The Top 10 Exhibitions to See Around the World This December

2011 is the year when, according to writer Mike Davis, ‘Iskra [the revolutionary Russian newspaper founded by Lenin] becomes Facebook.’ It’s the year when models of protest and journalism developed in the 19th and 20th centuries were abandoned in favour of their digital progeny—Tahrir Square was organised largely on social media and subsequently documented by ‘citizen journalists’ on smartphones. In the large-scale wall piece Circa 2011 (2016), American Conceptual artist Mary Kelly highlights this sea change with an abstract image that obliquely recalls the events of the 1968 Arab Spring, reflecting the ‘aesthetic shift from the curated images that shape our recollection of 20th-century events… [to] vast networks of photographs taken with mobile phones...’ Like other works in the presentation, the image is composed using the artist’s signature compressed dryer lint, allowing Kelly to make incisive commentary on both geopolitical strife and the ingenuity of domestic labour. – Aimee Walleston