Patrick Keiller : The Robinson Institute

Patrick Keiller’s The Robinson Institute is unveiled at Tate Britain on 27 March – the first Tate Britain Commission made in response to Tate’s Collection of British and international art, supported by Sotheby’s. The Robinson Institute is an exhibition that considers the origins of the current economic crisis. Throughout The Robinson Institute, images of landmarks and locations in the English landscape are employed to illustrate the development of capitalism. The Robinson Institute’s researchers have revisited Robinson’s last known journey, presenting his findings and film footage as an exhibition that features works by artists, mainly from Tate’s Collection; writers, historians, geographers, cartographers and geologists; and a variety of other objects. Audiences are invited to retrace Robinson’s steps and consider the connections that he makes. For example, the 1795 amendment to the Settlement Act, which enabled the rural poor to more easily migrate to industrial towns and cities, is shown alongside an unusually large meteorite that fell the same year. Robinson’s discovery of the Boyle-Hooke commemoration plaque on Oxford’s High Street, which celebrates two of England’s most important scientists, triggers further consideration of the historical events that led to the Industrial Revolution, as his photograph of the memorial site is juxtaposed with Ed Ruscha’s Mad Scientist 1975 and L.S. Lowry’s Industrial Landscape 1955.

Patrick Keiller The Robinson Institute
27 mars–14 octobre 2012
Tate Britain, Londres
www.tate.org.uk