Around the World in Eighty Days

Presented simultaneously across two institutions, the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the South London Gallery, Around the World in Eighty Days is a unique exhibition that takes Jules Verne’s popular novel as its starting point and framework to explore the cultural diversity of artists living and working in London today and highlight the internationalism of the UK art scene.

This exhibition will bring together new works by some twenty London-based artists from a broad sweep of countries across the five continents. Around the World in Eighty Days will consider art, history and the social construction of places, spaces and identities from both a global and local perspective.

Published in 1872, the novel Around the World in Eighty Days marked a divisive historical moment that is still being played out. Many of the issues that it touched upon – rapid technological change, the emergence of non-commercial international travel and tourism, the height of the colonial era and the beginning of cultural and economic globalisation - continue to have resonance with the way that we approach and experience the world today.

Departing from the original narrative of Verne’s book, which outlines a restricted colonial interpretation of the world defined by the trading routes of Victorian England, this exhibition looks to an expanded list of countries that today construct and condition our global perspective. This exhibition will focus specifically on artists who were born abroad but now live and work in London, including artists who have lived in London for many years but also those who have newly arrived. Participants include among others: Jananne Al-Ani, Marc Camille Chamowicz, Alexandre da Cunha, Godfried Donkor, Ivan Grubenov, Mona Hatoum, Runa Islam, Janice Kerbel, Oswaldo Maciá, Rosalind Nashashibi, Uriel Orlow, Zineb Sedira, João Penalva, Hiraki Sawa, Raqib Shaw, Yinka Shonibare, Erika Tan and Francis Upritchard.

Around the World in Eighty Days uses both a narrative and historical framework to inspire and inform the artworks displayed. The participating artists will either exhibit a piece that has been conceived especially for the exhibition or display an existing work that resonates with the themes raised by Verne’s novel. The exhibition will loosely follow the narrative of the book along an eighty-day time line, which will guide visitors from the beginning of the exhibition at the ICA through to its conclusion at the SLG.

Around the World in Eighty Days has been conceived as an exhibition that plays on the geographical relationship between the two venues. With the ICA in central London and SLG in the south of the city, the exhibition also explores how geographical position can define and influence both artistic programming and its reception.

A publication will accompany the exhibition.

Pressetext

Around the World in Eighty Days
ICA London; South London Gallery

mit Jananne Al-Ani, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Alexandre da Cunha, Godfried Donkor, Ivan Grubanov, Mona Hatoum, Runa Islam, Janice Kerbel, Oswaldo Macia, Rosalind Nashashibi, Uriel Orlow, Zineb Sedira, Joao Penalva, Hiraki Sawa, Raqib Shaw, Yinka Shonibare, Erika Tan, Francis Upritchard, Nicole Wermers