“Tomorrow” Finissage and Q&A with Mark Wallinger and Pallas Citroen

Join us for the Finissage of our group exhibition “Tomorrow”, celebrating 10 years of The Bomb Factory Art Foundation. Please join us from 11.00 am - 12.30 pm for pastries, and a special Q&A with exhibiting artist Mark Wallinger and Bomb Factory Director Pallas Citroen, where they will be discussing Mark’s film “ARCADIA”, as well as the history of The Bomb Factory over the last decade.

Arcadia is a kaleidoscopic documentation of the spring lockdowns of 2021 and 2022, presented as a double-screen installation that transports us 'through the looking glass.' Taking its formal cue from the glassy stare of redundant shop windows and the recreation ground that central London became—with empty buses running their routes regardless—people and vehicles appear and vanish in a play of reflection and symmetry. This symmetry was achieved entirely in camera, the lens pressed against the plate glass of shops, bus shelters and other reflective surfaces. The two contiguous films of different lengths, run in a never-repeating loops, creating ever-changing image pairings.

‘During the pandemic the purpose or meaning of work moved from habit to something more existential for everyone, just as the limited freedom that was allowed in the first lockdown for solitary exercise and recreation brought something new to the streets of London, as we learned to move from moment to moment.’ MW.

‘For every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ Newton’s third law of motion and the symmetry it expresses became something of a mantra to Wallinger.