CELEBRATION, the exhibition at The Shop at the Whitechapel Gallery, isn’t up to much as it stands at the moment.

The gallery - once a real shop - is tiny. Narrow and painted in drab grey emulsion, it would be easy to miss.

And the exhibition, based around street parties in the east end, currently consists solely of 50 photographs of these celebrations, some archive material and two videos.

Granted, it does capture something of the flavour of the celebrations - the shared jubilation and people’s willingness to come together as a community - but this is just the beginning.

Artist and brains behind the exhibition Melanie Manchot has grand plans for future of the project, commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella.

“We’re talking about something I haven’t made yet,” said Miss Manchot, 42.

“The inspiration behind the piece is my fascination with group portraiture - it’s an investigation into what portraiture does in general and what group portraiture does specifically.”

A blown-up photograph of an unspecified street party covers one wall of the gallery and the idea is to create a “Celebration Studio”, inviting members of the public to record their own memories on video.

“I’m looking for any member of the public who has experience of participating in a lot of street celebrations, where people close off the street and celebrate - it could be a long time ago or it could be recent and particularly if they have photos or video footage,” Miss Manchot said.

Over the next year, she will also be putting together a film, set on a single east London street, which will culminate in a simulacrum of a typical street celebration.

“It will centre around this street party - it’s not a jubilee or a coronation - the purpose of the event is the making of this film,” Miss Manchot said.

“It’s a continuous tracking shot following the construction of a group portrait - entering a street, you see people milling about, setting up, people as they come together for the group portrait.”

Originally from Germany, Miss Manchot has lived in Hackney for 18 years and is currently in the process of choosing a street on which to base her film.

“It will become much larger - in the next couple of months, I’ll be talking to different residents of different streets and I’ll decide which one to work with over the next year.”

l Celebration is at The Shop, 26 - 28 Toynbee Street, E1 7NE until February 22. The Shop is open Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm and admission is free. The finished work is to be presented at the expanded Whitechapel Gallery in 2010.