2012 at the ICA
Thank you so much for supporting the ICA in 2012. This past year has seen many memorable highlights, starting with In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists since 1955 and a solo exhibition by Lis Rhodes. Other highlights include Remote Control and the launch of the critically acclaimed ICA / LUX Biennial of Moving Images, which remains the only UK festival of its kind.
In the summer we exhibited Bruce Nauman’s extraordinary sound installation Days accompanied by our award-winning SOUNDWORKS online project. At the time of the Olympics we took over a multi-storey car park in Shoreditch for the exhibition Art Drive! and a series of rooftop screenings.
We began Autumn with three exhibitions: Bjarne Melgaard: A House to Die In, Hannah Sawtell: Osculator and Trojan: Works on Paper. Hannah Sawtell's show opened simultaneously at the ICA and Bloomberg SPACE. Another vibrant Frieze Art Fair saw over 11,000 visitors come through our doors in a single week. During this period we hosted two packed-out parties with Mousse Magazine and Art Review. We've also really enjoyed working with our Associate Artists' across the year, Luke Fowler and Factory Floor - who recently collaborated with Hannah Sawtell for a vivid live performance.
We remain indebted to Kai Althof and Yair Oelbaum for staging the London premiere of their unique play There We Will be Buried in the ICA Theatre, the first in a new partnership with LIFT. We also recall the excitement surrounding Bowiefest, with the participation of artists and film-makers including Jeremy Deller and Nicholas Roeg. Artists' Film Club continues as an amazing opportunity to see rarely screened moving image work and the chance to talk with the artists, who have included Owen Land, Lisa Oppenheim and Chris Kraus to name a few.
Our ongoing talks programme has continued to inspire debate and this year featured the magnificent Lynda Benglis, Gavin Bryars, Ina Blom, Liam Gillick, Diedrich Diederichsen, Mark Stephens and many, many more. We’ve discussed everything from the role of the Independent Group, to Pussy Riot and typography as conceptual art, not forgetting our regular series such as The Trouble With, Culture Now and ICA Quickfire.
It’s been another fantastic year for film at the ICA, which saw us lead on the new Experimenta strand of the London Film Festival, host the inaugural Safar Film Festival and as always, champion independent films without UK distribution such as The Prophet, The Legend of Kasper Hauser and Marx Reloaded.
As I write to you now, the ICA is abuzz. We remain open over Christmas and New Year, so if you haven't had a chance to do so, please come and visit our cinema, bookshop and café bar, as well as seeing our new exhibitions, Fourth Plinth: Contemporary Monument, See Red Women's Workshop, and Bloomberg New Contemporaries.
We look forward to seeing you soon at the ICA. Happy Holidays!
Warmest wishes,
Gregor Muir
ICA Executive Director
