Ascendance
Date
Summer + Autumn 2026
Photo Credits
Berwick Parade by Jenifer
Charlton, Keppels Column
by Matthew Rosier & Luton
Henge by Roo Lewis
Award-winning artist Matthew Rosier will work with leading socially engaged public art organisation, UP Projects, to create a highly ambitious participatory artwork using large-scale projection, newly recorded oral histories woven with nature recordings within an original music score, and community co-creation to explore Barnet’s role as a place of arrival and a home for both humans and the non human. The final installation will create a visual spectacle that is accessible and grounded in the lived experiences of Barnet’s communities.
Rosier is known for creating large-scale public artworks developed through close collaboration with the communities and places they inhabit, working across film, sound, projection, and performance. This new artistic commission, Ascendance, will bring this approach to Barnet, translating the lived experiences of movement, migration, and belonging into a powerful public art installation.
Ascendance will be unveiled in November 2026, during a free multi-day arts and culture festival forming the celebratory finale of the Light + Flight programme.
"As an artist drawn to how places and people came to be, it’s so exciting to be creating an artwork that will make this visible. Barnet to me represents what I love about my home city: the multitudes of stories, journeys and landscapes that somehow hold each other together. This is what we will come together to celebrate in Ascendance.”
(Matthew Rosier)
Open Call: Journeys to Barnet
Artist Matthew Rosier UP Projects are looking for ten participants to share the story of how they came to live in Barnet.
These stories will become part of Ascendance, a new public artwork in Barnet, and the headline commission of the borough’s year-long cultural programme, Light and Flight.
This is a paid opportunity, with a fee of £125 to record your story. We will also support your travel expenses.
We are looking for people who:
Have a story of themselves or their family coming to live in Barnet
Can attend a one-hour long recording session in Barnet between on either 18 or 26 July 2026.
We are particularly interested in hearing from older residents who can share personal or family journeys to Barnet.
We also warmly welcome stories from those who have more recently arrived and may be younger. You might speak about a journey across countries, generations, or a more recent move.
No prior experience in recording or creative activities is required.
About the Project
These stories will be recorded by sound artist and musician Greg White in Barnet and woven together into a new soundscape combining the voices of Barnet residents, local migratory bird recordings, and music.
This soundscape will accompany a large-scale projection artwork, where 100 video portraits of younger residents from across the borough will appear to float in mid-air — collectively reflecting the living legacy of these stories.
Each final story will be edited to approximately 3–4 minutes. As each story is heard, multiple portraits will appear and dissolve, celebrating a wide range of communities and backgrounds across Barnet.
The artwork will be displayed publicly in Barnet this November as part of a free multi-day arts and culture festival.
How to Apply
Please send an audio or video recording of yourself telling your story by midnight, 7 June 2026 via one of the following:
WhatsApp: 07448 816535
Facebook Messenger: www.facebook.com/upprojectsarts
Via this online form: https://upprojects.aidaform.com/journeys
If you would prefer, you can also send a short-written version of your story on the online form along with your contact details and we will follow up with you.
Recording your story
If you would like support recording your story, or would prefer to speak to someone first, please contact zoe@upprojects.com
We are excited to hear whatever story that you would like to tell, but this could include:
Where you, or your family, came from (within the UK, or overseas)
How you or your family came to live in Barnet – your journey (this may be within your lifetime or across multiple generations)
How it has become your home
Deadline: Midnight, 7 June 2026.
About the Artist
Matthew Rosier is a London-based artist who makes public artworks by spending time in places and working closely with the people who live there. His projects often take place in everyday public spaces, using film, sound, projection, performance, and spatial design to create shared moments and temporary public spaces.
While some projects are large in scale, they remain grounded in everyday life and local connection. Rather than presenting a single story or message, Rosier’s work allows moments, voices, and experiences to sit alongside one another, without being shaped into a neat conclusion. His background in architecture continues to inform how he thinks about public space, time, and long-term collaboration.
Rosier’s work has been installed in public spaces in London, Paris, Austin, and Tokyo, and commissioned by local authorities, as well as institutions such as Somerset House, Historic Royal Palaces, the National Landscapes Association, British Council Japan, and the UK Space Agency.
His work has been presented at the Design Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, nominated for the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year, and awarded the Active Public Space Award, the London Contemporary Art Prize Public Vote Award, and the Museum + Heritage Innovation Award. His projects have also been featured on BBC and ITV.
About UP Projects
UP Projects is the UK’s leading public art organisation specialising in socially engaged public art commissioning. They bring world class artists out of the gallery and into public spaces to create new work with communities across the UK and beyond. Their work is always responsive to context often activating unexpected corners of the public realm.
They initiate projects that respond to some of the most pressing issues of our time as well as work with partners to create extraordinary, ambitious and risk-taking work that communities can shape, actively participate in and relate to.
Light + Flight is presented by Art in Barnet. It is supported by a Cultural Impact Award, part of the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture programme. It is made possible with additional support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England.
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We'd love to hear from you, whether you want
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Presented by
Date
Summer + Autumn 2026
Photo Credits
Berwick Parade by Jenifer
Charlton, Keppels Column
by Matthew Rosier & Luton
Henge by Roo Lewis
Award-winning artist Matthew Rosier will work with leading socially engaged public art organisation, UP Projects, to create a highly ambitious participatory artwork using large-scale projection, newly recorded oral histories woven with nature recordings within an original music score, and community co-creation to explore Barnet’s role as a place of arrival and a home for both humans and the non human. The final installation will create a visual spectacle that is accessible and grounded in the lived experiences of Barnet’s communities.
