FUTURE BODIES FROM A RECENT PAST

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Contemporary sculpture is populated by hybrid techno-bodies. But such connections between technology and the body reach far back into modernity. The symposium explores these lines of reference: How can sculpture be thought of and defined in relation to technological developments? How, in turn, does sculpture relate to changing concepts of the body and corporeality? What are the consequences for a theory of contemporary sculpture? These and other questions form the focus of the discussion with leading theorists from various disciplines.*

Museum Brandhorst presents the online symposium FUTURE BODIES FROM A RECENT PAST—SCULPTURE, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE BODY SINCE THE 1950S. Participants include Marta Dziewanska, Louis Chude-Sokei, N. Katherine Hayles, Namiko Kunimoto, Jeannine Tang, Ursula Ströbele, and many others.

See link below to register.

FUTURE BODIES FROM A RECENT PAST—SCULPTURE, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE BODY SINCE THE 1950S*

Museum Brandhorst

Thursday, January 21 through Saturday, January 23.

From top: Mark Leckey, UniAddDumThs, 2014–ongoing, detail from the section Man, installation view Mark Leckey: UniAddDumThs at Kunsthalle Basel, 2015, photograph by Philipp Hänger, image © Mark Leckey, courtesy of the artist and Kunsthalle Basel; Alina Szapocznikow, Untitled (Fetish VII), 1971, Ursula Hauser Collection, Switzerland, image © 2020 VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, courtesy of the Estate of Alina Szapocznikow, Piotr Stanislawski, Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris, and Hauser & Wirth; BINA48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture 48), robotic face combined with chatbot functionalities, owned by Martine Rothblatt’s Terasem Movement, modeled after Rothblatt’s wife, image © 2010 Hanson Robotics; Albert Renger-Patzsch, Marmor an der Lahn (Metamorphit), 1963, plate 55, Gestein, 1966, image © 2020 Albert Renger-Patzsch and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; David Smith, Forging series of sculptures in progress, Bolton Landing Dock, Lake George, New York, circa 1956, image © 2020 Estate of David Smith and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Tishan Hsu, Autopsy, 1988, installation view Tishan Hsu: Liquid Circuit at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2020, private collection, image © Tishan Hsu, courtesy of the artist and the Hammer Museum; Aleksandra Domanović, production photograph of The Future Was at Her Fingertips, 2013, image © Aleksandra Domanović, courtesy of the artist.

ANNIE SPRINKLE AND BETH STEPHENS — WATER MAKES US WET

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Some voices in the film use the lens of ecosexuality, whereas others use the lens of science. But all of them are trying to find ways to keep water clean and accessible. Because of this, almost all of the people in the film are concerned with justice. — Beth Stephens

Join filmmakers and partners Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens in conversation following a fundraising online screening of WATER MAKES US WET—AN ECOSEXUAL ADVENTURE, which will benefit future programming at Highways.

The event includes pre-show music by Jimi Cabeza de Vaca and Nora Keyes, an introduction by John Fleck, Highways director-curator Leo Garcia, and Film Maudit curator Patrick Kennelly, a conversation with Fleck about the documentary John Fleck is Who You Want Him to Be, and a proclamation by Kristina Wong. Performing participants following the film include Balitrónica and a presentation of Manifesto by Guillermo Gómez-Peña.

See link below for details.

LET’S GET WET—A HIGHWAYS FUNDRAISING EVENT

Available from Saturday, January 23.

6 pm on the West Coast; 9 pm East Coast.

From top: Beth Stephens (left) and Annie Sprinkle, courtesy and © the artists; Water Makes Us Wet (2019) poster courtesy and © Juno Films; John Fleck, photograph by Steve Gunther, courtesy and © the photographer and CalArts; Sprinkle and Stephens, courtesy and © the artists.

ON ENWEZOR

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We are just beginning to realize what the loss of Okwui Enwezor means for the world of art. Okwui’s curatorial vision was informed by his articulate opposition against hegemonic powers, social injustice, and the continued exclusion of people of color. He was certainly one of the most inspiring and rigorous forces in the field of curating, who seamlessly linked the exclusive contemporary art industry with world politics. Equally important, his absence is deeply felt by many of us on a personal level, by all of those whom he worked with over the past three decades, by those inspired by his charisma, his ambition, and the way he used his position of power to radically shift the status quo wherever he worked. — Ute Meta Bauer

As a preview to the upcoming New Museum exhibition GRIEF AND GRIEVANCE: ART AND MOURNING IN AMERICA—the final project conceived by Okwui Enwezor—join Bauer, Franklin Sirmans, Terry Smith, Octavio Zaya, and New Museum Artistic Director Massimiliano Gioni for a discussion on Enwezor’s curatorial vision and life’s work.

See link below to register for the online conversation.

MEETING WORLDS—ON OKWUI ENWEZOR’S WORK

New Museum

Thursday, January 21.

