Press coverage.

Parsons School of Design will present The Storyteller, an exhibition exploring how artists use the narrative form to process and explain important social and political events.  The exhibition features work by an international group of artists, including Cao Fei, Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller with filmmaker Mike Figgis, Omer Fast, Mounir Fatmi, Ryan Gander, Lamia Joreige, Joachim Koester, Emanuel Licha, Missing Books (Maria Barnas, Maxine Kopsa and Germaine Kruip), Steve Mumford, Adrian Paci, Michael Rakowitz, Liisa Roberts, and Hito Steyerl.

Curated by Claire Gilman and Margaret Sundell and organized by iCI  (Independent Curators International), The Storyteller features video, still photography, drawing, mixed media and installation works that engage the documentary capacity of art to bear witness to world events.

The works in The Storyteller engage a range of narrative strategies. In some cases, the story is a drama based on real events, as in Deller and Figgis’ The Battle of Orgreave, a reenactment of the violent clashes between police and local plant workers in 1984 England, as well as the works of Gander and the collective called Missing Books. In other cases, the stories function less as reconstructions of the past than investigations into the relationship between past and present, as in the Roberts’ What’s the Time in Vyborg and Fast’s Spielberg’s List, a video exploring the experiences of extras in Stephen Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List. A third group, which includes Fei, Koester, Paci, and Fatmi, invokes the literary genres of fairy tales, photo essays, and folklore. Finally, other projects such as those by Joreige, Mumford, and Rakowitz involve active participants in contemporary political situations.

Multimedia works by Deller, Figgis, Fast, and Roberts will be presented in special screenings throughout the course of the exhibition. Parsons and iCI also will present a series of related programs during the exhibition run. In addition, many New School courses will use the exhibition as a learning laboratory, hosting class meetings, discussions, and design charettes. For more information, please visit
www.newschool.edu/events.

The Storyteller is a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York. The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible, in part, by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; iCI Benefactors Agnes Gund, Gerrit and Sydie Lansing, and Barbara and John Robinson; the iCI Partners and iCI Advocates.