The UK debut of 'Arcadia', a new multi-screen film by artist John Akomfrah, opens on 30 November
9 November 2023
Arcadia, the latest film work by the hugely respected artist John Akomfrah, will receive its UK debut at The Box – Plymouth’s award-winning museum, art gallery and archive – from Thursday 30 November 2023 until Sunday 2 June 2024.
With beautiful visuals of landscapes from across the globe, stunning underwater footage and a haunting soundtrack, the film reflects on ‘The Columbian Exchange’ – the widespread transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, commodities, populations, technology, diseases and ideas between the Americas, Afro-Eurasia and Europe – the ‘New World’ and the ‘Old World’ – from the 1400s onwards.
For Akomfrah, who is well-known for his immersive and thought-provoking installations that examine issues such as colonialism and climate change, it’s been a long time in the making.
My work on Arcadia began in 2019 after receiving the commission from The Box, and my initial reference point was the sailing of the Mayflower from Plymouth to America in 1620. By early 2020, most of the research was done, but a week after we’d finalised the filming locations the UK went into a lockdown. The three years that followed gave me the time and space for a rethink and the significance of the pandemic became clear.
It was a timely reminder that there are always powerful forces at work that are beyond our control. Humans are never the only actors on the stage. I decided I had to go back even further, and I became interested in how the settling of the ‘New World’ wasn’t done only through swords or battles, but included a cocktail of viruses and germs that people had no immunity for. I wanted to go back to a time before the guns came out – to explore what other weapons, intended or otherwise, were in play.
John Akomfrah
Arcadia has a multi-layered, non-linear narrative featuring storms, restless seas, vast skies, beaches, ice fields, mountains, rivers and forests. We see how miraculous our planet is, but the epic scenery and landscapes are ‘interrupted’ by images of cargo, symbols of trade, ageing boat hulks, microbes, cells and people suffering from smallpox. They combine to evoke ideas of migration, journeys, colonial encounters, how things travel and spread, growth and decay.
There’s a slight ironic detachment with the title. Somewhere in the European imagination there’s this fantasy of a new beginning – a place ‘over there’ where we can be ourselves, where we can be free. Yet, in the process of trying to create a ‘green and pleasant land’ people have often ended up creating something quite different. Migration is such a complex issue with many, many unintended consequences. Somebody’s free world is usually someone else’s hell.
John Akomfrah
Arcadia, an initial version of which was screened at ‘Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present' earlier this year, has been re-edited especially for its presentation in Plymouth. With a running time of 50 minutes, it forms part of a season of exhibitions and events at The Box based around the theme of ‘Revisiting History’. The National Gallery’s Dutch Flowers (until 7 January 2024) and Yinka Shonibare CBE RA’s End of Empire (until 23 June 2024) are also on display.
The Box is delighted to be presenting Arcadia. It’s such a powerful work – a poignant reminder of the relationships between the past and the present, and how the structures of our contemporary age have been informed by certain narratives, but not others. This commission is part of a wider body of work we’re presenting over the next few months which reflects on understanding more about Britain’s colonial past and Plymouth’s place within it, as well as the diversity and richness of history and our own unique collections.
Victoria Pomery, CEO, The Box
Akomfrah, who will represent Great Britain at next year’s Venice Biennale (20 April-24 November 2024) presents Arcadia as five screens in the shape of a cross – a departure from his recent three-screen works and a nod to the expansive nature of its subject matter. Part of the film features a piece of music called The African – a 19th century opera about the conquest of colony. The sound of ticking clocks can be heard at various points to signal the coming of the Modern Age.
This is the second time Akomfrah has worked with Plymouth after 2015’s Tropikos, a fictional costume drama set in the 1500s, which was filmed along the River Tamar and focuses on the city’s place at the centre of British maritime history and its links to the slave trade.
It just felt necessary to restage this in Plymouth. It was once the epicentre of colonial adventure – the New York of the 16th century. You can’t do a story about the ‘New World’ without including Plymouth.
John Akomfrah
John Akomfrah: Arcadia will be shown at The Box from 30 November 2023 to 2 June 2024. Opening hours are 10am-5pm Tuesday to Sunday and selected bank holidays. Entry is free and there’s no need to book.
Images credit
John Akomfrah, Arcadia, 2023. © Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.