Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years
27 March–9 June 2013

2000 Wasted Years is the first UK retrospective by the New York-based Bernadette Corporation. The exhibition recasts the works authored by the group since their inception in the early ’90s.

The origins of Bernadette Corporation lie in the organisation of parties in downtown New York, their mock incorporation and ambiguous branding strategies then developing in the mid ’90s into a women’s fashion line. Their engagement in quotation, concepts, fictions, appropriation, provocation, hoaxes, and anti-artistic postures of crass commercialism have subsequently seen them move within the fields of magazine publishing, film production, political activism, literature and the market-driven art world.

Across Bernadette Corporation’s twenty-year history and mutable membership there runs a thread of anonymity and opacity, the rejection of normative social forms and appellations such as being an artist, or a political activist. This ‘whatever’ subjectivity is as evident in the twenty-something museum guard turned model/muse anti-heroine of their 2004 novel Reena Spaulings, as it is in the radicalism of Black Bloc anarchists at the heart of the 2003 film Get Rid of Yourself.

2000 Wasted Years uses ‘retrospection’ as another turn in the corporate subjectivity of Bernadette Corporation. A lyrically and conceptually complex relay of the quotidian continues to engage the collective today, all the while underscored by the ‘reality’ of Bernadette Corporation, both as a group of relationships, and as brand.

Exhibition design by Gideon Ponte/Magnet.
Graphic design by Bill Hayden.

An Artists Space, New York, exhibition, in co-production with Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

Curated by Stefan Kalmár and Richard Birkett of Artists Space, New York, with Gregor Muir and Matt Williams of ICA, London.

With thanks to the Bernadette Corporation Exhibition Supporters Group.

Also on view:

The Independent Group: Parallel of Art & Life
27 March–16 June 2013
To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition Parallel of Life & Art, this exhibition presents original works and ephemera by the Independent Group, who met at the ICA 1952–55.

Rooftop Sculpture: Frank Benson
Until summer 2013

Related talks and events:

Warhol Screenings
Chelsea Girls – 5 April, 7pm
Sleep – 6 April, 12pm
Vinyl – 7 April, 7pm

Dean Blunt: IM JUST PASSIN THRU TO SHOW SOME LOVE
11 April, 8pm

Writings Workshops with Travis Jeppesen
13–14 April, 2pm

The Trouble with Artists Collectives
17 April, 6:45pm

Peer to Peer Platform: Artist Collective vs. Social Network
1 May, 6:45pm

Goldin+Senneby’s Headless, presented by Angus Cameron
15 May, 6:45pm

Culture Shop: The Art of Branding
29 May, 6:45pm

The Independent Alliance
6 June, All day

The Independent Group Screenings
Fathers of Pop – 8 June 
Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull – 9 June

An Introduction to Radical Thinkers
Nina Power on Ludwig Feuerbach – 9 April 
Federico Campagna on Simon Critchley – 23 April
Esther Leslie on Max Horkheimer – 7 May
Peter Hallward on Alain Badiou – 21 May
Stella Sanford on Wilheim Reich – 4 June

Friday Salons
Activism on the Map: The Zone Books Series on Non-Governmental Politics – 19 April
Instant Publishing / Automatic Writing – 10 May
On Digital Culture – 24 May

Academic Symposia
Parallel of Art & Life: A Conference on the Independent Group – 25–26 April
‘Who’s afraid of the public?’ – 4 May
Public Engagement and Impact: Articulating Value in Art and Design – 23 May

Culture Now
John Yorke – 5 April
Anne Massey & Ben Cranfield – 12 April
Hanaa Malallah – 19 April
Sonnet Stanfill – 3 May
Pil and Glaia Kollectiv with Jamie Stevens – 10 May
Lloyd Corporation – 24 May

ICA Student Forum
On Collaborative Elaboration of Meaning: Photography & Film – 14 May
Die Puffbrause – 1 June

Artists’ Film Club
Loris Gréaud – 10 April
Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor – 20 April
Collective Action (Group Screening) – 24 April
Abraham Cruzvillegas – 4 May
Rosa Barba – 8 May
Olaf Breuning – 18 May
Dani Gal – 22 May

ICA Artist Editions
Bernadette Corporation have created a new edition to accompany 2000 Wasted Years.
For information, contact vicky.steer@ica.org.uk | T +44 (0)20 7766 1425 | www.ica.org.uk/editions

All proceeds support the ICA.

Press information: Naomi Crowther | Press Officer | ICA | naomi.crowther@ica.org.uk | T 020 7766 1407