Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High Street
London
Greater London
E1 7QX
England
Website
Telephone
020 7522 7888
Fax
020 7377 1685
The Whitechapel Art Gallery was founded in 1901 to bring great art to the people of east London. Internationally acclaimed for its exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and its pioneering education and public events programmes, the Gallery has premiered international artists such as Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Nan Goldin, and provided a showcase for Britain’s most significant artists from Gilbert & George to Lucian Freud, Peter Doig to Mark Wallinger.
The Gallery plays a unique role in the capital’s cultural landscape and is pivotal to the continued growth of East London as the world’s most vibrant contemporary art quarter.
The Grade II* Whitechapel Gallery was designed by architect Charles Harrison Townsend. This purpose built gallery is an outstanding example of the Arts and Crafts movement and its aspirations of being accessible, spiritually uplifting and transformative. This development also builds on the 1980s expansion by Colquhoun and Miller under the directorship of Sir Nicolas Serota and inaugurated by the Queen Mother.
Venue Type:
Gallery
Artists’ Film International: Neha Choksi, Kaia Hugin and Alix Pearlstein
Artists’ Film International showcases artists working with film, video and animation, selected by 14 partner organisations world-wide and presented over the course of a year in each venue. This season presents three artists’ films offering different approaches to performance and bodily presence. Neha Choksi is selected by Project 88, Mumbai, India
Kaia Hugin by KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film, Sandnes, Norway and Alix Pearlstein by Ballroom Marfa, Texas, US.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
The Spirit of Utopia
Ten leading international artists and collectives speculate on alternative futures for society, the economy and the environment in the Whitechapel Gallery’s summer exhibition, The Spirit of Utopia. Including new commissions and works by artists, architects and designers Yto Barrada
Theaster Gates
Ha Za Vu Zu
Peter Liversidge
Ostengruppe
Claire Pentecost
Pedro Reyes
Superflex
Time/Bank and Wayward Plants.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Artists’ Film International: Einat Amir, Ana Gallardo, Marinella Senatore, Nasan Tur and Katarina Zdjelar
Artists’ Film International showcases artists working with film, video and animation, selected by 14 partner organisations world-wide. From role-play to communal activities and urban graffiti, this season features films based on social and collaborative projects. Selected by the New Media Centre, Israel
Fundación PROA, Argentina
GAMeC, Italy
Video-Forum, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Germany
Belgrade Cultural Centre, Serbia.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
The Bloomberg Commission: Giuseppe Penone: Spazio di Luce (Space of Light)
Admission free
Supported by Bloomberg. Additional support by the Wingate Scholarships. Giuseppe Penone Exhibition Circle: Aïshti Foundation, Aud and Paolo Cuniberti.
Over the past 45 years, Italian artist Giuseppe Penone has examined our relationship to nature. For the latest Bloomberg Commission, he has created a twelve metre bronze cast of a tree, with a radiant gold-leaf interior, which spreads across the columned gallery. The tree is carefully balanced on its branches and divided into sections to allow visitors to move between the separate elements. The work contrasts with the urban environment surrounding the Gallery, highlighting hidden nature within the city. The installation is accompanied by a year-long programme of talks and events exploring the rich relationship between nature and the city.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Black Eyes and Lemonade: Curating Popular Art
This exhibition is supported by the University of Brighton and the Museum of British Folklore.
A new archive display revisiting the Gallery’s 1951 exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade. Coinciding with the Festival of Britain, the exhibition challenged established ideas about the cultural value attached to particular kinds of objects. Celebrating everyday items, from the traditional and the handmade to the mass produced, it included lavishly decorated pub mirrors, an edible model of St Paul’s Cathedral and a talking lemon advertising Idris lemon squash.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Collection Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: Have you seen me before?
Have you seen me before?, is the fourth and final display of rarely-seen works from the Collection Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. The display brings together photography, sculptures and films which play on the idea of the absurd. The centrepiece is Paolo Pivi’s, “Have you seen me before?” (2008), a large polar bear covered in yellow chicken feathers.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
FLAMIN and videoclub present: Selected
Showcasing work by some of the best emerging UK film and video artists, in a diverse moving image programme brought together by the artists shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award 2012. Supported by Film London and Arts Council England.
Suitable for
When
7-9pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Saturday Drawing Workshop
Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.
Suitable for
- Especially for children
When
10:30am-12pm
Admission
(£100 for 10 sessions)
BSL Gallery Talk
A tour of the archive show: Black Eyes and Lemonade with BSL guide David Moller.
