The Institute of Things to Come: Four Solo Shows and Workshops at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

The Institute of Things to Come, a temporary research center at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, runs from February to September 2017, hosting 52 international students. The project, supported by Compagnia di San Paolo under the ORA! call, features four solo exhibitions by Bedwyr Williams, Kapwani Kiwanga, Alicia Framis, and the duo Hervè & Maillet, each paired with a four-day workshop for 13 participants selected via open call. Artists collaborate with specialists: Williams with Tai Shani, Kiwanga with Mirene Arsanios, Framis with Lilet Breddels, and Hervè & Maillet with a marine ethologist. Workshops explore themes like political dissolution (Williams's ECHT), postcolonialism (Kiwanga's Afrogalactica), space exploration (Framis's Where did the future go?), and immortality (Hervè & Maillet's The Waterway). No new works were created; existing pieces serve as springboards for speculative futures. The project emphasizes imagination as a tool for critique and emancipation, not prediction.