Budding curators show what they can do

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Curating Contemporary Art MA Graduate Show

Royal College of Art Galleries, Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2EU

Open: 8–24 March 2013, 10a.m. – 5.30p.m. daily, free admission


2013 marks the 20th anniversary of Curating Contemporary Art exhibitions at the RCA. This year’s graduating students present ‘No One Lives Here’, an exhibition by international artists exploring aspects of the digital age that permeate contemporary life, from the domestic to the political. The website forms part of the exhibition

Bringing together sculpture, installation, moving image and performance, ‘No One Lives Here’ will look at the contradictions and paradoxes of living in the digital age.

The title of the exhibition is derived from Indian theorist and philosopher Gayatri Spivak’s concept of ‘planetarity’ from her book Death of a Discipline (2005). Her assertion that ‘the globe is on our computers. No one lives there’, frames the exhibition’s theme of a virtual environment that is uninhabitable yet populated.

In White Mountain, the exhibition’s supporting research display, the Pionen White Mountain Data Centre is presented as an architectural case study. The Centre is a subterranean databank located near Stockholm, Sweden. Housing the Wiki-Leaks servers among others, Pionen epitomizes the layers of access and secrecy synonymous with virtuality. The display presents archival material, architectural plans and images that consider the development of the Pionen Data Centre as a metaphor for the contemporary condition of digital cultural flow.

Among the works featured is the UK debut of Hito Steyerl’s film Strike (2010) that shows the artist’s calculated assault on a flat screen monitor. Direct from his solo exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Neil Beloufa will present a new sculptural and video installation Nice seats and projection People's passion, lifestyle, beautiful wine, gigantic glass towers, all surrounded by water (2013, video 2011). The video portrays aspirational North American lifestyle and its artifice in the genre of promotional video projected onto the transparent layers of the installation.

Mosireen Collective is a non-profit media organization born out of the explosion of citizen journalism and cultural activism during the Egyptian revolution. Based in downtown Cairo, the channel is the most watched non-profit youtube channel in Egypt. ‘Mosireen’ is a play on the Arabic words of ‘Egypt’ and ‘determination’. The Collective provides training, equipment and technical facilities and organise free screenings, discussions and events.

Combining surreal video installations with live performance, Shana Moulton’s Restless Leg Saga (2012) reflects upon the permeation of digital culture into the domestic setting.

Jill Magid’s Legoland (2000) shows footage from a surveillance camera strapped to her foot as she walks around New York City. Between Magid’s legs, the observer can view the cityscape from a different perspective, drawing attention to the positioning of the gendered body within an image-based society.

AleksandraDomanović’s practice is concerned with the circulation and reception of images and information. For her contribution to ‘No One Lives Here’ she will exhibit new sculptural works Untitled (Mash up) (2013) and current video work 19:30 (2010–).

David Raymond Conroy’s practice embodies the process of virtual browsing and is suggestive of networked choice patterns. His work I’d be Lying if I Said I Didn’t Have Designs on You (2010) presents a flattened image of a totemic structure composed of disparate found objects.

London-based artist Jack Strange’s work ‘g’ (2008) playfully draws on the limitations of the physical and virtual realms; a lead ball is placed on the ‘g’ key of a laptop computer producing infinite characters on a screen and eventually crashing the laptop’s system. This work is in the MoMA collection.

Raphael Hefti’s glass sculptures from the series ‘Subtraction as Addition’(2012), recentlyshown at Camden Arts Centre, investigate contemporary experiences of viewing through an iridescent colour palette produced in dialogue with a digital aesthetic.

A printed publication and events programme will accompany the exhibition.