The Rupture: No condition is permanent

Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh

Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing

Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila

The Rupture is an international collaborative project bringing together Talbot Rice Gallery of the University of Edinburgh, Inside-Out Art Museum in Beijing, and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Manila. Conceived by Tessa Giblin and Carol Yinghua Lu, with Joselina Cruz soon joining the curatorial partnership, the project responds in real-time to a world undergoing profound political, social and economic change, echoing Mark Carney's declaration "we are in the midst of a rupture,” in his 2026 Davos address. Curated in three episodes, The Rupture will launch at Talbot Rice Gallery in October of 2026, nine months after Davos.

Taysir Batniji, Jenny Brady, Dasha Chechushkova, Jasmina Cibic, Kiri Dalena, Zhanna Kadyrova, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Tarik Kiswanson, Eoghan Ryan, Margaret Salmon, Astra Taylor, Li Yifan, Carey Young, Claudia Zeiske and Song Ziwei

Curated by Tessa Giblin, with contributions from Carol Yinghua Lu

At a time of profound global uncertainty, The Rupture: No condition is permanent at Talbot Rice Gallery asks what it means to live through the breakdown of established systems, rules-based order and global relationships. Amidst the rise of generative AI, neo-colonial threats, the reality of war, and growing economic inequality, the escalating effects of climate change cause extreme weather and planetary events around the world. Bringing together artists from different cultural contexts, the project explores the changing reality of our time from a position of hope. Across the exhibition, artists give voice to the voiceless, drawing our attention to the means of our manipulation, revealing the hidden constructs beneath our lives, and in abstract and complex ways, insisting that the world is ours to change – that no condition is permanent.

Launching in Edinburgh in October 2026 and then in Beijing and Manila in March 2027, the three exhibitions are curated through dialogue between Giblin, Yinghua Lu and Cruz. As a partnership and way of working, forged on trust, solidarity and transparency, The Rupture proposes a coalition of cultural organisations and artists confronting the complexity of our times. The Rupture is not a position on politics or an authority of where we are at: it is a jumping off point, an invitation to artists, academics, cultural commentators and curious spectators to come together and create a snapshot of a rapidly changing world, however fleeting, and consider the myriad of ways this rupture is taking shape.

The Rupture: No condition is permanent, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, UK from 23 Oct 2026 - 13 Feb. 2027. Curated by Tessa Giblin with contributions from Carol Yinghua Lu.

The Rupture: It is then, but it is also now, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China from 7 March - 27 June 2027. Curated by Carol Yinghua Lu with contributions from Tessa Giblin and Joselina Cruz.

The Rupture, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde, Manila, Philippines from 4 March - 6 June 2027. Curated by Joselina Cruz with contributions from Carol Yinghua Lu and Tessa Giblin.