New must-see exhibition at V&A

Imagine a world where books, memory and technology have all been lost and recording, writing and collecting are totally banned.

Thankfully this scenario is fictional, but the V&A’s new evocative exhibition, in collaboration with Sky Arts Ignition, brings it to life.

The museum has commissioned Hari Kunzru to write a new work of fiction, Memory Palace, which has been transformed into a ‘walk in book’ by twenty graphic designers, illustrators and typographers. The innovative concept is based around the idea that instead of reading it, you can walk through it, absorbed by each artist’s interpretation of the text.

‘We wanted a walk-in story that, in this virtual age, would make visitors really think about what “reading” is and what a book might be,’ says curator Laurie Britton Newell.

Part novel, part installation, Kunzru’s work satirises our cultural obsession with information.

Set in a future London, Memory Palace is a dystopian tale in which a magnetic storm has wiped out all record of history. Two groups remain: the Things- the regime in power who have banned any form of remembering, and the Memorialists - a tribe dedicated to reviving the ancient "art of memory". The story’s narrator, imprisoned for being a member of this banned gang, uses his prison cell to hoard fragments of knowledge, dubbing it his ‘memory palace’.

The artists on show, and their responses to the text, are an eclectic mix, from Nemo Tral’s monochrome watercolours to Erik Kessel’s church made from recycled newspaper.

Experimental Israeli typographer Oded Ezer exhibits eight short films that interpret different definitions described in the story, plus Le Gun’s striking black and white quack doctor wagon stands centrepiece in the gallery.

Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace runs until Oct 20 at the V&A (Cromwell Rd London SW7 2RL)

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