Undershed unveils its first exhibition for 2026: The Everyworld
Posted on Fri 9 Jan
A multimedia jaunt through an exuberant kaleidoscope of family, myth and the creative spirit from award-winning filmmaker and artist Andrew Kötting and daughter, Eden.
“From the remotest pre-human galaxies, he gallivants joyously, accompanied by forefathers, great-grandfathers, deadads. And an always present and always absent daughter. Sometimes he dictates and she inscribes. They are quite an act. They are in this together." Iain Sinclair, writer, filmmaker & friend
Undershed, Bristol’s immersive art gallery from Watershed, is delighted to unveil its first exhibition for 2026, The Everyworld, which will open on Fri 23 Jan and run to Sun 12 April 2026. The exhibition invites audiences into a joyous collision of visions, fragments and memories from award-winning experimental filmmaker Andrew Kötting and his daughter Eden who was born with the rare neurological condition - Joubert Syndrome.
The Everyworld celebrates the extraordinary creative collaboration between father and daughter, bringing together elements from multiple artworks created over the last 25 years. Spanning virtual reality, giant inflatable ‘Deadad’ sculptures, the moving image, detailed sketchbooks and more, the exhibition is an archaeological deep dig into the creative heart of Kötting family life, celebrating the creative spirit, grief and togetherness.
Two artworks sit at the heart of the exhibition. A new edition of groundbreaking immersive VR experience The Tell Tale Rooms, a 15-minute father-daughter collaboration exploring Louvyre, their Pyrenean family farmhouse. Blending animation, archive material, and live action, it celebrates the wonders of Eden’s rare syndrome and her distinctive fantastical world.
In the Wake of a Deadad, sees two towering inflatables of Andrew’s father and grandfather - the ‘Deadads’ - accompanied by a poetic looping film of a journey taken with the inflatables to places of family significance. From the family grave in Germany to nieces kissing the inflatable ‘Deadad’ in a brother’s garden and trips to the Faroe Islands and Mexico, the piece is a powerful and surreal reflection on grief, memory and the tangled relationships many of us have with close family members.
Accompanying these pieces are a curated selection of further short films and artworks from two decades of shared artistic practice, a bricolage of sculptures, costumes, objects, and books created by Andrew and Eden.
Andrew Kötting says,
"Eden and myself have been working together for a very long time. Eden is my daughter, first born and last born - and the artwork that I have been making since the get-go has always involved family, friends and fortuity. It has been multifarious, experimental and somewhat shoddy. I have found it hard to focus on any particular medium or genre. I am a restless spirit. When Eden was born in 1988 and we were told that her life expectancy was precarious at best I felt a need to document our lives together in any way possible; journals, sketchbooks, photography and a super 8 diary. The Everyworld installation is a fragmented overview of some of the work that Eden and I have been making together with our extended family for over thirty years. From animated drawings, paintings, bookworks and costumes to feature-length documentaries, VR experiences and much more besides....”
Amy Rose, Lead Curator, Undershed says,
“It's a deep honour to welcome Andrew and Eden Kötting to Undershed with The Everyworld. I have been a dedicated fan of the ingenious Kötting world of creativity for a very long time - and this exhibition brings together a series of pieces that have not been staged in this way before. At Watershed, across the whole building, we have been exploring the idea of home - and the Köttings take this frame and turn it inside out and back to front in their own idiosyncratic style. Come along for an irreverent, deep and inspiring ride through many formats and ideas."
Alongside The Everyworld installation and exhibition in the Undershed gallery, Watershed will also be presenting a series of the duo’s films in the cinema from 12 March 2026 including Mapping Perception, a series of short films, By Ourselves starring Toby Jones and The Memory Blocks, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2025. The screenings will be followed by Q&A’s with Andrew Kötting.
Find out more about The Everyworld season, and book your tickets here.