Nowhereisland

23003 Citizens
The Journey Embassy
Become a Citizen
Twitter About the project

About Nowhereisland

INTRODUCTION
Nowhereisland was an island which journeyed from the High Arctic region of Svalbard to the south west coast of England in summer 2012. As it made this epic journey, it travelled through international waters, whereupon it became the world's newest nation - Nowhereisland - with citizenship open to all.

Over its year-long status as a nation, it accrued over 23,000 citizens and 2,700 propositions to its online constitution, travelled 2,500 miles accompanied by its mobile Embassy and was greeted by thousands in ports and harbours around the south west coast of England. On Sunday 9th September, the island left Bristol and the territory is shortly to be dispersed amongst its citizens.

This showreel documents its journey from Arctic island to celebrated small visiting nation - a land artwork for our time.

MORE DETAILS
Nowhereisland arrived in Weymouth on 25th July for the sailing events of the London 2012 Olympic Games as a visiting island nation, accompanied by its remarkable mobile Embassy, packed full of intriguing objects and fascinating information and hosted by the Nowhereisland Ambassadors. It continued its journey, visiting other ports and harbours where it was hosted by choirs, bands, citizen marches, a flotilla of surfers, gig rowers, sea shanty singers and thousands of people on cliff tops, beaches, harbours and promenades. Find out more about Nowhereisland's journey here.

Nowhereisland is an artwork by Alex Hartley and is produced by Bristol-based arts organisation Situations. It caught the imagination of thousands of people across the world. 23,000 people from 90 countries have signed up to be citizens, contributing to the online constitution and responding to the year-long Resident Thinkers programme. More than 20 schools and community groups across the South West helped to plan how to welcome Nowhereisland to their local port.

Nowhereisland was a Situations project, one of 12 Artists Taking the Lead projects across the UK, funded by the Arts Council of England, which formed part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad in summer 2012.

 

WATCH THE FILMS ABOUT NOWHEREISLAND

Introductory film

Filmed by David Bickerstaff and Razaka Firmager. Edited by David Bickerstaff

To view a BSL version of this video click here

 

Nowhereisland's arrival into Weymouth

 

Resident Thinkers on Nowhereisland


For more information, on the project, check out the FAQs.

Download an introduction to Nowhereisland here.

Close
Resident Thinkers
Logbook Facebook
Press Contact

Nowhereisland is a Situations project led by artist Alex Hartley, one of 12 Artist Taking the Lead projects for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad funded by Arts Council England. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the University of the West of England, Bristol; Bloomberg; Nicky Wilson Jupiter Artland; the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Royal Norwegian Embassy and Yellowbrick Tracking.

Identity designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio and Wolfram Wiedner, website by Wolfram Wiedner.