In fact ICA’s lack of interest in Live ICA is perceived by many on the Introduction Art over the last several years has international scene as a model been manifest and despite earlier contemporary arts space. Live Art “If the ICA has a single, overriding Filling a gap, and always willing eras of commitment to the form - with all of its hybrid tendencies, raison d’être, it is the responsibility to lend a hand when major arts - with programming in theatre its blurring of boundaries, its fun, to express who we are and how we organisations fail to do their and gallery spaces, commissions, vitality, energy and relevance really live right now, through art, culture jobs properly, we are delighted discussion events and platforms should be there with the full weight and ideas, to weigh up constantly to announce the re-opening of - they’ve long since ceased to be and resources of the institution. shifting moods and movements in the ICA Live Art Department considered as much of a player in art and society in an attempt to in the form of True Riches, an the Live Art area. How the closing * articulate the tenor of the times. independent curatorial project with of the Live Arts Department would contributions and participation of improve this situation seems at The project True Riches – a season In 2009 we will be unveiling an international group of artists, best pretty hard to explain. which runs from now until the a series of ambitious events curators and thinkers working in end of 2009 at the ICA - arises including new seasons of multi- and around Live Art. There are those who believe that from our invitations to around 25 art form activity that will take Live Art in London/UK can do individuals to make proposals for over and transform the whole of * well enough without the ICA - works, seasons and themed and the ICA building. At a time when concentrating their efforts on other un-themed programmes. It gathers biennales and art fairs frequently ICA’s Live Arts and Media spaces, different communities, materials which stem from a dominate the cultural calendar, Department was closed by Ekow and creating different relations to variety of approaches, tendencies, it’s important for the ICA to Eshun, (Director, Institute of the institutional practice of arts. and impulses in the live art sector occasionally work in a similar Contemporary Arts, London) We do have plenty of passion and – from the satirical critical to spirit and reconfigure itself as a in October 2008 with an support for these kinds of practices the archival, from the comical somtime festival, a freeform space accompanying email statement in and positions. At the end of the subversive to the theoretical of artistic exploration, a place which he remarked that the area day though, we also think that in investigative. We even have a where debate and experimentation of practice lacked the ‘depth and a city as big, culturally rich and buffet of zero gravity food. are central.” cultural urgency’ necessary to varied in its makeup and history as command the continued resources London is, it is important that an The ICA Live Art Department, even Ekow Eshun, artistic director, and focus of the institution, arts centre like the ICA should give though it does not exist, is alive from ICA programme arguing that in any case ICA’s adequate space to this important and well and glad of your support. December 2008’ commitment to live practice would area of contemporary practice. We would like to extend our thanks continue to happen ‘naturally’ The ICA in London, positioned to the many artists and curators through the programming at the city’s geographical centre who have joined us to make the initiatives of the remaining and as its experimental vanguard, varied proposals, statements and departments. should embrace and champion the programmes that comprise True possibilities of Live Art to speak Riches. We hope that you’ll join us We sincerely doubt that such a to the contemporary situation and for these and other events. scenario would work out well for to address publics in the most ICA’s profile of and commitment to extraordinary, thought-provoking Live Art. and challenging ways. Tim Etchells / Ant Hampton GERALDINE PILGRIM This installation symbolises the flood of ideas that have filled this Black Box black box space over the years. The ICA theatre space was a ONGOING FROM FEBRUARY 4 magnificent neutral empty space I will flood the ICA Theatre with created to be filled with other water by creating a 1metre 20 people’s imagination. I see this centimetre high black metal tank installation as a celebration, a that follows the exact architecture funeral and a goodbye to all the of the space, delineating every extraordinary work that has been recess and every pillar (apart from performed and created in this the fire exit recess of the mall dock space and not acknowledged. door that is left as audience space). The interior of the tank will be lined with black pond liner. The tank will be filled with water -by the Westminster Fire Department - pumped through hoses that can come in from the mall dock entrance. The water level will be 1 metre 19 centimetres high. A wind machine in the ceiling will form a ripple effect on the water and the whole installation shall be starkly lit with white light by rows of birdies on a frame suspended over the tank. A thin film of oil would gradually be poured into the tank by a performer covering the surface of the water, and would be set alight by a taper. The audience can only enter to view the installation by the mall dock doors side entrance and Black Box would stand in the fire exit recess that is not flooded. JOSÉ ANTONIO SÁNCHEZ & a year before he was elected stated, “Jacques Derrida is not travel. Erase borders. Run to the president of South Africa, he dead”. Ana Mendieta is definitely encounter. Fly to the future. Don’t MARia RIBOT travelled to Stockholm to collect dead. She was killed in 1984, when let time terrify you. Time flies, MIGRATIONS the Nobel peace prize. Edward she fell from the 34th floor of a time runs away. To play. To invent. Said died before peace came to his building in Greenwich Village. Subvert languages. Disguise your In 1942 Princess Héléne Elizabeth homeland Palestine, which he had She had lived in the United States self to search for the real. Touch Louise Amelie Paula Dolores to abandon with his family in 1948. since her exile from Cuba at the each other. Think of us. Risk your Poniatowska Amor travelled to He travelled to Egypt and later to age of twenty three. William Pope identity. México city in the company of her the US where he published his most still lives in New Jersey; in 2007 The 28th of May 1994 sub- mother Paula, while her father, famous work Orientalism. In 1957 he was invited to Vienna by Tim commandant Marcos wrote: Jean Poniatowska was fighting with Fatima Mernissi travelled from Fez Etchells and spoke for 12 hours “Marcos is gay in San Francisco, the French army, with whose forces in Morocco to Paris and in 1995 wearing a Condoleezza Rice mask. black in South Africa, an Asian in he landed in Normandy shortly published Dreams of Trespass: Juan Loriente was in the audience Europe, a Chicano in San Isidro, afterwards. The Princess published Tales of a Harem Girlhood. Later for the entire performance; an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian her novel The Train Passes Through she reflected on the influence afterwards, during his return to in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the First under the name of Elena of Chinese legend on the Arab Vega de Pas, he walked for 12 days, streets of San Cristobal, a gang Poniatowska; she presented the imagination and how it manifests while reflecting on humanity. Nao member in Neza, a rocker in the book, dressed as “tehuana” in the itself in the tales of the Arabian Bustamante, dressed as herself, National University, a Jew in company of the actress and activist Nights. Rabih Mroue preferred not flew to Jerusalem in 1995; with Germany, an ombudsman in the Jesusa Rodríguez, in the character to travel and stayed put in Beirut María Ribot she took a pilgrimage Defence Ministry, a communist in of a machinist. Six years earlier with his wife where they asked: to the sacred sites without the post-Cold War era, an artist the two women had turned up in “Who is afraid of representation?”. encountering any of the three without gallery or portfolio.... A front of the Mexican parliament to Certainly not the poet Joan Brossa: Gods. Disappointed, she returned pacifist in Bosnia, a housewife protest against the militarisation of he used to travel from Barcelona to Los Ángeles; María to Madrid alone on Saturday night in any Chiapas. Sub-commander Marcos to Perpignan to visit strip-tease where she asked José Sánchez to neighbourhood in any city in moved into Chiapas on the first cabarets, at that time forbidden write a text which would help her Mexico, a striker in the CTM, a of January 1994. Exactly twelve in Franco’s Spain. The musician to understand what they where reporter writing filler stories for the years afterwards Marcos travelled Carles Santos followed him some doing. He did so, but despite this back pages, a single woman on the the 32 Mexican states during his years later. In September 2007 María moved to London, where she subway at 10pm, a peasant without other campaign.