Exhibitions2022Mind, Art, Experience: 10 Years of Chess & Culture in Saint Louis

Mind, Art, Experience: 10 Years of Chess & Culture in Saint Louis was a celebration of the best chess, art and culture from all 50 exhibitions held at the World Chess Hall of Fame since its 2011 relocation to Saint Louis, Missouri.

Gavin Turk’s Mechanical Turk, a 14-minute film installation, was displayed alongside the cabinet and knight chest piece that feature in the film. for the piece, Turk disguised himself as a life-sized 18th Century chess-playing automaton, The Mechanical Turk, whose technical wizardry was said to have outwitted even Napoleon, as this elaborate hoax toured around the most illustrious courts of Europe. The film shows Turk replaying the Knight’s Tour, a clever yet pointless circular ritual which takes the Knight across every square on the board in a mechanical mimicry of the “original” “fake”.

The three-floor show featured more than 120 other artworks and artifacts, including pieces related to legendary World Champions Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, and Boris Spassky. Also on display were works by renowned photojournalist Harry Benson CBE and internationally-acclaimed artists M.C. Escher, Tom Friedman, Barbara Kruger and Yoko Ono; chess-inspired pieces by Saint Louis-based creatives Michael Drummond, Peter Manion and Audra Danielle Noyes; and loans from notable collectors and institutions, including Jon Crumiller, Dr. George and Vivian Dean, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Luhring Augustine Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery.