David Bowie is…

Last night the V&A hosted a live cinema experience to mark the end of the phenomenally successful exhibition.

Live coverage of the exhibition’s grand finale was broadcast in over 200 cinemas nationwide, from Inverness to Norwich.

Exhibition curators Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh hosted the celebration. They gave the V&A’s invited audience of 200 and everyone watching live a unique insight into Bowie’s career and his incredible body of work, which spans 40 years and every creative medium from sketching to computer programming.

Their commentary confirmed that David Bowie is a voracious hoarder and was unbelievably rigorous when it came to creative control. We should be grateful for that – it means exploring the David Bowie archive is like ‘walking through Bowie’s head’, as one exhibition-goer put it during the film.

Special guests were also introduced throughout the evening. Musician Jarvis Cocker discussed the impact of seeing Bowie’s handwritten lyrics at the exhibition: it reminded him that despite Bowie’s extraordinary genius, he was ultimately a normal guy from the suburbs who scribbled lyrics down in a hand that looked like it belonged to ‘a 14-year-old girl'.

Artist Jeremy Deller spoke of how enduring Bowie’s influence is on popular culture and how Bowie’s music has directly inspired his own work. Designer Kansai Yamamoto (who created many of Bowie’s most iconic outfits in the 70s) told the story of his first encounter with Bowie at a show in New York, and how remarkable he was as a collaborator.

This may have been the last chance to experience David Bowie is in the UK but the event also marked the beginning of the exhibition’s international tour, starting in Ontario, Canada on 25 September.

David Bowie is about to be everywhere – rumour has it repeat screenings of the film are planned, so keep your ear to the ground.