On Saturday 27 March a special one-day event, COSEY COMPLEX, will take place at London’s ICA.

This event – comprising a day-seminar and a clubnight – is the brainchild of writer Maria Fuso, and was born out of conversations she had with Cosey Fanni Tutti (pictured above).

Artist and musician Cosey (born in Hull, 1951)  is one of the UK underground’s most enduringly iconic figures, best known for her roles in the COUM Transmissions art collective and later Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey. She achieved notoriety in 1976 with the staging of the Prostitution exhibition at the ICA, which featured works based on an appropriated pornographic images of herself (some of these also appeared in Tate Modern’s recent Pop Life show).

Over to the ICA, who commissioned the COSEY COMPLEX, to fill us in on the rationale behind, and aim of, the project:

“‘Cosey'” is an assumed name that has allowed the artist to engage in multiple practices and roles across her life, and today’s event builds on the shared interests of Fusco and Fanni Tutti around language and power relations, exploring the potential of ‘Cosey’ as a working method.

“The event starts with an afternoon session involving a range of artists, writers and other practitioners, who have all been asked to formulate contributions that enact and are inspired by ‘Cosey as Methodology’. While this session involves some of the traditional formats of a conference, such as academic presentations and discussion panels, it also includes experimental responses, investigations and performances.”

Participants in the event include Cosey Fanni Tutti herself, Martin Bax, Gerald Byrne, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Daniela Cascella, Diedrich Diedrichsen, Graham Duff, John Duncan, Anthony Elms, Babak Ghazi, Chris Kraus, Zak Kyes, Clunie Reid and Rob Stone.

The programme concluces with a special edition of Richard Clouston’s long-running party series Cosey Club, featuring DJs sets and performances from the likes of Andrew Weatherall and Fixmer/McCarthy.

Check out Cosey’s recent lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy: