Nothing Remained Unchanged But The Clouds Pilot exhibition

Alan J Ward in collaboration with Jeffrey Knopf and Mark Devereux

Rogue Project Space, Manchester 22-28 January 2025

Inspired by a project Alan Ward started in the first Covid lockdown

(2020) to identity the location of a WWI German photographic negative, Nothing remained unchanged but the clouds tells the story of community, rebuilding and memory in the small French town of Grandpré in the rural Ardennes.

Using the photographic negative and subsequent collecting of German postcards written home from Grandpré, Alan established an online repository of memory and artefact, aiming to reflect the importance of the town's local and everyday history. Growing his connections and relationships with people now living in Grandpré, Alan has gone on to undertake a series of residencies supported by the municipal council. He has created pop-up studios, scripted an alternative artist walk of the town with academics from the UK and Germany, and resident's shared their special places, familial memories, postcard collections and ephemera.

During 2023 Alan was granted Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice funding to further explore both professional and creative partnerships with a focus on this project. He has been working with artist Jeffrey Knopf and curator Mark Devereux to examine the liminal spaces of those postcards, the cross fertilisation of art, heritage and artefact, and consider how these inform an understanding of Grandpré's past, present and future.

This pilot exhibition represents the first presentation of this brand-new body of work we are aiming to show in future resolved exhibitions across the UK.