7 Bridges

Walter’s arts-led regeneration project has the aim of breathing life back into a long-neglected area of South East London. Taking the six bridges visible from the centre of Loughborough Junction, the proposal is to explore themes of journey, reflecting the international inhabitants of the Junction. Artists from the local area will work with those from other continents. To date, two of the seven bridges have been completed.

The bridge identified as a pilot project is on Cambria Road and the chosen theme, reflecting the name of the road, was the Cambrian Explosion. This is the geological era where the fossil record shows that evolution of life on earth was at its most accelerated. Thirty-two artists contributed artworks representing fossils, from the past, present and future. The path under the bridge has been transformed from a place people avoided to a preferred route, where children and adults are engaged by the artworks, conversations are struck and new alliances happen naturally. The bridge has also been the site of community festivals, and the artworks are linked to literary and musical projects which also form part of the 7 Bridges project.

The idea for the remaining bridges is to link each one with a different continent. The theme for the second bridge was ‘Mama Africa’ reflecting humankind’s evolutionary journey out of Africa, and the current scientific thinking that everyone alive today can be traced through their mitochondrial DNA to a single woman in Africa. To date nine artists have collaborated on the first phase of this bridge. Further funding is being sought to complete the bridge which will include artworks by a further sixteen artists, five of whom will be from Sub Saharan Africa.

The next bridge will be the European bridge which will take the map of Europe and in each country, break it into every area which is calling for its own separate nationhood. Marking the scars and bruises of wars inflicted throughout the centuries, we will work with an artist from each country and take each map in its own unique direction.

7 Bridges music

Check out the original music tracks created to date for the project to date