Originally shown in Porto Alegre, Brazil, ‘What’s your Location?’ featured the works of 10 contemporary international artists brought together by Antonio Da Silva and curated by Steven Scott and Ruth Jones. ‘What’s your Location?’ originally sought to explore what is more real, that which we see for the first time or what we know from experience? Is our memory of a subject more real than its description? What of the many representations of the world; can we take them as substitutes for a deferred reality or the condition of the world itself? The exhibition presented works that derived from artists living in different environments using various means to address their circumstances, continuing to ask these same questions of us. How do we apprehend the world now that we can experience it more easily as representation than at first hand? Where does this leave us? Central to the Brazil exhibition was Da Silva’s concern that the exhibition impact the community in which it was presented. To this end artists present at the private view gave informal talks, local cultural TV programmes interviewed the artists, and Scott and Jones gave lectures and led discussions about their practice. Director of the Mercosul Bienal, Gaudencio Fidelis, attended the private view and commenced discussion with Da Silva regarding the development of ‘What's your Location?’ For the second iteration of ‘What's your Location?’, Da Silva, Jones and Scott broadened the scope of the exhibition by inviting international artists at varying points in their career to submit proposals for the Kuwaiti presentation of ‘What's your Location?’ at CAP Kuwait, bringing the total number of artists to 16. To further the community impact, artists present at the Kuwait exhibition again gave informal talks about their work, Da Silva developed workshops with other artists for the artist community, Scott held development tutorials, and lectures from Da Silva, Scott, Amira Behbehani and Jassim Alnashmi took place. The exhibition received the attention of diplomats and as a result Alnashmi has developed a relationship with the embassy which has led to the procurement of funding to facilitate ‘What's your Location?’ to be brought to the U.K. Da Silva, Scott, Jones and Alnashmi are in discussion with Fidelis to further the impact and ambition of ‘What's your Location?’ as a project, putting a programme of lectures and discussions with the esteemed curator and director in place. To this end, returning and invited artists will interrogate in greater depth and scale the original concept behind the title: how do we apprehend the world now that we can experience it more easily as a representation than at first hand? The nature of ‘What's your Location?’ in theme and scope has made the curators, organisers and contributors to the project mindful of globalisation, colonialism and intersectionality. Their desire to platform artists who represent a breadth of voices and open discourse around these sometimes problematic and juxtaposing issues is paramount as the project moves forward.
