A displaced Arctic island, Nowhereisland has journeyed around the south-west coast during the summer from Weymouth to Bristol, hosted by 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
