BEXHILL ON SEA, UK.- De La Warr Pavilion presents A Secret Setvice - Art, Compulsion, Concealment, A Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibition in collaboration with the Hatton Gallery and on view through April 15, 2007. Artists: Sophie Calle, Roberto Cuoghi, Adrian Dannatt, Henry Darger, Gedewon, Susan Hiller, Tehching Hsieh, Katarzyna Jozefowicz, Joachim Koester, Paul Etienne Lincoln, Mark Lombardi, Mike Nelson, Kurt Schwitters, The Speculative Archive, Jeffrey Vallance, Oskar Voll

The exhibition explores the work sixteen international artists and groups whose practices centre on the creation of secret worlds or the exposure of hidden facts and images. It includes key figures of Modern art, established and emerging contemporary artists and ‘outsiders’. Together they address numerous aspects of secrecy: magic, alchemy, sexuality, dreams, religion, political conspiracy, assumed identity and the covert workings of the State.

The exhibition was inspired by artist Kurt Schwitters, whose final creation, the Merzbarn, (1947-48) is among the rare surviving examples of Schwitters' four Merzbuildings – complex, architectural constructions created from refuse and found objects. During Schwitters’ lifetime the Merzbuildings were seen only by his most trusted friends, today they remain confounding riddles. The exhibition presents rarely-seen documentation of the Merzbuildings in conjunction with a specially commissioned new work by Turner Prize nominee Mike Nelson whose labyrinthine installations are natural descendants of Schwitters’ Merzbuildings.

A Secret Service explores the work of other artists who work beyond the mainstream. Henry Darger’s immense body of water-clour illustrations were only discovered at the end of his life and New York artist Pietro Antonio Narducci founded a private museum filled exclusively with his own work and closed to visitors until after his death.

Tehching Hsieh performed one-man performances, such as punching a time-clock in his studio on the hour, every hour for a year, which are documented in this exhibition as cryptic statements and short, mesmerising films. Twenty-four year old Roberto Cuoghi, in an attempt to “disappear”, adopted the habits, dress and eventually the identity of his sixty-year old father, whilst Sophie Calle exploited her position as a hotel chambermaid to rummage through and photograph the guests’ possessions – the actions of a investigative reporter. Mark Lombardi’s elaborate drawings, rarely seen in the UK, chart the complex relationships behind the world’s biggest political and financial scandals. The drawings are so meticulously researched that the FBI consulted them in the course of their investigations following 9/11.

A Secret Service is curated by artist and curator, Richard Grayson. His recent exhibitions include Intelligence and Messiah at Matt’s Gallery, London. He was artistic director of the Sydney Biennale in 2002 and Arts and Humanities Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle.