Professional mourners will grieve together in public as part of major artwork

A new exhibition by artist Taryn Simon will see professional mourners from around the world gather in London to perform grieving rituals.

The mourners have been invited from 11 countries worldwide, from Azerbaijan to Venezuela, to partake in Simon’s first major performance work in the UK.

An Occupation of Loss will be performed in a cavernous space underneath Islington Green between April 17-28.

In this unusual setting, mourners from Albania will recite “uncried words”, those from Venezuela will contemplate the cosmic journey of the soul, and Yezidi laments will address ideas of displacement and exile.

“Loss yields an emotional space and a vulnerability in which individuals seem to operate without artifice,” said Simon. “I wanted to look at the potential of this space, and the mechanics of it - even the ways it can be programmed or performed.

Co-comissioned by Artangel and the Park Avenue Armory, the exhibition has come to the capital following a sell-out season in New York.