November at Bar Laika

Join us this month at Bar Laika for screenings featuring Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, Yang Fudong, Ayman Nahle, and Hito Steyerl; Satellite 11 with a live performance by Muqata’a and a DJ set by Bergsonist; a joint book launch organized by Barry Schwabsky and Carol Szymanski with readings and performances by Rachel Corbett, Katherine Faw, Richard Hell, Joan Jonas, Simone Kearney, Sophie Seita, Lane Shiotayonii, and John Yau; and a performance by K.Mulhern and Sunatirene with Jack Patterson.

We are also looking forward to winter vegetables, seafood, and Maine uni coming into season on our dinner menu, and new wines and sakes.

Stop by for our nightly happy hour from 6–7pm and 11pm–close, now all night Sunday! 

Email laika [​at​] e-flux.com for dinner or large party drinks reservations. Donabe hot pots can be prepared for groups with a one week pre-order. We will be closed Thursday, November 28 for Thanksgiving. Cheers!

e-flux video rental at Bar Laika presents: Dominique Gonzales-Foerster and Yang Fudong
Thursday, November 7, 9pm

Yang Fudong, City Light, 6 minutes, 2000
Two men walk on the streets of an Asian city. They execute the same actions with a slight delay. One of the men at times carries an umbrella and at other times a gun. Their walk across the city is intercut with scenes of the pair dancing with a woman, by themselves, and with each other. 

Dominique González-Foerster, Plages, 15 minutes, 2001 
The action of González-Foerster’s Plages takes place in Rio de Janeiro on New Year’s Eve, presenting the viewer with a bird’s-eye view of Copacabana’s beach crowded with white-clad revelers gathering for a seasonal firework display. Structured around a sequence of memories that intermingle personal desire with utopian ambitions for the city, it references landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx’s pavement designs and architect Sérgio Bernardes’s plan to build helix-shaped apartment blocks. For González-Foerster, the beach—with its free social movement and fluid boundary between land and sea—is a symbol of possibility. Copacabana could be a utopia, but as it starts to rain and the film nears its end, a local fisherman makes a stark announcement: “Copacabana does not exist.”

Bar Laika presents: Satellite 11 in collaboration with 3afak: Muqata’a and Bergsonist
Thursday, November 14, 9pm

Join us at Bar Laika for the tenth edition of Satellite, featuring a live performance by Muqata’a and a DJ set by Bergsonist. 

Muqata’a is an electronic musician and MC based in Ramallah, Palestine. His music, which ranges from harsh beats, abstract tones, and glitch, is partly created through sampling vintage Arabic records and the urban landscape of Ramallah. Muqata’a co-founded Ramallah Underground Collective, which toured extensively across the Arab world, Europe, and Australia, until they split up in 2009. Muqata’a is a member of Tashweesh, a sound and image based performance group, alongside artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. He has released several solo albums, including Inkanakuntu (2018) on Discrepant, Dubt Al-Ghubar (2017) on Third Type Tapes, La Lisana Lah (2017), and Hayawan Nateq (2013). Muqata’a has scored several films and dance performances.

Bergsonist is a New York–based artist and musician originally from Morocco. She is the founder of Bizaarbazaar, a music platform and publication that publishes podcasts and interviews by DJs and producers from around the world. Under the guise Bergsonist (derived from Deleuze’s Bergsonism), she uses a variety of media to investigate social resonance through divergent conceptual aesthetics (minimalism, techno, and music concrete to name a few). Through her work, she explores notions of identity, memory, and social politics. Bergsonist is a cofounder of 3afak, a collective that aims to empower Arab women’s creative vision in New York. 

10 USD entrance fee at the door.

Satellite is a monthly experimental music series curated by Sanna Almajedi. 
 

Bar Laika presents: Joint book launch with Barry Schwabsky and Carol Szymanski
Sunday, November 17, 9pm

Join us for a joint launch of books by Barry Schwabsky and Carol Szymanski. Barry’s new book is The Observer Effect: On Contemporary Painting, a wide-ranging collection of essays emphasizing the coextensive work of artist and viewer in constructing meaning. Carol presents Acquiescence, a rumination in images and text on the interplay of power and gender in corporate life, which is the source for her current exhibition He Said I Thought at signs and symbols gallery, for which this event also serves as finissage. Joining Barry and Carol will be a group of friends who will each give a brief reading or performance: Rachel Corbett, Katherine Faw, Richard Hell, Joan Jonas, Simone Kearney, Sophie Seita, Lane Shiotayonii, and John Yau.

Bar Laika presents: Ayman Nahle, Now: End of Season
Thursday, November 21, 9pm

Ayman Nahle, Now: End of Season, 20 minutes, 2015
While US President Ronald Reagan is out horse riding, the Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad tries in vain to reach him by phone. Ayman Nahle’s short film turns us into witnesses of the phone call with White House staff as we watch Syrian refugees waiting in Turkey.

“It’s quiet here, except for the echoes of the noise, the tone of the moment and the sigh of waiting. ‘Time has not passed yet, there’s still some time.’ Entire families, elderly, women, children, youngsters, war injured, in addition to the smugglers—all are present here as if they own the location. At Izmir Garage, thousands of illegalized migrants are getting ready daily for the journey to the unknown. Some have chosen a café in the area to be the waiting spot, some talk and laugh, while the rest have settled in silence, contemplating the kids. The state: waiting. Everyone here is waiting for the mediator to arrive with the tickets. Will he come today? Or will the trip be postponed to another day? Izmir Garage represents the mid-point in the long journey of the Syrian migration. After the hassle of arriving in Turkey, another trip on the sea still waits for them before they reach Europe.”

Performance: K. Mulhern and Sunatirene with Jack Patterson
Tuesday, November 26, 8pm

K. Mulhern and Sunatirene will perform work from their recent releases “Silt” and “Queen Sound,” alongside a live performance by Jack Patterson.

K. Mulhern is a poet, filmmaker, and sound artist based in NYC whose work looks at ancient humanity and the task of chasing ghost traces in a dying world.

Sunatirene is the solo project of New York-via-Baltimore musician and sound artist, Sydney Spann. She uses archival samples, strings, field recordings, chance operations, and lyric poetry to fashion melodies within soundscapes. Spann’s live performances often incorporate a rotating theatrical iconography to match sonic motifs.

Jack Patterson composes music using field recordings and electronics. 

5 USD entrance fee at the door. 
 

Bar Laika presents: Hito Steyerl, In Free Fall
Wednesday, November 27, 9pm

Hito Steyerl, In Free Fall, 32 minutes, 2010
In Free Fall incorporates a trio of works: Before the Crash, After the Crash and Crash, which tell the story of the current global economic crisis through the example of an aeroplane junkyard in the Californian desert. The aeroplane junkyard reveals the anatomy of all sorts of crashes: both fictional and real. This is an investigation of planes as they are parked during the economic downturn, stored and recycled, revealing unexpected connections between economy, violence and spectacle. An example of this is the Boeing 4X-JYI, first acquired by film director Howard Hughes for TWA, which then flew for the Israeli Airforce before it was blown up for the Hollywood blockbuster, Speed. But the economic crisis doesn’t stop short of affecting the film industry either.

Through intertwined narratives of people, planes, and places Steyerl reveals cycles of capitalism incorporating and adapting to the changing status of the commodity, but also points at a horizon beyond this endless repetition.

Stay tuned to upcoming programs on our website; or subscribe to our events mailing list for Bar Laika.

For more information, contact laika [​at​] e-flux.com.