Setting the Table: Village Politics
Whitechapel Gallery, London
May 2019

8 May - 20 August


Curated by Jane Scarth and Sofia Victorino
Whitechapel Gallery - The Rural

From the exhibition text in Whitechapel Gallery:

‘The rural is a multitude and it is dynamic, it can be attached or detached from a geography, it can be a mindset, a certain practice or a shared identity.’
Myvillages, The Rural (Documents of Contemporary Art), 2019

Sliced rocks, frog butter spoons, bottled spirits and tractor parts are imported by artist collective Myvillages (Kathrin Böhm, Wapke Feenstra and Antje Schiffers) to reset the gallery as a mental and physical space for the rural, to be shared as a place where multiple voices and experiences converge.

Working internationally for over fifteen years, Myvillages collaborate with rural communities in ways that reflect and engage local cultures, economies and resources. Negotiating differences and marginalised positions, the group proposes a transnational model of self-organisation - from developing and selling products to making exhibitions, films and books; from serving drinks to telling stories.

This exhibition includes a range of objects, products and films created with villages around the world including Russia, China, Ghana, Germany, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands and the United States.

In times of deep social and political fracture, by reframing the countryside as an active space of cultural production Myvillages challenge preconceptions about the meaning of ‘the rural’ today, towards a new political imagination and a culture of radical solidarity and care.



This website documents the work of Myvillages from 2003 to 2023.

To find out where Myvillages is working at the moment visit ruralschoolofeconomics.info and villageplay.net.
All our project websites are listed at “about us”.

Contact us at info@myvillages.org