"Around the World in Eighty Days" is a unique exhibition that takes Jules Verne’s popular novel "Around the World in Eighty Days" as a starting point to investigate the increasing internationalism of the London art world. "Around the World in Eighty Days" marks the first in a new series of exhibitions developed by the ICA that takes a novel, a short story or other written narrative as a point of departure.

Published in 1872, "Around the World in Eighty Days" marked a divisive historical moment that is still being played out. Many of the issues that it touches upon – rapid technological change, the emergence of non-commercial international travel and tourism, the height of the colonial era and the beginning of cultural and economic globalisation – continue to have resonance with the way that we approach and experience the world today. While the original story presented a restricted colonial interpretation of the world through its focus on the main trading routes of Victorian England, this exhibition looks to an expanded list of countries in order to represent a more current world viewpoint. "Around the World in Eighty Days" concentrates specifically on artists who were born abroad but now live and work in London.

language: english