Cardion Arts and ICA present Cardion Nights: Queer Performance in aid of akt on 20th March at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London.

Returning to the ICA for a second year, this one-night-only event will feature new work by an incredible line-up of performers and writers including Wet Mess, Nando Messias, Travis Alabanza, Adam Christensen, and Emily Pope.

LA -based artist machine will also be selling their hand- crafted t-shirts and other queer merchandise on the night. The programme embodies Cardion Arts’ ongoing commitment to nurturing artists, amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices, and creating joyful, welcoming, thought-provoking spaces that celebrate queer creativity and foster a sense of belonging.

Curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley and Katie Della-Valle, the evening will focus on the transformative potential of queer performance, while raising vital funds for akt – the only UK charity dedicated to supporting queer and trans young people experiencing homelessness. Gemma Rolls-Bentley said: “Following last year’s sold-out event, which was such a special night that we’ll all remember forever, we’re delighted to return to the ICA for the next edition of Cardion Nights. This one-night event, featuring a programme of super exciting performers who will make you laugh, cry, and dance, is a call for inclusivity, compassion, and the transformative power of performance. At a time when community feels more important than ever, these artists come together to present a very special night of celebration, solidarity and fundraising for akt”.

Event Highlights:

Wet Mess & Nando Messias will present their new performance piece Trollied: Two freaks and a shopping trolley, getting trollied. Developed by Wet Mess in collaboration with Nando Messias whilst in residency at Somerset House Studios.

Award winning writer, theatre maker and performer, Travis Alabanza, will be reading from ‘None of the Above’ and sharing new writing from upcoming projects.

Poetry and music from Adam Christensen.

And London based artist Emily Pope will present BUST, a series of audiovisual vignettes, considering the economy through the lens of satirical memoir.

Event information:
• Friday, 20th March 2026 – 7pm-10pm
• The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
• This event is 18+, general admission, standing.
• Free (unwaged), £12 (standard ticket) £18 (ticket + akt donation)
• This event is 18+, general admission, standing.
• This event may involve nudity
• This event may contain the use of haze, fog and flashing lights.
• ICA has a small, raised platform to accommodate wheelchair users or others who require a chair.

About Cardion Arts:

Cardion Arts is a not-for-profit organisation that champions LGBTQIA+ artists through a vibrant programme of exhibitions, performances, workshops and events. They create joyful, welcoming and thought-provoking spaces which celebrate queer creativity and foster a sense of belonging. At the core of their work is a commitment to supporting artists, nurturing their practice, and building community. Their annual programmes also raise vital funds for akt, the UK’s only charity dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ young people facing homelessness. http://www.cardionarts.org

Curators:

Gemma Rolls-Bentley has been at the forefront of contemporary art for two decades, working passionately to champion diversity in the field. Her debut book Queer Art; From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between is a Lambda Literary Award finalist and has been highlighted as a must-read by Them, Dazed, Timeout, The Guardian, Cultured and the FT. Her curatorial practice amplifies the work of female and queer artists and provides a platform for art that explores LGBTQIA+ identity. Gemma has curated for a range of international galleries and institutions. Current exhibitions include Sea State at Wolterton, Norfolk (on until Spring 2026) and She Sells Seashells at the Alice Austen House, NY (on until 21st February 2026). Gemma has taught at numerous institutions including the Royal College of Art, the Glasgow School of Art, and Goldsmiths, and was a juror for the 2025 John Moore’s Painting Prize. She sits on the Courtauld Association Committee and the Leslie Lohman Museum Acquisitions Committee. The forthcoming publication Art Essentials: Queer Art, coauthored with Mollie Barnes, will be published by Thames & Hudson in April 2026.

Katie Della-Valle is a London-based artist, curator and creative producer with 15 years of experience working internationally with galleries, museums and non-profit art institutions. She has recently worked with Auto Italia, Wolterton, Cardion Arts and the Museum of Transology. Her painting practice examines the mechanics of power, masculinity, control and collapse, often approached through bathos, absurdity and mediated collective memory. Her research interests inform both strands of her work, foregrounding questions of representation, access and queer-led approaches to cultural production.

Artist bios & performance notes:

Wet Mess is a wet mess, horny for your confusion. Let it all out and guess again at the insecure balding white man/pussy prince/alien baby. Have a lollygag, think about your fantasy flesh suits, call me sweet prince, and remember Roger in a robe. Choose to make some silly campy decisions, with all the hairy thems and dykey men. All we really wanna do is strip for the stripper and drive her home with the dog.