Suitable for
When
7-8pm
Admission
Free
Charles Avery: To Make a Tree
Scottish artist Charles Avery speaks about the presence of trees in a body of work called the ‘Jadindagadendar’ - the name given to the municipal park in ‘Onomatopoeia’, the capital town of Avery’s fictional Island.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Saturday Drawing Workshop
Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.
Suitable for
- Especially for children
When
10:30am-12pm
Admission
(£100 for 10 sessions)
Pedro Reyes: Therapies for London
Mexican artist Pedro Reyes leads an afternoon of discussion across psychology, psychiatry and theatre practice, addressing the performance of therapy, the role of the expert and experiments in self-improvement. This event launches Sanatorium Operations Manual.
Suitable for
When
2-3:30pm
Admission
Zilkha Auditorium (£8/6 conc.)
Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle: Time/Bank
Throughout The Spirit of Utopia exhibition, a range of thinkers are invited to utilise the archive and present lectures exploring discourse around currency, time and exchange.
Suitable for
- Any age
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
Zilkha Auditorium (£8.00/£6.00 conc.)
Claire Pentecost: Soil
Chicago-based artist Claire Pentecost consults both soil science and the development of new processes in medical science to expand cultural attitudes towards agriculture, biodiversity and health.
Suitable for
- Any age
- Family friendly
When
2-3:30pm
Admission
£10.00 / £8.00 concs.
Ha Za Vu Zu: Crying
When was the last time you’ve cried with other people? Can tears bring us together? Ha Za Vu Zu invite you to water this dry universe. Crying for nothing! Crying for laughing!
Suitable for
When
3-4pm
Admission
Free
David Batchelor: To Make a Tree
In 2003 artist David Batchelor created Evergreen, a glowing stainless steel and Plexiglas tree flanked by planted trees and corporate architecture by Tower Bridge. Batchelor takes this work as a starting point to consider encounters with artificial colour and light in the urban environment.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Gallery Talk
Black Eyes and Lemonade
Suitable for
When
6:30-7pm
Admission
Free
Gallery Talk
The Spirit of Utopia
Suitable for
When
2-3pm
Admission
Free
51% Studios & Peter Holden
Meeting point: The Wheatsheaf, 24 Southwark St, SE1 1TY
Ornithologist Peter Holden and architect Catherine du Toit lead a walking tour of Nestworks - a creative conservation project which responds to dwindling tree populations in the city by providing readymade habitats for birds around Bankside.
Suitable for
When
4-6pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Open Screenings
A free forum to present your work and discuss it with peers and Film Curator Gareth Evans. Take part in future programmes: film@whitechapelgallery.org
Suitable for
When
1:30-3pm
Admission
Free
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Showing on Bastille Day, Robert Guédiguian’s outstanding Marseilles feature on contemporary pressures and community resistance is essential viewing. Plus ‘in the moment’ diary shorts from Occupy Wall Street by acclaimed filmmaker Jem Cohen.
Suitable for
When
3:30-5pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
The Real World: Possibility
For The Spirit of Utopia, artist Peter Liverside proposed to demolish the buildings opposite Whitechapel Gallery and build an exact replica of the Gallery in its place. Liversidge talks to Robert Mull, Dean of the Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design, about the dynamic space between the impossible and the possible.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
£3
Difference as an Arithmetic Exercise
Annette Krauss and Claudia Hummel consider the entanglements between everyday life, visible and invisible numbers. Departing from an investigation into text and image politics in maths textbooks, the seminar explores forms of mathematisation in art, school and daily life. With Critical Mathematician Eva Jablonka and artist Ricardo Basbaum.
Suitable for
When
1-9pm
Admission
Free
Positions on Utopia
What does ‘Utopia’ mean for politics, art and architecture today? A series of statements by contemporary thinkers including Richard Noble, Editor of Utopias (Documents of Contemporary Art series) and Paul Shepheard, Author of How to Like Everything A Utopia. Followed by a debate.
Suitable for
When
7-9pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Rabih Mroué: The Pixilated Revolution
Artist Talk: 3pm, Performance: 7pm.
Lebanese artist, actor and playwright Rabih Mroué stages his non-academic lecture, addressing the use of mobile phone cameras to capture first-hand accounts of the Syrian revolution. Preceded by artist talk.
