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The Shock of the Old
2026 Off-site Programme

April
Gavin Wade’s L -is for Landscape
Harun Morrison

May
David Blamey, Schirin Kretschmann, Matthew Cornford.
Andee Collard
Dean Kenning

June
Angelina May Davis
Andrew Lacon
Hilary Jack
Saulius Leonavicius’ Old Europe 
with guests Tom Cardew, Jammes Winnet, Jez Dolan, Craig

2025

NewsRoom News on Demand
The Myth of Barter
Minor Attractions
Village Greens . . 
DreamLife
Stop the Chaos Turn the Page
The Nasty Book

2024

Preserving Hole
Dreaming Upon a White Stone
More News About Flowers
Crate on Pallet 
Tree & Leaf
Imagine What We Can Do Tomorrow
Hyper_DEFLATION
P.A.L
Pressing
Songs of the Modern World
Cool - Warm - Hot
Fayre Share Fayre
NHS
Abstract Kab - Radical Plagerism
Council of Voices : Vanley Burke
Collected Domestic Conceptualism

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London
April - June
2026
THE
SHOCK
OF
THE
OLD
c/o The
Florence
Trust



Shock of the Old is a three-month curatorial programme of exhibitions and discursive events presented by Division of Labour at The Florence Trust that examines the enduring cultural and political  of “the old” within contemporary life. 

The programme considers how appeals to the past operate not only as forms of affective attachment, but as ideological strategies through which stability, belonging, and authority are imagined. In particular, it situates nostalgia within the contemporary rise of populist movements, which frequently mobilise idealised visions of “Old Europe” or “Old England” to legitimise regressive political projects and to frame the present as a period of decline requiring restoration.

The programme also marks Division of Labour’s return to working in London following a sustained period of activity in Manchester. This return is framed as a critical encounter with the London art economy, foregrounding questions of location, circulation, and value within a shifting cultural infrastructure, rather than as a straightforward narrative of return or reintegration.

Conceptually, Shock of the Old re-engages Division of Labour’s longstanding concerns with labour, class, and alienation. It approaches the recurrent claim that “the old was better” as symptomatic of contemporary conditions of precarity, social fragmentation, and the erosion of collective forms of life. Here, the past functions as a stabilising fiction through which present insecurities are displaced and managed. 

Across exhibitions and public discussions, the programme examines how inherited cultural forms and traditions persist and are reactivated within the present, often reproducing hierarchies of exclusion and authority. Rather than recuperating the past, Shock of the Old treats “the old” as a site of unresolved tension within contemporary social and political formations. Division of Labour extends heartfelt thanks to the Florence Trust and Andy Wicks for the generous use of the gallery.

*Division of Labour is returning to London after five years embedded in a studio complex in Salford; Paradise Works is an integral part of the growing contemporary art ecology of the North West. Our presence across both London and Salford, reflects a historical dialogue between the intellectual ferment of Islington, where Marx spent time in exile, and Greater Manchester, whose industrial landscape shaped Engels’ observations and the early foundations of Marxist theory.
April
OLD
SKOOL
The Florence Trust
Holy Trinity, Cloudsey Square
Islington, London

Old Skool is a round table discussion about art 
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