100 Journeys is a major new series of sculptures by Marc Quinn
In late 2019, Quinn began creating 100 Journeys, a series of 100 portrait busts of refugees which celebrate the sitters’ individualities and stories, in order to challenge the common media presentation of refugees as undifferentiated masses.
Initially moved by the stories of refugees crossing the Mediterranean, Quinn felt compelled to make a co-authored artwork series with one hundred resettled refugees from different times and places, to raise awareness and raise funds for refugee causes. With much of his practice rooted in art history, Quinn found inspiration in the history of the Greek Islands, the birthplace of Classical Antiquity, where the genre of portraiture was born. To this day, the portrait bust has been employed continuously to immortalise the individuality, status and memory of sitters. Yet historically, it has been reserved for society’s most powerful, from royalty, religion, and mythology. Quinn’s 100 Journeys series poses a challenge to whom we traditionally choose to celebrate and immortalise within our collective humanity and why.
100 Journeys are contemporary versions of Greco-Roman sculptures made from concrete, based on 3D scans of the sitters. To date, Quinn is making portraits of resettled refugees living across Europe and the USA, who have sought refuge from different zones of conflict including Somalia, Syria, Iran, Burundi, Turkey, Rwanda, Burma and Venezuela, and from different humanitarian crises dating back to the Holocaust.
A NEW FORM OF ART PHILANTHROPY
The profit from each 100 Journeys sculpture generates donations for refugee-related charities selected by the sitters and the refugee council. The project is entirely not-for-profit.
About Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn, born 1964, is recognised as one of the leading artists of his generation. His work – which encompassed sculptures, paintings and drawings – is an exploration of the multifaceted experience of being human. Although by nature contemporary, his work connects frequently and meaningfully with art history, from modern masters right back to Classical antiquity. Quinn’s work is included in collections around the world, including Tate, London; Metropolitan Museum and Guggenheim, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Arario Museum, Seoul; Fondazione Prada, Milan; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Quinn came to prominence in 1991 when he began re-examining the idea of portraiture with his iconic sculpture Self (1991), a cast of the artist’s head made from ten pints of his own frozen blood. Much of his early work focused similarly on explorations of self, but Quinn soon began reflecting the experiences of others, often challenging society’s unexamined, normative perceptions. Prominent in this shift was his critically acclaimed sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant (2005), a portrait of a disabled artist which was installed on the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square from 2005-2007. Breath (2012), a colossal replica of Alison Lapper Pregnant was commissioned for London’s 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony; and Self-conscious Gene (2019) a 3.5-metre bronze sculpture of ‘Zombie Boy’ Rick Genest, now on permanent display at the Science Museum, London.
Quinn’s turn to a broader social canvas is taken even further in his engagement with the most urgent social and environmental issues of our contemporary world. Garden (2000), first shown at Fondazione Prada, is a vast installation described by the artist as “a garden of Eden made from human desire” –an early commentary on society’s relationship with nature. More recently the media, current affairs and world events have shaped Quinn’s artistic focus. History Paintings (2009 – present) is his ten-year series of hyperreal oil paintings of pivotal news moments in recent history, drawn directly from press photography. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as news cycles ac-celerated, Quinn created HISTORYNOW (2020 – present), a series of paintings derived from iPhone screenshots of news stories and Instagram posts, more urgent in their method and impact.
Since 2015, Quinn has been developing a major public artwork called 100 Journeys, a collaborative portrait involving 100 refugees. Focused on generating as many immediate donations as possible for refugee causes and sharing the stories of the sitters, Quinn started working on 100 Journeys, which continues Quinn’s practice of activating and transforming public spaces with thought-provoking works.