{{Short description|Artwork by Alex Hartley}} [[File:Nowhereisland at Ringstead Bay 2012-07-25.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Nowhereisland by Alex Hartley, photographed at Ringstead Bay, being towed to Weymouth Bay, 25 July 2012.]] '''Nowhereisland''' was an artwork by artist Alex Hartley,<ref name="alexhartley">{{cite web|url=http://www.alexhartley.net/current-project.html |title=Current Projects | Alex Hartley - Artist |publisher=Alex Hartley |date= |accessdate=2013-10-04}}</ref> produced by the Bristol-based arts organisation, Situations.<ref name="situations">{{cite web|url=http://www.situations.org.uk/ |title=Award-winning Arts Organisation - Bristol Situations |publisher=Situations.org.uk |date=2013-08-13 |accessdate=2013-10-04}}</ref> Nowhereisland was an ‘Artists Taking the Lead’ project,<ref name="artscouncil">{{cite web|url=http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do2/our-priorities-2011-15/london-2012/artists-taking-the-lead/ |title=Artists taking the lead |publisher=Arts Council |date=2013-04-16 |accessdate=2013-10-04}}</ref> funded by Arts Council England as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.<ref name="artscouncil_a">{{cite web|url=http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/funded-projects/case-studies/artists-taking-lead-south-west/ |title=Artists taking the lead: South West |publisher=Arts Council |date= |accessdate=2013-10-04}}</ref>
The work involved the discovery of a new island that had been revealed from within the melting ice of a retreating glacier on the Svalbard peninsula in Norway.<ref name="guardian">{{cite news|author=Rachel Cooke |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/nov/27/alex-hartley-nowhereisland-cultural-olympiad |title=Alex Hartley: The world is still big | Review | Art and design | The Observer |publisher=Guardian |date= 2011-11-27|accessdate=2013-10-04 |location=London}}</ref> The island was taken out into International Waters by an expedition team, where it was declared a new nation. This new nation - Nowhereisland<ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14990509 |title=BBC News - Nowhere Island Olympic art team head home |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2011-09-20 |accessdate=2013-10-04}}</ref> - was towed around the South West coast of England prior to and during the 2012 Olympic Games.
The project was designed to examine democracy and investigate what a borderless nation might look like.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.treehugger.com/culture/nowhere-island-new-nation-newly-discovered-island-just-olympics.html|title=Nowhere Island is a New Nation on a Newly Discovered Island, Just for the Olympics|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> On its website (now defunct) Hartley explained that the Island "seeks to redefine what a nation can be. Nowhereisland embodies the global potential of a new borderless nation, which offers citizenship to all; a space in which all are welcome and in which all have the right to be heard. Nowhereisland’s constitution is and will be cumulative and consensual, open to all citizens and subject to change during the nation’s lifetime."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.treehugger.com/culture/nowhere-island-new-nation-newly-discovered-island-just-olympics.html|title=Nowhere Island is a New Nation on a Newly Discovered Island, Just for the Olympics|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> The project encouraged people to sign up as citizens and contribute to the creating of the constitution and objectives of the new nation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/cultural-olympiad/9525199/An-entirely-new-nation-Nowhereisland-arrives-in-Devon.html|title=An entirely new nation, 'Nowhereisland', arrives in Devon|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>
At the end of Nowhereisland's journey, in September 2012, the island was broken up and distributed amongst the 23,003 people from 135 countries signed up as "citizens of Nowhereisland".<ref name="nowhereisland">{{cite web|url=http://nowhereisland.org/ |title=Nowhereisland |publisher=Nowhereisland |date= |accessdate=2013-10-04}}</ref> Situations director Claire Doherty stated "It’s the ultimate form of citizenship...for ever more, the people of Nowhereisland will not just belong to the nation, they will own a part of it, too.”<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/cultural-olympiad/9525199/An-entirely-new-nation-Nowhereisland-arrives-in-Devon.html|title=An entirely new nation, 'Nowhereisland', arrives in Devon|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>
As a final gesture, a small piece of the island was sent to the edge of space, where some particles of rock from the island will remain in the upper-stratosphere.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{official website|http://nowhereisland.org/}}
Category:2012 Cultural Olympiad Category:British art
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