The web's favourite memes are now an art exhibition

From "Ryan Gosling won't eat his cereal" to Facepalm, through Jackie Chan, Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka, Troll Face or Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift's award are all examples of memes. But what is a meme exactly? If the term seems to be invented by Richard Dawkins, who in his The Selfish Gene in 1976 defined it as a minimum unit of cultural evolution, information that affects the environment and can be transmitted. With the internet it has become a fragment of image, concept or video that encapsulates the pop culture, current events, politics, sports, fashion or art, artfully manipulated, it spreads from person to person, until it turns into a real mass phenomenon.

Now two newly graduated from Central Saint Martins in love with memes, Maisie Post and Jake Rees, dedicated to this viral form of communication between cultures, an exhibition entitled What do you meme? to be held at the Holdron’s Arcade in London from August 18 to 22. The event, already awaited by about 9.2k Facebook users, will bring together the work of five female artists and more than 2,000 meme fans.