The Real Truth. A World's Fair

28 July to 19 August 2012

A project by Suzanne Treister at Raven Row over four weekends featuring four keynote speeches within a specially designed theatre: A global futurist, a U.S. Security Agency insider, an anarcho-primitivist and the international expert on world's fairs... Alongside an exhibition including three unique libraries, two video lounges and designs for a virtual world's fair. 

 

Weekend 28/29 July, 4/5, 11/12, 18/19 August 2012

 

Saturdays:

3pm: Exhibition open

5–7pm: Lecture/Performance (see below)

7–9pm: Exhibition open

 

Sundays:

11–6pm: Exhibition open, with screenings of previous lecture/performances

 

 

Lectures/Performances

 

Robert Rydell

Saturday 28 July 2012

Recording

 

John Zerzan

Saturday 4 August 2012

Film recording

 

Jim Channon

Saturday 11 August 2012

Film recording

 

Richard Thieme

Saturday 18 August 2012

Film recording

 

 

Since London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 world’s fairs have provided a space for nations to represent themselves. They are potent signs of the fantasies, politics and technologies of their times and aspirations for the future. The Real Truth. A World’s Fair exposes aspects of the present and proposes ways into the future.

 

A contextual introduction will be provided by Robert W. Rydell’s in-depth analysis of the politics and histories of world’s fairs, to be followed by lecture/performances from three visionary speakers: John Zerzan, Jim Channon and Richard Thieme, who actively devote their lives to ideas, visions and projects for the future of the planet.

 

During the weekends Raven Row's upstairs galleries will house three libraries: A Military/Intelligence Recruitment Library, Fifth Estate Anarchist Magazine 1965–2012 and Jon Bewley’s ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Library. Historical artefacts from world’s fairs, designs for a virtual world’s fair, and memorabilia provided by each speaker will also be displayed. Screenings in the video lounges included Strange Culture by Lynn Hershman Leeson (2007) and Das Netz by Lutz Dammbeck (2003).

 

The Real Truth. A World’s Fair will provide audiences with extraordinary food for thought and action.

 

Suzanne Treister is a London-based artist. Her most recent project, ‘HEXEN 2.0’, was shown this year at the Science Museum, London, travelling to Hartware MedienKunstverein, Dortmund; D21, Leipzig; Secession, Vienna and P.P.O.W, New York.

 

Exhibition view 

Photograph by Eva Herzog

New York World’s Fair 1939–40, 1939–40

Silent, colour

28 minutes

 

The World’s Fair: August 1940, 1940

Silent, colour

4 minutes

 

To New Horizons, 1940

Silent, colour

23 minutes


The Medicus Collection: New York World’s Fair, 1939–40, 1939–40

Silent, colour; 3 screens

6 hours

 

Photograph by Eva Herzog

World's fair memorabilia

Collection of Suzanne Treister

Photograph by Eva Herzog

World’s fair postcards, 1900–84

Collection of Suzanne Treister

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

World’s fair postcards, 1900–84

Collection of Suzanne Treister

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Wall drawing of Tim Berner's Lee diagram of the World Wide Web

Suzanne Treister

Photograph by Eva Herzog

The Real Truth: A World's Fair, Raven Row, 2012 

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Wall drawing 

Suzanne Treister

Photography by Eva Herzog

Lutz Dammbeck

Das Netz (The Net), 2003

121 minutes

Photograph by Eva Herzog

The Last Enemy, 2008

BBC television series, 5 episodes

Episode 1; 85 minutes

Episodes 2–5; 65 minutes

Photograph by Eva Herzog

Jon Bewley’s ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Library

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Jon Bewley’s ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Library

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Fifth Estate Magazine (1965–2012) Library

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Fifth Estate Magazine (1965–2012) Library

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Military/Intelligence Recruitment Library

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Peter Foldes

Portrait of Professor Anthony Blunt Reading, 1947

Inkjet print; digital reproduction of oil on canvas

(61 x 50.8 cm)

Courtesy The Courtauld Gallery Collection, London

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Lynn Hershman Leeson

Strange Culture, 2007

75 minutes

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

 

Robert Rydell

Crystal Palaces, Crystal Balls and Crystal-Clear Illusions of Progress:

From World’s Fairs to the World Wide Web

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Robert Rydell

Crystal Palaces, Crystal Balls and Crystal-Clear Illusions of Progress:

From World’s Fairs to the World Wide Web

Photograph by Bernard G Mills

 

Menu for refreshments following Robert Rydell's talk 

Photograph by Bernard G Mills  

Refreshments by Ollie Hogan following Robert Rydell's talk 

Photograph by Bernard G Mills

Refreshments by Ollie Hogan following Robert Rydell's talk 

Photograph by Bernard G Mills

 

John Zerzan

The Murderous Idolatry of the Future; Anarcho-Primitivism and the End of Technology

Photograph by Eva Herzog

John Zerzan

The Murderous Idolatry of the Future; Anarcho-Primitivism and

the End of Technology

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

John Zerzan's memorabilia

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

John Zerzan's memorabilia

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Recital from memory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Monica Ross

Photograph by Eva Herzog

Jim Channon

Go Planet! A Strategic Visionary Story and Art for the Next

Military Century!

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Jim Channon

Go Planet! A Strategic Visionary Story and Art for the Next Military Century!

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Jim Channon's memorabilia

Photograph by Eva Herzog

Richard Thieme

A Wilderness of Mirrors: Conspiracy Theories and the Necessary

Counter-Intelligence of Everyday Life

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Richard Thieme's memorabilia

Photograph by Eva Herzog

 

Richard Thieme's memorabilia

Photograph by Eva Herzog