embassyHACK
15 APRIL - 6 MAY 2016 | GOVERNMENT ART COLLECTION, LONDON
Historic collection. Contemporary interventions.
embassyHACK is a tactical media project that uses alternative access points into the Government Art Collection, London, curated by Francesca Altamura, Tamar Clarke-Brown and Bar Yerushalmi. The curators invited ten London-based artists to ‘hack’ a coded space, i.e. the embassy, which is the main canvas for the GAC to promote British art while contributing to cultural diplomacy. These artists’ works disrupt the system, to investigate pressing issues such as inertia, proximity politic, and hidden histories.
embassyHACK aims to facilitate new narratives and reflect on the dispersed and transnational realities of contemporary artists working in the United Kingdom. This exhibition will act as an experiment, recreating and transferring an idealised ‘Ambassador’s Room’, located within an embassy and considered a ‘restricted limited-access’ space, into an open gallery context. The project extends through a satellite website, and through performances and public tours delivered as alternative ‘access points’ by the curators, artists, and GAC staff throughout the project duration. Furthermore, the curators commissioned ‘glitched’ 3D virtual tour, Embassy RomanX (2016) by artist and dreamweaver Rob Heppell, to extend the afterlife of the exhibition via virtual trace.
#embassyHACK
Website | Facebook | Embassy RomanX | i-D Magazine | Screenshot Magazine
Governement Art Collection | GAC Blog
embassyHACK is a tactical media project that uses alternative access points into the Government Art Collection, London, curated by Francesca Altamura, Tamar Clarke-Brown and Bar Yerushalmi. The curators invited ten London-based artists to ‘hack’ a coded space, i.e. the embassy, which is the main canvas for the GAC to promote British art while contributing to cultural diplomacy. These artists’ works disrupt the system, to investigate pressing issues such as inertia, proximity politic, and hidden histories.
embassyHACK aims to facilitate new narratives and reflect on the dispersed and transnational realities of contemporary artists working in the United Kingdom. This exhibition will act as an experiment, recreating and transferring an idealised ‘Ambassador’s Room’, located within an embassy and considered a ‘restricted limited-access’ space, into an open gallery context. The project extends through a satellite website, and through performances and public tours delivered as alternative ‘access points’ by the curators, artists, and GAC staff throughout the project duration. Furthermore, the curators commissioned ‘glitched’ 3D virtual tour, Embassy RomanX (2016) by artist and dreamweaver Rob Heppell, to extend the afterlife of the exhibition via virtual trace.
#embassyHACK
Website | Facebook | Embassy RomanX | i-D Magazine | Screenshot Magazine
Governement Art Collection | GAC Blog
Images courtesy the artists.
The participating artists include Rob Heppell, Louise Ashcroft, Guy Bar Amotz, Bishi & Matthew Hardern, Juan Covelli, Juan Covelli & Neale Willis, Cosmic Latte (Juan Covelli, Andrew Kiddie & Neale Willis), Hannah Honeywill, Jasmine Johnson and Lydia Ourahmane.
CURATORS: Tamar Clarke-Brown, Francesca Altamura, Bar Yerushalmi
embassyHACK was curated in collaboration with the Government Art Collection (GAC) and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and supported by the MFA Curating programme at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Drinks sponsorship by Audemus Spirits.