Formed in 1947 by the poet and critic Herbert Read and the Surrealist artist Roland Penrose, the ICA is one of the world's most venerable contemporary art institutions today. With over 6000 members, among its current supporters are Sam Taylor Wood (Council Member), Madonna (Vice President) and Artists Patrons David Bowie, Jane Campion, Bryan Ferry, Peter Gabriel and Joanne Lumley.
Since its first groundbreaking exhibition in 1948 - 40 Years of Modern Art, which featured the work of Matisse, Picasso, Bacon and others, the ICA has been a public playground for presenting challenging work across the arts and for forging innovative ways of thinking about culture during a time when there was a general antipathy towards the idea of "contemporary" in British Society.
By the 1950s, the ICA had a role across a range of media, providing what Herbert Read described as "a centre where the living arts of painting and sculpture, of architecture and music, of theatre and film, can meet and mutually inspire one another, in open collaboration with the public ".
With around 500,000 people visiting the ICA last year, most recent successes include an exhibition by John Bock entitled Klutterklammer which drew an audience of over 12,000 whilst The Pet Shop Boys and Battleship Potemkin in Trafalgar Square drew an audience of 35,000.
Equally important are the films acquired by the ICA: Kandahar, acquired just four days after 11.9.01, which outperformed Harry Potter on a screen by screen basis and Michael Winterbottom's In This World were both huge successes.
With major collaborations already set up with key metropolitan cities globally including Berlin , Beijing , Moscow and New York, the ICA is the hub of a global network and past working partners have included Sony Playstation, Channel 4, the Hong Kong government and The Economist.
The ICA's other initiatives include The Club for small creative businesses in the area of design/fashion/product/digital and TV/multi-media providing seminars, business advice and excursions to cities worldwide to secure profile and work, a PhD programme (in conjunction with The Tate and the University of London) and digital training to the socially excluded in their own environment.
ICA CINEMA KEY FORTHCOMING EVENTS SPRING 2005
TURTLES CAN FLY - 7 Jan to 3 March 2005
Shot on location in an Iraqi refugee camp on the Turkish border, director Bahman Ghobadi's powerfully moving third feature Turtles Can Fly is the first film to come out of Iraq since the collapse of Saddam's regime.
15 - 4 to 20 Feb 2005
28 year old director Royston Tan confronted the authorities head-on with his debut feature, a wild, vivid, lyrical and graphic look at teenage delinquency in Singapore. Despite being savaged by the local film censors and labelled "a threat to national security", Tan and his film have found critical public acclaim around the world.
MOOG - 28 to 28 Feb 2005
Moog traces the history of his invention and other forms of electronic instrumentation, brining together technical details with his own personal philosophies while tending to his organic vegetable garden.
JAPANESE FILM AFTER MR PINK - 5 to 11 February 2005
Japanese Directors of the post-Tarantino generation
Inspired by an article in the prestigious Japanese cinema magazine Kinema Junpo about the influence of Quentin Tarantino on Japan's young filmmakers, this season brings together work from a number of independent minded directors who emerged in the mid-90's - the 'post-Tarantino' generation. A mixture of rites-of-passage dramas, road movies and Kafkaesque nightmares, often set in semi-surreal universes, the season gives audiences an opportunity to see how these young filmmakers measure up to those of the same generation who are already well-known in the UK .
Titles include: The Loved Gun, Monday, Blue Spring, Wild Life, Adrenalin Drive, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl
INSOMNIA SEASON - 25 February to 12 March
As part of an ongoing commitment to promote and facilitate international contemporary culture, the ICA regularly looks to Asian as a powerful creative force, recently curating city-to-city events with Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong. To this end, the ICA host a season of work from South East Asia including Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Jakarta and Singapore aiming to showcase Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia as culturally diverse and creative hot spots with an international reputation beyond being front-runners for technology and commerce.
One of Singapore's most strident voices across traditions and cultures, Ong Keng Sen is theatre director, festival curator and cultural communicator. Keng Sen will embark on his first major London season at the ICA . Amongst a series of theatre, music, dance and installation, the diverse programme of events includes filmmakers Lexy Junior Rambadeta's award-winning documentaries Songs of The Heart, about a community living on a rubbish dump, and 2.5 Billions Dollars for the State, about the experiences of Indonesian women migrant workers in Hong Kong.
The Insomnia season hints at brave new worlds where artists are retreating from the bastions of overt politics to a highly personalised and individual expression. The artists are glib and savvy, embracing the language of globalisation, consumerism, appropriation without guilt and with a deliberate naivete, which is refreshing in the face of the gloom and doom of world politics.
As part of the season and to celebrate the release of Tropical Malady (4 March), the ICA presents the first retrospective look at the sublime work of visionary Thai filmmaker and visual artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul (better know simply as 'Joe').
Titles being screened include: Mysterious Object at Noon, Blissfully Yours and The Adventure of Iron Pussy.
For full details of the screenings and events visit www.ica.org.uk
ONEDOTZERO - 26 May to 4 June 2005
The globally acclaimed annual festival features new forms of moving image across music video, computer gaming cinematics, architecture, motion graphics, new media, feature films and graphic-inflected narrative shorts and documentaries with a series of panels, presentations, screening programmes and live events.
BECK'S FUTURES 2005
Now in its sixth year, Beck's Futures is firmly established as one of the biggest and most highly regarded of the U.K's annual Arts prizes, whilst retaining its position as an exploratory and irreverent alternative to the mainstream. Organised in conjunction with the ICA, Beck's Futures identifies, supports and promotes the work of the most promising contemporary artists working in the UK not only through a prize fund of £65,000, but also by representation at a special exhibition held at the ICA.
There is also a prize for Student Film and Video worth £5,000 and aims to showcase the best contemporary student work, and includes performance art, narrative film, animation and documentary.
Shizana Arshad
Past titles screened at the ICA:
Andrei Rublev
20 Fingers
Bukowski
Edward Said
In Casablanca Angels Don't Fly
The Ister
In This World
Kontroll
LA Plays Itself
Lady Snowblood
Mindscape of Alan Moore
Nobody Knows
Osama
Silence Between Two Thoughts
Turtles Can Fly
Uzak
Wall
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