Panel discussion about MONITOR exhibition

On 12 March, the Royal Academy of Arts London will host a Panel Discussion on the occasion of MONITOR, James Capper’s solo presentation in The Ronald and Rita McAulay Gallery, a space for new voices in architecture at the heart of the RA.

The talk will be moderated by Paloma Strelitz, and James will be joined by Kateryna Filyuk, IZOLYATSIA, Kyiv (commissioners of the project) and his collaborators designer Thomas Pearce and architect Greg Storrar.

Hosted by Sebastien Mazella di Bosco and Katy Wickremesinghe, Trustees of the Royal Academy, the event will take place in the Collections Gallery.

MONITOR is a nomadic studio commissioned by the Ukrainian arts foundation in exile, IZOLYATSIA, to offer a new space for artists visiting Kyiv. The eight-metre-long inhabitable mobile sculpture learns from the physiology of reptiles in walking locomotion, with four hydraulic legs and a pivoting frame that allows it to navigate rough terrain, water and ice fields.

This ambitious work is a collaboration between artist James Capper with designer Thomas Pearce and architect Greg Storrar, building on Capper’s practice of making operational sculptures. On display at the RA is a 1:1 prototype of the wall of the structure, which has been designed and fabricated in the UK using cutting edge robotic technology.

Following the Russian invasion of Donetsk in 2014, IZOLYATSIA was forced to leave the factory which was occupied and turned into a Russian prison. Moving to the industrial zone of Kyiv, it continued to run an artistic programme until the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022, since focussing its efforts on providing humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians affected by the invasion.