The Absolute enriched the world previously developed for Ben Judd’s exhibition at De Montfort University in 2018. Drawing on Leicester’s rich history, including the 20th century immigration of dispossessed groups, the exhibition explores a fictional lost community, the Welfarers, that once occupied the area now inhabited by De Montfort University.

The mythos of the community was explored through an opening performance, archival objects and museum pieces, installation and moving image. Judd used this constellation of materials to reveal the characters that form the group’s hierarchy and its factions. The Absolute was an invitation to experience the community’s internal logic, it’s belief system and their history as evidenced through the displays.

Inhabiting a space between theatre and exhibition, The Absolute suggested stories and histories that are not fully narrated. The world of the Welfarers is rooted in Leicester’s history as a centre for textile manufacturing; they took as a central metaphor of their belief system the image of weaving as a process of unification and healing that takes on religious significance. This fictional community could be seen as a reincarnation of a lost sense of unity and cohesion; their desire to mend social rifts is poignant within the current divisive climate of nationalist thinking.

Visual and conceptual links were made between the artefacts in the collections and the stories and histories of actual lost communities. Judd, along with his collaborators, made connections between these disparate elements to form an alternative history that revealed underlying lost narratives between past and present, old and new.

For the realisation of The Absolute, Judd worked with a wide range of collaborators across choreography, musical composition, conducting, costume design and writing.