Suitable for
Admission
Zilkha Auditorium (£16/12 for both events or £8/6 each)
Crib Notes: Sofia Victorino on The Spirit of Utopia
Join a curator-led tour and discussion of the exhibition with your baby or toddler in tow, with Daskalopoulos Head of Education & Public Programmes Sofia Victorino.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
Admission
(£3, includes refreshments)
Heather & Ivan Morison: To Make a Tree
Artists in Residence Heather & Ivan Morison speak about the role of the tree and the forest in their work - as a material for building or space for shelter and discuss their engagement with tree fanatics in the search for rare species.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Reclaim the Mural: Utopian Legacies in London
Launching new publication Reclaim the Mural, writer Owen Hatherley, muralist Brian Barnes, artists Emma Hart and Dean Kenning and curator Marijke Steedman discuss the London Mural Movement and what became of the political impulse to move art away from galleries and into the urban everyday.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Brian Holmes: Big Ideas
Writer, activist and cultural critic Brian Holmes presents a keynote lecture, ‘After the Stark Utopia: Political Economies of the Future’, taking the work of artist Claire Pentecost as a point of departure.
Suitable for
When
7:30-8:45pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
BSL Gallery Talk The Spirit of Utopia
Meeting point: Foyer (Free)
Guide Martin Glover leads a tour for deaf visitors with audio interpretation.
Suitable for
When
7-8pm
Admission
Free
Family Day: The Spirit of Utopia
A fun family day inspired by the Gallery’s summer exhibition The Spirit of Utopia. Take part in a free potting class with studio potter Viktoria Redman and watch animated short films from around Europe in the Auditorium. Imagine stories for fictional plants with urban growers Wayward Plants and explore the exhibitions with a special Family Trail.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
When
12-4pm
Admission
Free
The Spirit of Utopia
Explore current exhibition with guide Sarah Barrett. For blind and partially sighted visitors.
Suitable for
When
11:30am-12:45pm
Admission
Free
Urban Ecology Bird Stroll
Inspired by The Bloomberg Commission: Giuseppe Penone: Spazio di Luce. Meeting point: Whitechapel Gallery Foyer.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
- Any age
When
10am-12pm
Ed Atkins & Patrick Ward: Defining Holes
A screening of collaborative film work Defining Holes, plotting the various nothings that exist between and within moving image. Followed by a conversation with the artists.
Ed Atkins is Whitechapel Gallery Writer in Residence 2012–2013.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000
John Berger and Alain Tanner’s essential post 1968 feature on how to live is one of the key films of the 1970s. Plus cultural historian Ken Worpole on utopian communities in 20th Century Britain.
Suitable for
When
6:30-8pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Wayward Plants: On Biodynamics and Science Fiction
Landscape collective Wayward Plants host an evening of exploration and demonstration with author Ken Macleod and scientist Brenda Parker, looking at the links between improbable botany, lunar gardening and science fiction.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Navigating Ecological Times
How can artists act as guides for society in dealing with profound changes signalled by ecological crises? An afternoon of presentations and discussion on sustainability, art practice and the challenges of green curating, led by Maja and Reuben Fowkes.
Suitable for
When
3-6pm
Admission
(£10/8 conc.)
Paths Through Utopias
Travelling across Europe to experience diverse forms of postcapitalist living, Isabelle Fremaux and John Jordan’s magico-realist road movie is set in an imagined post-crash future but shot as a fictional documentary. Followed by filmmaker Q&A.
Suitable for
When
6:30-8pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Guy Brett: Exhibition Histories
In the latest event reflecting on exhibitions through the personal accounts of the curators responsible for them, Guy Brett, curator, critic and lecturer, addresses questions about the seminal 1969 exhibition Hélio Oiticica: Whitechapel Experience with Archive Curator Nayia Yiakoumaki.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Open House London Tour
Artist Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau gives an introduction to the Gallery’s architectural and exhibition history. Part of Open House London.
Suitable for
When
3-4pm
Admission
Free
Difference Screen
International artists’ moving image programmes reflecting on changing realities through portraits of people and place, Difference Screen will visit 20 countries in the next two years. Plus Q&A with its curators Bruce Allan and Ben Eastop.
Suitable for
When
2-6pm
Admission
Zilkha Auditorium (both programmes: £12/10 conc
each: £8/6 conc.)
Compañero Víctor Jara
Stanley Forman and Martin Smith’s moving documentary on the life of the great Chilean activist singer, murdered 40 years ago by the Pinochet dictatorship. Also featuring poetry by Pablo Neruda and filmmaker Q&A.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
Salon: The Future of Theory
Join Curator Kirsty Ogg, Media Archaeologist at Winchester School of Art Jussi Parikka and Head of Central Saint Martins Jeremy Till for the first in a series of debates on the future of ‘theory’ in art and design education.
Organised with the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture, Westminster and University for the Creative Arts.
Suitable for
When
7-8:30pm
Admission
(£8/6 conc.)
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