Experiments with Truth was an exhibition of 13 contemporary moving image artists working between fine art and documentary which took place at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, one of the two important contemporary art spaces in that city. It was conceived as a collaboration between a number of Philadelphia organisations (University of the Arts, International House, Scribe Video Center). The architects Diller and Scofidio assisted with conceptualising the installation, which was of an exceptionally high standard. The usual black box exhibition concept was reworked to include a series of transparent frames (drawing on the venue's experience with fabric) to link the experience of the works together. Particular attention was paid to the issue of soundproofing, which is often neglected in such exhibitions. Single-screen works were shown at a university venue, and workshops conferences and discussions were held, bringing individual artists and critics to Philadelphia.

Some of the works presented were being shown in installation form for the first time: for example, Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi's. I worked with the artists in Milan to devise an appropriate format (four gauze screens in a rectangular formation). I included the work of Eziquiel Suarez, a little known Cuban artist who has subsequently shown with Carlos Garaica. Isaac Julien re-edited and remastered his Frantz Fanon installation.

The focus of the catalogue was on continuing the work of the exhibition with an avant-garde design treating images and reprinted material as documents. The catalogue presented important essays by myself, Enwezor, Kapoor and others, advancing debates in this area. My essay explored what I have called the documentary turn in contemporary moving image art, which seeks to return to some notion of a referent, often political, but always maintaining a rigorous aesthetic focus. The exhibition was reviewed in ArtForum in February 2005.

http://www.fabricworkshop.org/exhibitions/experiments.php