Tai Shani returns to Somerset House with The Spell or The Dream, a new commission for the 25th-birthday Summer programme.

The Spell is a colossal sculptural vitrine accompanied by a newly commissioned soundscape by composer, producer and double bassist Maxwell Sterling. A luminous figure slumbers within a glass coffin that rests on a stepped plinth inviting views to sit, gathering and observe the suspended fairytale figure.

Running alongside the sculpture is The Dream, a 24/7 radio broadcast co-curated by Shani and streamed globally via Channel. It gathers artists, thinkers and academics, among them Yanis Varoufakis, Brian Eno, Hannah Black and The Palestinian Sound Archive, to imagine hopeful futures together. New commissions from Cécile B Evans, Moor Mother and Cecilia Vicuña sit beside archival works, while listeners are invited to submit their own dreams for live interpretation. Nothing is stored on demand; the works exist only in the moment you tune in, or disappear back into the ether.

Beyond surface, the work pulses with a belief in dreaming as collective power. Live talks, Friday Lates, and family events fold alongside, turning the courtyard into a site for ideas, ritual, and surprise.

The Spell or The Dream invites us not just to witness but to gather, to think, to imagine otherwise. In its stillness, it reminds us that the most radical act might be daring to dream together.

From 8 August to 14 September, the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, Somerset House