Royal College of Art Galleries - This much is certain

13 March - 4 April 2004
Open 12 noon - 9pm daily
Admission free

Miriam Bäckström (Sweden), Daniel Baker (UK), Gerard Byrne (Ireland),
Dexter Dalwood (UK), Jeremy Deller (UK), Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard (UK), Huang Yongping (China/France), Emily Jacir (Palestine/US), John Massey (Canada), Aernout Mik (The Netherlands), The Museum of Jurassic Technology (US), Kirsten Pieroth (Germany), Jamie Shovlin (UK), Jeffrey Vallance (US)

This much is certain consists of four parts: an exhibition, a documentary film programme, a series of talks and a publication. The exhibition project will explore artists' use of documents and documentaries in space, time and text. It will include Jeffrey Vallance's personal artefacts from his audience with the King of Tonga, an exhibit on loan from The Museum of Jurassic Technology (No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again: Letters to Mount Wilson Observatory 1915-1935) and New Sexual Lifestyles (2003) an installation by Gerard Byrne based on a transcript of a panel discussion that appeared in a 1973 issue of Playboy.

Huang Yongping and Daniel Baker have both been commissioned to make new installations. Miriam Bäckström's latest project Rebecka (2004) features a well-known Swedish actress playing herself. Emily Jacir's From Texas With Love (2002), documents a one hour drive by the artist in Texas, accompanied by songs selected by Palestinians. Other works include a three-screen film installation As the Hammer Strikes (1982) by John Massey, who has never previously shown in Britain.

The film programme will run 12-9 pm every day in a specially constructed mini-cinema in the RCA galleries. Over thirty films will be screened, including Peter Watkins's historical re-enactment La Commune (Paris, 1871); Man with a Plan by John O'Brien, a documentary about a 79-year old farmer running for US Congress; A Sense of History by Mike Leigh, a film portrait of the 23rd Earl of Leete pottering around his woodland estate; Videogramme einer Revolution (1992), an account of the 1989 Romanian 'revolution' by Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica that uses only authentic TV and amateur video footage; Unmade Beds by Nicholas Barker, the '95% real' story of four New Yorker singles in their desperate quest for a partner; Gates of Heaven by Errol Morris investigates the transferral of hundreds animal remains from one pet cemetery to another. A full list of films is attached.

The talks programme includes Jeffrey Vallance (artist, US), Nick Broomfield (documentary filmmaker, UK), Paul Thompson (oral historian, UK), Jan Verwoert (art critic, Germany), Christopher Mitchell (documentary filmmaker,
UK) and Edward Lucas (correspondent for The Economist, UK).

The 216 page black and white catalogue This much is certain includes an essay about the project, source material and other contributions submitted by the artists.

This much is certain is organised by graduating students on the MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London.

For updates and a full schedule of film screenings and talks, please visit: http://www.cca.rca.ac.uk/thismuchiscertain