Artists: Mirosław Bałka, Franz Ackermann, Etel Adnan, Darren Almond, Ellen Altfest, Michael Armitage, Christine Ay Tjoe, Georg Baselitz, Tracey Emin, Theaster Gates, Gilbert & George, Antony Gormley, Andreas Gursky, David Hammons, Mona Hatoum, He Xiangyu, Robert Irwin, Runa Islam, Sergej Jensen, Anselm Kiefer, Rachel Kneebone, Imi Knoebel, Elad Lassry, Jac Leirner, Liu Wei, Liza Lou, Ibrahim Mahama, Christian Marclay, Josiah McElheny, Julie Mehretu, Beatriz Milhazes, Harland Miller, Sarah Morris, Gabriel Orozco, Damián Ortega, Virginia Overton, Eddie Peake, Magnus Plessen, Jessica Rankin, Doris Salcedo, Raqib Shaw, Haim Steinbach, Fred Tomaselli, Jeff Wall, Cerith Wyn Evans.
‘Memory Palace’ is a major group exhibition extending across White Cube’s London galleries in Bermondsey and Mason’s Yard.
Featuring more than 90 recent works by over 40 artists ‘Memory Palace’ seeks to inspire reflections on the forms and themes of memory. The exhibition’s architecture leads the viewer through six aspects of memory: Historical (at White Cube Mason’s Yard), Autobiographical, Traces, Transcription, Collective and Sensory (at White Cube Bermondsey).
Historical – Featuring Michael Armitage, Georg Baselitz, Theaster Gates, Mona Hatoum, Anselm Kiefer, Ibrahim Mahama, Julie Mehretu, Magnus Plessen and Doris Salcedo
‘History is written by the victors’. What a culture chooses to memorialise is bound up with the prevailing hegemony: contemporary historians have begun to privilege memory in the form of personal testimonies and oral histories as a corrective to the narrative of power. Shared histories of suffering can drive retribution and sustain irreconcilable feuds; the burden of memory may keep psychological wounds from healing. Yet it is in their common memories that peoples scattered by forced migration, or decimated by genocide, may preserve their identity. Artists have an important role in voicing silenced or contested memories, while art’s ability to collapse historical time allows us a fresh perspective on the sweep of history.
‘Memory Palace’ continues at White Cube Bermondsey until Sunday 2 September 2018.