This exhibition appears at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
Over the past five years Arnolfini has been working in partnership with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery to build an international contemporary art collection for Bristol, with the support of an Art Fund International award of £1 million. To date 34 new acquisitions have been made, including major works by Ai Weiwei, Meschac Gaba, Shilpa Gupta, Walid Raad, Haegue Yang and Akram Zaatari. The AFI collection in Bristol takes the city museum’s historic collections from Africa, China and the Middle East as its starting point and, at the same time, seeks to consider Bristol’s history as a port city and site of international trade and exchange. The collection reflects upon the globalised conditions of the art world today, as well as the particular histories and contexts that inform each artist’s practice. The AFI collection locates the city of Bristol as a point of connection in a dynamic and rapidly changing web of global relations.
Artists: Yto Barrada, Hala Elkoussy, Shilpa Gupta, Amar Kanwar, Tala Madani, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Imran Qu’reshi, Walid Raad, Shahzia Sikander, Ai Weiwei, Haegue Yang, Akram Zaatari
FFI visit Bristol Museum & Art Gallery website
Events Programme
Free lunchtime talks, 1pm – 1.30pm
No need to book
Introduction to the exhibition
Friday 18 January
Julia Carver and Tom Trevor, Exhibition curators
The Borders of Documentary
Friday 22 February
Barnaby Haran, Teaching Fellow, History of Art, the University of Bristol
Friday 26 April
Dr Dorothy Rowe, Senior Lecturer, History of Art, the University of Bristol Art, the Institution and the Archive
Friday 10 May
Julian Warren, Archivist, Bristol Record Office
Lectures and Seminars (Booking essential)
Lecture: On Mobility and Exchange
Wednesday 6 February, 5pm – 6pm Tom Trevor, Director, Arnolfini £5 / Free for students/unwaged / contact the museum shop to book 0117 922 3650
Lecture: Ec/centric experience: Woman, art and globalisation
Monday 11 March, 5pm – 6pm Dr Dorothy Rowe £5 / Free for students/unwaged / contact the museum shop to book 0117 922 3650
Seminar: No Boundaries: What’s the Relationship between art and politics?
Tuesday 12 March, 4.30pm – 6pm Free / email rowen_mackenzie.2011@my.bristol.ac.uk to book
Join Sarah Kew, Rowen MacKenzie and Sean Pierce to debate the exhibition.
Indian Paintings from the Collection
Saturday 20 April, 11am – 1pm
£10/£8 concessions, contact the museum shop to book 0117 922 3650.
Join Eastern Art Curator Kate Newnham for a closer look at a range of Indian paintings from Bristol’s collection
