Independent curator and writer Fatos Ustek has been announced as the Art Fund Curator at fig-2,fig-2, a ground-breaking project which will present 50 exhibitions in 50 weeks will be launched on 5 January 2015 at the ICA Studio, London in association with Outset Contemporary Art Fund. fig-2 is a revival of the project fig-1, which was conceived and developed by Mark Francis and Jay Jopling in 2000. Experimental in its nature, each project was programmed only a few weeks in advance to maintain as much spontaneity as possible. Providing a new model for the presentation of contemporary creativity in London, the project preceded the term pop-up. fig-1 presented projects by Jeremy Deller, Richard Hamilton, Runa Islam, Oliver Payne + Nick Relph, Will Self, Patti Smith, Caruso St. John, Philip Treacy, among others.
Fifteen years later, fig-2 will bring together a stimulating and unusual variety of established and emerging artists, drawn from contemporary art, architecture, design, fashion, film, literature and performance. There will be an opening reception every Monday evening, with the details for each weekly exhibition announced the previous Wednesday on the fig-2 website and the fig-2 weekly newsletters, designed by Brighten the Corners.fig-2 will be run from the ICA Studio, an independent space within the ICA. The Studio is a raw, industrial space, and is reputedly and the location where ArtAngel was founded. Universal Design Studio are fig-2’s architectural partners, the space will be transformed to meet the requirements of the rapidly changing exhibitions programme, with moveable walls, lighting and bookcases, to provide a flexible exhibition space able to adapt to accommodate large installation works, performances and a more traditional exhibition hang alike.fig-2 is realised in association with Outset Contemporary Art fund and with the generous support of Bicester Village, Phillips, fig-2’s individual supporters, and the Art Fund.
fig-2@ ICA Studio Institute of Contemporary Arts The Mall London, SW1Y 5AH Read Quarterly Bulletins Here
Dates: 5 January – 20 December, 2015
Opening Times: fig-2 opens every Monday, 6–8pm, and continues from Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm. fig-2 is open late on Thursdays until 9pm to coincide with the ICA late openings.
fig-2’s format utilises change as a constant. fig-2’s structure of fifty successive exhibitions realised on a weekly basis operates as a catalyst to manifest the aesthetic and critical currency of our times. Through a mode of knowledge accumulation, the body of fig-2’s multiplicity of experiences and encounters provide a fertile ground for productive discourse and reflection upon artistic input whilst emphasising a trans-disciplinary attitude and deep audience engagement.
fig-2 is intended as a sequence with varying density and content, providing engagement that either interrogates more deeply or elucidates a relationship to the other concepts with equal complexity. fig-2 will accumulate a multiplicity of experiences and encounters in its body through providing production ground for discourse, and reflection ground for artistic input with a trans-disciplinary attitude, and emphasis on engaging a wide range of audience. Positioning the art object as an object of encounter, as opposed to an object of recognition, the year will cultivate uncertainty and conscious incompleteness through each and every project that is driven by the radical imagination of artists, writers, dancers, architects, and designers.
Fig-2 Artists: Laura Eldret (1/50), Charles Avery (2/50); Hiraki Sawa (3/50); Simon Welsh (4/50); Rebecca Birch (5/50); Young in Hong (6/50); Claire Hooper & Maria Loboda (7/50); Edmund Cook (8/50); Deborah Coughlin with Gaggle (9/50); Annika Ström (10/50); Beth Collar (11/50); Tom McCarthy (12/50); Shezad Dawood (13/50); Suzanne Treister (14/50); The White Review (15/50); Jacopo Miliani (16/50); Charlotte Moth (17/50); Kathryn Elkin (18/50); Ruth Beale (19/50); D. Cheeseman, O. Hagen, R.Trotta (20/50); The Rot of the Stars (21/50); Marjolijn Dijkman (22/50); Eva Rothschild & Joe Moran (23/50); Ben Judd (24/50); Cecilia Bengolea, Celia Hempton & Prem Sahib (25/50); Anne Hardy (26/50); Karen Mirza (27/50); Patrick Coyle & Francesco Pedraglio (28/50); POSTmatter (29/50); Anna Barham (30/50); Broomberg & Chanarin (31/50); Oreet Ashery (32/50); El Ultimo Grito (33/50); Veronika Hauer (34/50); Amy Stephens (35/50); Eva Grubinger (36/50); Melanie Manchot (37/50); Josh Wright & Guillaume Vandame (38/50); Darren Bader (39/50); Una Knox (40/50); FOS (41/50); Bruce McLean (42/50); Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry (43/50); Anthea Hamilton (44/50); Lynne Marsh (45/50); Vesna Petresin (46/50); Allison Katz (47/50); Seth Ayyaz (48/50); Manuel Mathieu (49/50) and Laura Eldret (50/50).
PRESS ENQUIRIES: Jessica Baggaley jess@boltonquinn.com+44 (0) 20 7221 5000
Continuous response at fig-2 Loyalty Card, by AJ Dehany
Recent Interview with Aina Pomar, Artdependence Magazine, March 2016