Alex Hartley Nowhereisland Ends 2,500 Mile Voyage This Weekend

Alex Hartley’s Nowhereisland, which formed part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad this summer comes to a close, as the island comes into Bristol. The project consisted of a  displaced Arctic island, which has journeyed around the south-west coast during the summer from Weymouth to Bristol,stopping in hosted ports and harbours as a visiting island nation. Hartley’s provocative act of material displacement challenges assumptions about the fixity of landscape. If national boundaries shift, if peoples are displaced, if territorial rights are contested, the artist asks, why should landscape itself not move?

As the island passed into international waters on its journey from the High Arctic, it was declared a new nation with citizenship open to all. 21,000 people from over 80 countries now form the global citizenry of the island, contributing to the online, open-access constitution. Artists, writers and performers such as Matt Coolidge of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Suzanne Lacy, Philip Hoare, Tim Etchells, Salena Godden and Yoko Ono are among 52 Resident Thinkers who have contributed to a year-long programme of responses to the project.
The Last Days of Nowhereisland features performances, artists films and discussions in Bristol from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th September. Nowhereisland’s territory will be dispersed amongst its citizens piece by piece on departing its final port of call.
For full details of how to become a citizen, the Resident Thinker programme and final events, visit www.nowhereisland.org.
Nowhereisland is a project by Alex Hartley produced by Situations. www.situations.org.uk

Nowhereisland travelled through international waters, whereupon it became the world’s newest nation – Nowhereisland – with citizenship open to all. Nowhereisland arrived in Weymouth on 25th July for the sailing events of the London 2012 Olympic Games as a visiting island nation, accompanied by its remarkable mobile Embassy, packed full of intriguing objects and fascinating information and hosted by the Nowhereisland Ambassadors. Nowhereisland is an artwork by Alex Hartley and is produced by Bristol-based arts organisation Situations. It has caught the imagination of thousands of people across the world. 21,000 people from nearly 100 countries have already signed up to be citizens, contributing to the online constitution and responding to the year-long Resident Thinkers programme. More than 20 schools and community groups across the South West are helping to plan how they will welcome Nowhereisland to their local port.

Tags

,