Architecture in Motion: Floating Architectural Spaces brings Music, Memory and Baroque Imagination to Boston Manor House
Tomorrow, 13 September, British tenor Kieran White leaves the concert hall for the intimate surroundings of Boston Manor House, where he joins lutenist Daniel Murphy for an evening of 17th-century song and lute music exploring love, sleep and silence through masterpieces from Italy, France and England.
The recital forms part of Floating Architectural Spaces, an exhibition by artistic duo Alec & Franz (Alec Boreham and Francesco Vitali), whose work occupies a distinctive territory between architecture, visual art and opera.
Through drawing, digital technology, sound and installation, the artists transform historic buildings into immersive environments that invite audiences to experience architecture not as fixed structures, but as living spaces shaped by memory, music and imagination.
Boreham and Vitali share a deep appreciation of classical art, architecture and music. Working together as Alec & Franz, they use meticulous architectural drawings as the starting point for installations that dissolve the boundaries between past and present. Particularly inspired by the drama and ornamentation of the Baroque era, they create works that reimagine familiar monuments as fluid, dreamlike worlds suspended in time and space.
Following its 2024 debut at Bermondsey Project Space, Floating Architectural Spaces arrives in west London in an expanded site-specific version created for Boston Manor House. Built in 1623 under the direction of Lady Mary Reade and reopened in 2023 after an extensive restoration, the Jacobean mansion provides an ideal setting for a project rooted in architectural history.
The exhibition includes original graphite drawings, floating prints, large-scale panels and interactive installations. A new series inspired directly by the exterior of Boston Manor House transforms one room into a contemplative visual sanctuary, while another explores the relationship between architecture and music.
Central to the project is the artists’ fascination with the parallels between the Baroque period and our technological age. Just as scientific innovation shaped the architecture, theatre and music of the 17th century, today’s digital tools are opening new possibilities for artistic creation. Alec & Franz use contemporary technology not to replace craftsmanship, but to extend it, creating immersive environments from painstakingly hand-drawn studies of significant buildings: “Our intention with this artistic project is to transform the materials that make up our cities, and the monuments that characterise them, into something different, something light.”
Many of the buildings featured in the exhibition hold personal significance for the pair. Among them is Cremona’s Teatro Ponchielli, where they collaborated with Kieran White on La musica e le ragioni dell’anima, created for the 2023 Monteverdi Festival. Recreated here as an immersive audio-visual installation, the work forms one of the exhibition’s centrepieces and reflects the artists’ continuing engagement with opera.
The connection is unsurprising. Alec & Franz first came to wider attention through their visual work for opera productions, including Rameau’s Castor et Pollux at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, which earned them the 2022 Jan Kiepura Award. Since then, their collaboration has evolved into an independent artistic practice where architecture, image, sound and performance intersect.
Tomorrow’s recital offers visitors a chance to encounter that intersection firsthand. White, one of the most exciting British tenors working in Baroque repertoire today, has recently appeared with the New York Philharmonic and Teatro Real in Madrid, and is set to make forthcoming debuts at La Scala and The Royal Opera. Opera Magazine described his Monteverdi Festival performance of La musica e le ragioni dell’anima as “a masterclass in Baroque affect”.
He is joined by Daniel Murphy, recently appointed Historical Lute Professor at the Royal College of Music. An award-winning specialist in Renaissance and Baroque plucked-string instruments, Murphy has built a reputation as one of the most promising young continuo players in Britain.
A further strand of the exhibition brings architecture into dialogue with fashion through a collaboration with JCA London Fashion Academy, founded by Professor Jimmy Choo. Students have created work in response to Floating Architectural Spaces, exploring the interconnected relationship between architectural design, visual art and fashion.
At its heart, however, the exhibition remains a celebration of architecture itself. Whether depicting iconic landmarks or lesser-known buildings such as Boston Manor House, Alec & Franz seek to reveal the emotional traces left by those who designed, built and inhabited these spaces. Their monuments may appear to float free from geography and history, but they remain firmly anchored in human experience.
Floating Architectural Spaces runs at Boston Manor House until 25 October 2027 and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 12pm to 5pm.
Sweet Oblivion Recital with Kieran White and Daniel Murphy – 13 September 2027
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
