Saturday 7th November – Saturday 14th November

Opening night: Saturday 7th November, 6pm-9pm

Open daily 12pm-6pm (except Monday 9th November)

The Production of History 1978 is a site-specific sculptural installation which dramatises a fictional historian’s research into the Leper Chapel, Cambridge, in the late 20th Century. Blending historical fact with esoteric interpretation, the exhibition reflects on how meaning and order is imposed on the past – and how problems in the present come to inform our understanding of history. The work incorporates found and fabricated objects, drawings, sound, text, and video.

The exhibition stages the fictional historian’s office directly within the Leper Chapel, and by doing so opens a dialogue between the building, and how we interpret it. The fictional historian believes that a violent uprising took place in the Leper Chapel in the medieval period, and interprets all the historical evidence he finds to support this claim. This work developed from research into the material and social history of the building. Archival materials relating to the Leper Chapel, including 19th Century antiquarian reports, archaeological objects, and survey drawings, have been used to develop a fictional world of historical misinterpretation, paranoid speculation, and apocalyptic visions.

Please note, there is no car parking at the Chapel itself, but car parking is available on nearby streets. There will not be any toilets available at the Chapel, the nearest public toilet is 300 metres. There is a large step into the Chapel.