Welcome to Wandsworth, the Mayor of London’s London Borough of Culture, presents the European premiere of Carmen, an extraordinary film honouring the life and career of trailblazing Guyanese British actress Dame Carmen Munroe.
Following its world premiere in New York in 2025, Sonia Boyce’s Carmen will be shown for the first time in the UK on 3 March 2026 at a special screening at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens. The 15-minute film will then be free to view from 29 April for three weeks at Battersea Arts Centre. Carmen was commissioned by Wandsworth Council, as part of Welcome to Wandsworth, the Mayor of London’s London Borough of Culture, and funded as part of the programme heritage strand by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Sonia Boyce DBE RA first received public and institutional recognition in the mid-1980s for large-scale pastel works that depicted domestic scenes of Afro-Caribbean life in the UK, drawing upon her own family and childhood experiences. She has since cultivated a broad multidisciplinary practice that explores play, language and pattern, and in 2022 presented Feeling Her Way, an immersive installation and video work commissioned for the British Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. As a long-standing resident of Wandsworth, it is an honour to have her create a new piece of work for Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture year.
In CarmenBoyce celebrates the life and career of trailblazing Guyanese British actress Dame Carmen Munroe, a fellow long-standing Wandsworth resident who reshaped perceptions of Caribbean migrants in the UK through her performances in such West End plays as Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and her roles on popular British television programmes including Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World (1967–1968), The Persuaders (1971–1972) and Desmond’s (1989–1994).
Part portrait, part historical document, Boyce’s two-channel film traces Munroe’s impact as an artist and activist: one screen lingers on Munroe as she watches a montage of her own performances, while the other screen displays significant dates and milestones in her career. The two feeds interweave fact and sentiment, history and personal anecdote, illuminating Munroe’s ambition, tenacity and prowess in her craft, while emphasizing her own voice and perspective.
Carmen was first conceived in 2022 as part of a landmark commission by King Charles III marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush on Britain’s eastern shore. Sonia Boyce was one of several leading contemporary artists invited to create portraits honouring members of the Windrush Generation - Caribbean migrants who arrived in Britain between 1948 and 1971. Despite facing widespread political, economic and social discrimination, these brave individuals played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of postwar Britain. Boyce chose to work with Carmen Munroe and amassed such a wealth of material that she was compelled to develop a more expansive project.
Sonia Boyce said: "It has been one of my career highlights to have had the pleasure of working with the iconic, and simply fabulous, Carmen Munroe. I'm also incredibly proud and honoured to be a part of Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture programme. The programme has been so joyful."
Wandsworth’s year as the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture continues to deliver a programme created with, by and for local people, artists and organisations. Connecting vibrant and diverse communities, events celebrate the borough’s cultural heritage and iconic landmarks by embedding creativity and the wellbeing it engenders into everything. Carmen reflects Welcome to Wandsworth’s wider commitment to celebrating local histories and cultural figures whose stories have shaped the borough and beyond. For Wandsworth, the impact of this ‘Year to Remember’ will reach far beyond its 12 months as London Borough of culture, into the future, leaving a legacy of connection, pride and opportunity.
Kemi Akinola, Deputy Leader of Wandsworth Council, said:"We are honoured to support this exciting work by the renowned artist, Wandsworth resident and fellow Dame Sonia Boyce. Dame Carmen Munroe did so much to inspire and change perceptions during her career and I'm thrilled that her impact on British culture is being recognised in this way, and that her links to Wandsworth are celebrated during our year as London Borough of Culture."
Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said:“Sonia Boyce’s tribute to Dame Carmen Munroe is a brilliant addition to Wandsworth’s year as the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture, which is all about celebrating local talent and inspiring future generations. This special screening of Carmen will be a fitting recognition of Dame Carmen’s contributions to the arts, as we continue to build a better and fairer London for everyone.”