‘Our Better Nature’

Hauser & Wirth Somerset is pleased to host a panel discussion on the occasion of the exhibition, ‘The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind.’ Join the exhibition’s curator, Adam Sutherland, Director of Grizedale Arts, and guest speakers Fumihiko Sumitomo, Director of Art Maebashi, Japan, Jessica Lack, writer and panel chair, and Simon Mayhew-Archer, comedy producer and script editor, as they come together to discuss ideas and thoughts generated by the exhibition, focusing on the complexity and representation of rural culture and our relationship to it. ‘The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind’ is an ambitious survey exhibition that explores the contradictory nature of society’s relationship to the rural. Curated by Adam Sutherland, the presentation features over 100 international artists and creatives, as well as works on loan, by artists working from the 1500s to the present day, including Paul McCarthy, Beatrix Potter, Carsten Höller, Laure Prouvost, William Holman Hunt, Samuel Palmer, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcus Coates, Fernando García-Dory, Mark Dion, Roni Horn, Aaron Angell and Mark Wallinger. With protagonists ranging from 10th-century anchorites to 21st-century urban ruralists, ‘The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind’ tells the story of humanity’s evolving connection to the land, our perception of, and reliance upon it. Tickets £8 About the speakers Jessica Lack Jessica Lack is a writer. Her most recent book ‘Why Are We ‘Artists’? 100 World Art Manifestos’ is published by Penguin Modern Classics. She studied performance at Dartington College of Arts and was an arts correspondent for The Guardian for many years. She is a trustee of the rural campus, Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire. Simon Mayhew-Archer Simon is a comedy producer and script editor, whose most recent work has been to develop and produce two series of the critically acclaimed ‘This Country’ for the BBC. Previous credits include co-devising and producing three series of Josh Widdicombe’s ‘Josh’ for BBC Three, three series of ‘Small Scenes’ for BBC Radio, three series of ‘Newsjack’, two series of ‘The Guns of Adam Riches’, and an Arthur Mathews sitcom called ‘The Golden Age’. Simon is passionate about writing and developing projects from scratch with talent. Fumihiko Sumitomo Fumihiko Sumitomo is the Director of Arts Maebashi, based in the heart of Maebashi City, Japan. Previously, he was co-curator Aichi Triennale, 2013, ‘Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture from Japan’, 2007, and Media_City Seoul, 2010. He was also Artistic Director of the Festival for Arts and Social Technology Yokohama [CREAM], 2009, curator for Beppu Art Project, 2012, and co-editor of ‘From the Postwar to the Postmodern, Art in Japan 1945-1989: Primary Documents’. As a Senior Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT), he curated the exhibition ‘Tadashi Kawamata: Walkway’ in 2008. He also worked for NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) in Tokyo, where he organised the exhibitions, ‘Art Meets Media: Adventure in Perception’, 2005, and ‘Possible Futures: Japanese Postwar Art and Technology’, 2005. He is a founding member of Arts Initiative Tokyo (AIT), a nonprofit, independent collective of curators and art administrators based in Tokyo with the mission to provide a new public forum for contemporary art. Adam Sutherland Adam Sutherland is Director of Grizedale Arts, an arts collective based on a farm in the Lake District of England. As the director he leads many of the projects, creating structures into which a wide range of people can contribute, from artists to farmers, fishermen to philosophers. Since taking on the role in 2000, Adam Sutherland has overseen the three incarnations of the project (Socially Engaged Sculpture Park, Useful Communities Programme and International Small Place). Standout art world projects include ‘Romantic Detachment’ for PS1, ‘Coliseum of the Consumed’ for Frieze Projects, ‘A Fair Land’ for the Irish Museum of Modern Art, ‘7 Samurai’ for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan and ‘The Benevolent Order for the Repurposing of Public Artworks’ for APAP Korea. Sutherland is currently enthused by thoughts of a Confederacy of Villages, A Register of Intangible National Assets and establishing an internationally connected craft valley and residency farm in Japan.

Marcus Coates, Apple Service Provider, 2017 Photo: Andy Gott © Marcus Coates