“It’s Urgent!” is a project curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist, which began in 2019 in Denmark. During the elections for the European Parliament in 2019, artists were invited to think about the present and the future with an exhibition of posters on billboards in the city of Copenhagen. The idea then was to make the artists’ works available to the public, inserting them into public life and the community.
At the invitation of Luma, It’s Urgent! continued to grow, and many more artists contributed with their work, which was then presented at Luma Westbau, between Summer 2019 and early 2020. Invited artists from across the world were asked to respond to the question of what is urgent in our time.
This resulted in themes of ecology, inequality, common future, solidarity, anti-racism, and social justice becoming frequently addressed, among other. As the project continues in Arles, we have invited new artists to participate and we will continue to invite more artists for the duration of the display over the summer. Their contribution will create an intimate portrait of the evolution of ideas and concerns, characteristic of the current moment.
