Image Behaviour, the ICA’s annual convening dedicated to experiments in artists’ moving image, returns in Spring 2022 with a programme that addresses significant shifts in moving image practices – exploring and supporting artists engaged in new approaches to art-making and presentation in the wake of a global pandemic.

The 2022 edition of Image Behaviour brings together new commissions and recent works, both single-screen and multi-screen projections, with a series of one-off live performances and events in the ICA Theatre and an online programme on a parallel digital platform.

The ICA has this year joined forces with Dr. Martens to support the creation of seven new commissions for Image Behaviour through production grants to emerging UK-based artists worth £60,000, awarded through a nationwide open call – the first time such grants have been awarded. 

Image Behaviour stakes out the need for new modes of engagement, presentation and discourse, encompassing the perceptual, technological and social possibilities that artists’ moving image brings to bear in 2021. Exploring the evolving role of moving image in the visual arts and its wider role within visual culture, the artists included in the programme are at the forefront of the medium in our generation-defining times.

Alongside the screenings at the ICA and the parallel programme of online streams, a major symposium and seminar series will discuss, explore and develop the theoretical, social and political impulses of moving image making, embracing the value of dialogue as a progressive tool in the development of artists, institutions and audiences.

Artists working with film and moving image have long been central to the vision of the ICA, which has previously presented everything from landmark pieces by the likes of Derek Jarman, Steve McQueen and Mathew Barney to more recent cross-disciplinary work from artists such as James Richards and Metahaven. Now held annually, Image Behaviour continues the ICA’s significant commitment to supporting artists whose work in moving image navigates the space between the cinema and the gallery.

Spring 2022
Currently in production for Image Behaviour
Read more about the work currently in production by the recipients of this year’s Image Behaviour production grants in partnership with Dr. Martens.