A Story Backwards – RM Collective at Auto Italia

29 Sep-3 Dec | AutoItalia | London

ICI London is pleased to support A Story Backwards, a new site-specific installation and the first solo exhibition in the UK by the Geneva and Berlin-based artist collective RM, commissioned and produced by Auto Italia, London.

Comedic stereotypes in theatre are used to establish social hierarchies based on the intersecting markers of gender and sexuality. In this fascinating exhibition, the audience is challenged to reflect on systems of control and the function of historical, cultural, and imaginary constructions.

The artists employ narrative and staging structures that have been adopted from Commedia dell’Arte – an experimental form of Italian public theatre popular across Europe between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries – to investigate how social archetypes are manufactured by authorities in culture and society.

A Story Backwards has been made possible by the ICI London, Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Cultural Fund, and The Embassy of Spain in London. Its public programme is supported by Goethe-Institut London.

Auto Italia is a non-profit contemporary visual art organisation dedicated to researching, producing, and exhibiting work on the intersections of queer studies and social change. Their programme supports artists, activists, and academics to develop critical discourse, active research, and experimental projects.

RM (formerly Real Madrid) is an artist collective founded in Geneva in 2015. The group’s works explore the intersections of sexuality, consumerism, and identity through large-scale sculpture and installation projects examining socio-political responses to stigmatised illnesses, focusing on sexually transmitted infections and diseases.