Nando Messias’ work straddles performance art, dance and theatre. Their performances combine beautiful images with a fierce critique of gender, visibility and violence. Nando has performed at prestigious venues such as the Royal Court, The Gate, Hayward Gallery, V&A, Tate Britain, Roundhouse, Royal Vauxhall Tavern and ICA, among other spaces across the UK and internationally.

Together Wet Mess and Nando Messias will perform Trollied: Two gender freaks and a shopping trolley, getting trollied. Brother/sister from another mother/mister. It always starts with the shoes. Being mothers, and lovers, and friends and boys and girls…We’ve been called so many names, sometimes we don’t know what to call ourselves – but Nancy says that’s the whole point – to be confusing. Glamour on the edge of sanity. fcking consuming, f*cking and consuming. Filling all the empty holes. Purge and spit, gagging on our anger. Gagging for it. What a gag! We eat and eat, repeat and repeat until the soft animal of our bodies love what it loves. When it falls apart, we spill in the joint imagination. Fabulous projection or fleshy insistence. Thank you for making me exhale. Here is your princess, here is the horizon. This is a prayer for failure.

Travis Alabanza is an award-winning writer, theatre maker and performer. Their book None of the Above was a waterstones bestseller, winner of the Jhalak Literary Prize and named in TIME MAGAZINE’S TOP 100 BOOKS of 2023. They have also had numerous theatre shows, including Burgerz and Overflow – winning the total theatre award and shortlisted for the carol tambor award.

Adam Christensen is a multidisciplinary artist based in London, whose work is primarily realized through textiles, music, and installation, blurring the boundaries between everyday life and fiction. Based on his immediate experiences, coloured by the theatricality of every day, the spectacle of domesticity, chance encounters, and emotional and physical dramas, Christensen conveys these experiences through his performances. A primary concern of Christensen’s practice is the construction and representation of space, and what ‘activates’ that space – the unfolding narrative of heartbreak, desire, memory, and identity. He forms a ‘stage’ from which he interacts with the audience and can edit the narrative, often by singing with the accordion and reading short stories, adding layers to a story in a process of continuous development.

Emily Pope is an artist living and working in London. She works in film, sound, printmaking and writing. She is interested in series making, and has been making The Sitcom Show, a failed sitcom recording life under austerity measures in the UK, since 2016. Her research explores a history of experimental broadcast media with a focus on humour and satire, queer intersectional feminism, political rhetoric + class politics. Solo and group presentations include: Karst; Plymouth, Southwark Park Galleries; London, SARA’s; New York, Quench Gallery; Margate, Ginny on Frederick, Sundy; London, Wishing Arts Centre; Cambridge, The Box Museum; Plymouth, V.O Curations; London, Peak Gallery; London, Paradise Works; Manchester, The White Pube Residency, The Royal Standard; Liverpool, Hester Gallery; NYC, VI VII; Oslo, Auto Italia; London. Her writing has been published by Butalo Zine, Bittersweet Review, Elephant Magazine, Sticky Fingers Publishing, The Freud Museum, Bookwork’s, Arcadia Missa and Montez Press. In 2023 Pope was selected as an awardee of the second edition of the LOEWEFOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award. She is the director of Montez Press, and co-programmes the London broadcast stream for Montez Press Radio.

*Emily Pope will present BUST, a series of audiovisual vignettes, considering the economy through the lens of satirical memoir. Drawing on the character of the stand-up comic and visuals from karaoke lyric videos, this instalment looks at the indie sleaze era.

About ICA:

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is London’s leading space for contemporary culture. They commission, produce and present new work in film, music, performance and the visual arts by today’s most progressive artists. In their landmark home on The Mall in central London, they invite artists and audiences to interrogate what it means to live in our world today, with a genre-fluid programme that challenges the past, questions the present and confronts the future. They are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment that encourages dialogue and debate, recognising that ditering viewpoints are essential to the advancement of contemporary arts and culture. The ICA is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. https://www.ica.art/

About akt:

akt has been providing routes to safe housing, support and secure futures for LGBTQ+ young people since 1989. They are a UK-wide charity with centres in four major cities. akt exists to give 16–25- year-olds who are LGBTQ+ and at risk of, or experiencing homelessness or a hostile living environment, the support they need to thrive. They support LGBTQ+ young people by providing routes into safe, atordable, long-term housing, as well as actions around employability, mental health, community building, youth engagement and healthcare. https://www.akt.org.