Season one: October 2005 - July 2006
Introduction
Rational Rec began over coffee at Maison Bertaux in June 2005 when Matthew Shlomowitz, Cecilia Wee and Russell Martin met to talk about the possibility of creating an ongoing, monthly interdisciplinary arts event in London. Although London was at the time well-served by short-run festivals for contemporary classical music, film, visual art and theatre, the founders wanted to create events that combined all of these arts in one place, bringing together artists and audiences who would not normally meet in the same venues.
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club was just then starting to run club nights and alternative arts events, and were approached to gauge their interest. They met the idea enthusiastically and offered their Tuesday night slot, at the start of each month – and Rational Rec was born. A few months later and Rational Rec’s first season was programmed – favours called in, artists overseas asked when they would be in town, artist networks mined for contacts. Run on a shoestring budget with the door take used to pay the acts and artists, season one set the relaxed, friendly yet critically rigorous tone that would follow the programme all the way through.