5 pm on the West Coast; 7 pm East Coast.

From top: Okwui Enwezor, artistic director of Documenta 11, in Kassel, Germany, 2002, photograph by Werner Maschmann, image courtesy and © Documenta Archiv, Kassel; The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994, edited by Enwezor, cover image courtesy and © Prestel; Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, edited by Enwezor, Katy Siegel, and Ulrich Wilmes, cover image courtesy and © Prestel; Enwezor (left), Ute Meta Bauer, Octavio Zaya, and Mark Nash in Kassel, 2002, photograph by Maschmann, courtesy and © Documenta Archiv, Kassel; El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, edited by Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, cover image courtesy and © Haus der Kunst, Munich; Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, cover image courtesy and © New Museum and Phaidon.

SAM POLLARD — TWO TRAINS RUNNIN’

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Not much has changed. That’s what was so bad what we saw about January 6 at the Capitol. On one level, I’m horrified and disgusted, but on the other level, I’m thinking, Damn, our country is still the same. You look at the run-up to the election and listen to the speeches about if you elect Democrats they will come destroy the suburbs and your community. This is insanity. Have we not learned any lessons in America? — Sam Pollard

On the occasion of the release of Pollard’s new film MLK/FBI, Film at Lincoln Center is presenting a retrospective of the filmmaker’s work—including TWO TRAINS RUNNIN’, where Freedom Summer meets the search for bluesmen Son House and Skip James.

The film is narrated by Common and features performances by—among others—Gary Clark Jr., Buddy Guy, Valerie June, Lucinda Williams, and the North Mississippi Allstars.

See link below for streaming information.

TWO TRAINS RUNNIN’

Directed by Sam Pollard.

Film at Lincoln Center

Now streaming.

Sam Pollard, Two Trains Runnin’ (2016), from top: Skip James (left) and Son House; scene from film; Two Trains Runnin’ poster; scene from film; Gary Clark, Jr.; scene from film. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker and Avalon Films.

FILM MAUDIT 2.0 — REZA ABDOH

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When we speak the word “life,” it must be understood we are not referring to life as we know it from its surface of fact, but to that fragile, fluctuating center which forms never reach. And if there is still one hellish, truly accursed thing in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms, instead of being like victims burnt at the stake, signaling through the flames. — Antonin Artaud*

Film Maudit is here. Inspired by Jean Cocteau and presented by Highways, the second iteration of the festival of “outré” films brings together dozens of features and shorts for free streaming.

One of this year’s highlights is Adam Soch’s immersive documentary REZA ABDOH—THEATRE VISIONARY, a view from inside the transgressive work of the late, great theater provocateur, creator of such spectacles as The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice, Bogeyman, The Law of Remains, Father Was a Peculiar Man, Minamata, Tight Right White, and Quotations From a Ruined City.

Featuring extensive documentary footage of Abdoh’s rehearsals and produced work at the Los Angeles Theater Center, the Long Beach Opera, New York’s Diplomat Hotel, and the streets of the Meatpacking District, the film includes interviews with the actors, artists, friends, and advocates in his circle: Alan Mandell, Tony Torn, Ken Roht, Tom Pearl, Tom Fitzpatrick, Jacqueline Gregg, Juliana Francis-Kelly, Peter Jacobs, Edwin Gerard, Diane White, Elsbeth M. Collins, Morgan Jenness, Bill Bushnell, Anne Hamburger, Peter Sellars, Norman Frisch, Daniel Mufson, Sylvie Drake, Sandy Cleary, David Schweizer, Tal Yarden, Sabrina Artel, Anita Durst, Alix Hester, John Jahnke, Laurel Meade, Alyson Campbell, his mother Homa Oboodi, and his brothers Sardar and Salar Abdoh.

See link below for screening details.

REZA ABDOH—THEATRE VISIONARY

Directed by Adam Soch.

Film Maudit 2.0

Now streaming.

*Antonin Artaud, The Theater and Its Double, translated by Mary Caroline Richards (New York: Grove Press, 1958).

Reza Abdoh, from top: The Law of Remains (1992), photographs (2) from the Hotel Diplomat, New York, production, photographs © Paula Court; Bogeyman (1990), photograph © Jan Deen; Tight Right White (1993), photographs (3) from the 440 Lafayette Street, New York, production, photographs © Paula Court; The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice (1990), upper photograph © R. Kaufman, lower two from the Sigma Festival, Bordeaux, production in 1992, photographs © Patrick Veyssière; Quotations From a Ruined City (1994), written by Salar Abdoh and Reza Abdoh, middle photograph © Paula Court, upper and lower photographs from the 448 West 16th Street, New York production, photographs © Jan Deen.

Below: Salar Abdoh (left), Reza Abdoh, and Sardar Abdoh; Reza Abdoh, photograph © Richard Liebfried.