THERE IS NO ROAD (THE ROAD IS MADE BY WALKING)

Group exhibition, Laboral, Gijón, Spain
(December 2008 - March 2009)

CURATOR: Steven Bode, Director of Film and Video Umbrella, London
ARTISTS: Axel Antas, Ibon Aranberri, Ergin Çavusoglu, Gabriel Díaz, AK Dolven, Simon Faithfull, Annabel Howland, Roberto Lorenzo, Lutz & Guggisberg, Alexander & Susan Maris, Simon Pope, Erika Tan.

There Is No Road (The Road is Made by Walking) is a contemporary arts exhibition featuring moving-image and other works by twelve international artists, approximately half of which will be new commissions that will be shown for the first time at Laboral.

Taking its cue from the famous lines of the poet Antonio Machado, There Is No Road consists of a range of artists' projects that record or evoke a series of actual or imaginary journeys, either through the local landscape of Asturias, or through a comparably remote and mountainous terrain. Many of these journeys are made in a spirit of 'pilgrimage' (inspired by the proximity of the Camino to Santiago which runs through the North of Spain). In an echo of the Camino, the journeys undertaken are frequently on foot, gravitating towards iconic, culturally significant locations or in pursuit of historically resonant sites, in so doing uncovering or retracing paths that have been walked many times before. Others, by contrast, are forays into the wilderness, to places where roads cease to exist, or are obscured by the mist and rain that is a characteristic of this isolated mountain topography; journeys along roads that have become impassable, or have to be forged or discovered, as if for the first time. An attempt to picture some of the sublime natural beauty of Asturias (and other nearby or more exotic mountain landscapes), There Is No Road is an exploration, across a number of different media, of a particular, and enduring, 'spirit of place'. Alongside newly commissioned works that bring international artists to Asturias, the exhibition also highlights personal journeys and encounters that are equally universal and everyday, with a particular emphasis on affinities and connections between Britain and Spain.

GRAPHIC DESIGN: The Studio of Fernando Gutiérrez