‘This Will Not Happen Without You’, currently running at the John Hansard Gallery until January 20, is an exhibition drawn from the archive of visual arts agency Locus+, and documents some of the most compelling art projects, performances and events in Britain over the last thirty years.
Locus+ (1993-) evolved from The Basement Group (1979-1984) and Projects UK (1984-1992), each acting as a catalyst for radical new work. This pioneering approach has profoundly influenced today’s landscape of art practice and its role in the public realm.
Beginning as a collective of six artists, programming twice weekly events in a basement in Newcastle upon Tyne, The Basement Group was both progressive and ambitious for its time. The organisation programmed performance, video art, installation, experimental film and sound works. Documentation from this period features early performances by leading practitioners in the UK and Europe, including Bruce McLean, Stuart Brisley, Mona Hatoum, Alistair MacLennan and Nan Hoover.
After several years of activity the organisation evolved into Projects UK, the first office-based visual arts organisation in the UK working with artists to develop site-specific events and temporary works. These include works by Rose English, Andre Stitt, Richard Wilson, Stefan Gec and Marina Abramović.
Locus+ (1993-) has since developed and expanded this role, commissioning a diverse spectrum of innovative, socially engaged, collaborative visual arts projects, across the country and beyond. Artists featured from this period include: Mark Wallinger, Anya Gallaccio, Simon Patterson, Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton, Layla Curtis and Chris Burden.
This Will Not Happen Without You features documentation of performances, projects and events, along with objects, ephemera, publications and artists’ proposals, spanning the history of the three organisations. The exhibition provides an insight into the processes and contexts through which each project was developed and realised, revealing a cross-section of practice that arose throughout a period of rapid cultural change in this country.
Throughout the exhibition a filmed discussion between exhibition curator Richard Grayson and Stephen Foster, Director, John Hansard Gallery, will be displayed in the gallery Reading Room. The interview will also be published on the gallery website in transcription, audio and video formats.
More information at http://www.hansardgallery.org.uk
Front page pic: work by the artist Simon Patterson. All images copyright and reproduced with kind permission.