture. Art is evolving fast, embracing digital tools, dissolving boundaries between disciplines and geographies, moving beyond the object and finding new forms across physical and digital space. Institutions are changing too, if more slowly. Theatres, museums and galleries are rethinking what their buildings are for, how they serve communities, and how culture can exist beyond physical walls. How do art and culture relate to Saint-Simon’s notion of being in the vanguard today? This conversation explores how art and cultural institutions are adapting in a moment of upheaval and possibility. How do we build support for the emerging forms of culture shaping the future? Panelists: Tao-Tao Chang, Anastasia Mavrogianni, Tateo Nakajima, Qiu Anxiong, and Kay Watson Chaired by Annette Mees _____________________________________________________ ARTIFACT Futures is a cultural institution taking shape. We are trying to bring a few practices that usually live in separate places — art and collection, interdisciplinary research, publishing, policy, and early-stage support — under a single roof, working together on a set of questions we believe require depth and time to answer well. Our work takes shape through panels, symposiums, public programmes, and other experiments in knowledge and cultural production — each an attempt to open new ways of seeing, making, and building together. At a moment when the forces shaping culture are shifting faster than the language we have to describe them, some conversations cannot wait. On 10 June 2026, as part of the London Tech Week Fringe Programme, ARTIFACT Futures convenes The London Forum - an afternoon and evening of keynotes and panels bringing together scholars, artists, curators, cultural practitioners, and thinkers at the intersection of culture and technology.