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Floods and art, Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries, Tom Rosenthal

The damage flooding does to art, and how floods have been portrayed; the art being created for the new medical galleries at the Science Museum; musician Tom Roshenthal performs

With Italy set to declare a state of national emergency in Venice after the Unesco world heritage site was engulfed by a 6ft 'acqua alta', flooding its historic basilica and many other sites of great historic interest, art critic Jonathan Jones discusses the cultural significance of the imminent threat from flood and fire and what is being done to protect the city’s invaluable architectural and artistic heritage. And John Wilson talks to artist Katie Paterson about the metaphorical representation of environmental disasters in art and the responsibility amongst artists in raising awareness of current climatical concerns.

On Saturday the world’s largest galleries devoted to the history of medicine open at the Science Museum in London. Surprisingly, perhaps, there is a lot of art involved in medicine, with imaginatively-designed sculptural devices and equipment. Major new artworks have been commissioned for the new galleries too. John Wilson talks to the artists Marc Quinn, Studio Roso and Eleanor Crook, as well as Sir Ian Blatchford, the Science Museum’s director.

Tom Rosenthal is the musician whose songs are used on the new Radio 4 podcast Tunnel 29, the extraordinary true story of the escape tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall in 1962. Tom performs How This Came To Be live and discusses building a successful pop career outside of the mainstream music industry.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Jerome Weatherald

Available now

28 minutes

Floods and art

Floods and art

Images:

Main image above: St Mark's Square, Venice after the flood on 13 November 2019.

Image credit: Marco Bertorelli/AFP via Getty Images

Image to the left: , Vatnajökull (the sound of), 2007/8

Photo © Ian Evans, 2007

Courtesy of the Artist and Ingleby, EdinburghÌý

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Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries

Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries

at the Science Museum, London, open on 16 November 2019.

Image: Marc Quinn's statue The Self-Conscious Gene in the Medicine and Bodies Gallery

Image credit: Science Museum Group

Tom Rosenthal

Tom Rosenthal

The album Z-Sides by Ìýis available now.

Tom Rosenthal's songs are featured at the end of the Tunnel 29 podcast.

Image: Tom Rosenthal

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  • Thu 14 Nov 2019 19:15

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