Rosier is known for creating large-scale public artworks developed through close collaboration with the communities and places they inhabit, working across film, sound, projection, and performance. This new artistic commission, Ascendance, will bring this approach to Barnet, translating the lived experiences of movement, migration, and belonging into a powerful public art installation.
Ascendance will be unveiled in November 2026, during a free multi-day arts and culture festival forming the celebratory finale of the Light + Flight programme.
"As an artist drawn to how places and people came to be, it’s so exciting to be creating an artwork that will make this visible. Barnet to me represents what I love about my home city: the multitudes of stories, journeys and landscapes that somehow hold each other together. This is what we will come together to celebrate in Ascendance.”
(Matthew Rosier)
Open Call: Journeys to Barnet
Artist Matthew Rosier UP Projects are looking for ten participants to share the story of how they came to live in Barnet.
These stories will become part of Ascendance, a new public artwork in Barnet, and the headline commission of the borough’s year-long cultural programme, Light and Flight.
This is a paid opportunity, with a fee of £125 to record your story. We will also support your travel expenses.
We are looking for people who:
Have a story of themselves or their family coming to live in Barnet
Can attend a one-hour long recording session in Barnet between on either 18 or 26 July 2026.
We are particularly interested in hearing from older residents who can share personal or family journeys to Barnet.
We also warmly welcome stories from those who have more recently arrived and may be younger. You might speak about a journey across countries, generations, or a more recent move.
No prior experience in recording or creative activities is required.
About the Project
These stories will be recorded by sound artist and musician Greg White in Barnet and woven together into a new soundscape combining the voices of Barnet residents, local migratory bird recordings, and music.
This soundscape will accompany a large-scale projection artwork, where 100 video portraits of younger residents from across the borough will appear to float in mid-air — collectively reflecting the living legacy of these stories.
Each final story will be edited to approximately 3–4 minutes. As each story is heard, multiple portraits will appear and dissolve, celebrating a wide range of communities and backgrounds across Barnet.
The artwork will be displayed publicly in Barnet this November as part of a free multi-day arts and culture festival.
How to Apply
Please send an audio or video recording of yourself telling your story by midnight, 19 June 2026 via one of the following:
WhatsApp: 07448 816535
Facebook Messenger: www.facebook.com/upprojectsarts
Via this online form: https://upprojects.aidaform.com/journeys
If you would prefer, you can also send a short-written version of your story on the online form along with your contact details and we will follow up with you.
Recording your story
If you would like support recording your story, or would prefer to speak to someone first, please contact zoe@upprojects.com
We are excited to hear whatever story that you would like to tell, but this could include:
Where you, or your family, came from (within the UK, or overseas)
How you or your family came to live in Barnet – your journey (this may be within your lifetime or across multiple generations)
How it has become your home
Deadline: Midnight, 19 June 2026.
Recording your story
If you would like support recording your story, or would prefer to speak to someone first, please contact zoe@upprojects.com
We are excited to hear whatever story that you would like to tell, but this could include:
Where you, or your family, came from (within the UK, or overseas)
How you or your family came to live in Barnet – your journey (this may be within your lifetime or across multiple generations)
How it has become your home
Deadline: Midnight, 19 June 2026.
About the Artist
Matthew Rosier is a London-based artist who makes public artworks by spending time in places and working closely with the people who live there. His projects often take place in everyday public spaces, using film, sound, projection, performance, and spatial design to create shared moments and temporary public spaces.
While some projects are large in scale, they remain grounded in everyday life and local connection. Rather than presenting a single story or message, Rosier’s work allows moments, voices, and experiences to sit alongside one another, without being shaped into a neat conclusion. His background in architecture continues to inform how he thinks about public space, time, and long-term collaboration.
Rosier’s work has been installed in public spaces in London, Paris, Austin, and Tokyo, and commissioned by local authorities, as well as institutions such as Somerset House, Historic Royal Palaces, the National Landscapes Association, British Council Japan, and the UK Space Agency.
His work has been presented at the Design Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, nominated for the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year, and awarded the Active Public Space Award, the London Contemporary Art Prize Public Vote Award, and the Museum + Heritage Innovation Award. His projects have also been featured on BBC and ITV.
About UP Projects
UP Projects is the UK’s leading public art organisation specialising in socially engaged public art commissioning. They bring world class artists out of the gallery and into public spaces to create new work with communities across the UK and beyond. Their work is always responsive to context often activating unexpected corners of the public realm.
They initiate projects that respond to some of the most pressing issues of our time as well as work with partners to create extraordinary, ambitious and risk-taking work that communities can shape, actively participate in and relate to.
Light + Flight is presented by Art in Barnet. It is supported by a Cultural Impact Award, part of the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture programme. It is made possible with additional support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England.
Want (even more) Light + Flight?
Sign up to our newsletter and follow the journey as it unfolds.
Stay Updated
Want (even more) Light + Flight?
Sign up to our newsletter and follow the journey as it unfolds.
Stay Updated
Want (even more) Light + Flight?
We'd love to hear from you, whether you want
to get involved or be kept in the loop!
Stay Updated
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