Dear friends,
This February we’ll be presenting talks, publications, and projects in America. It would be great to see you at our talk with Semiotexte’s Sylvère Lotringer at Printed Matter’s Los Angeles Art Book Fair, at the new e-flux book co-op in Chicago, at the Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind in New York, or at Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s Lebanese Rocket Society lecture at our office in New York.
This Thursday, January 31 at 7pm, join us at e-flux for a viewing of A Crime Against Art (2007) by Hila Peleg, based on the Madrid trial of Anton Vidokle and Tirdad Zolghadr.
We are also happy to welcome Josh Altman as our Director of Operations. A native of Brooklyn, Josh followed the Grateful Dead and wears all black. Prior to e-flux he worked as Director of Public Programs at X-Initiative, Production Manager and Curatorial Advisor for No Soul For Sale at Tate Modern, Managing Editor of Charley Independents, and was the International Studio Program Coordinator at PS1. If you have a problem, speak to Josh.
Download the latest version of e-flux iPad app 1.1.3. It’s free.
Yours sincerely,
e-flux
New York
Thursday, January 31, 7pm
A Crime Against Art
We could not help but notice the recent proliferation of mock trials in NY. In keeping with this development, we invite you to join us for a screening and discussion of A Crime Against Art (2007), by Hila Peleg.
A Crime Against Art is a film based on the trial staged at an art fair in Madrid in February 2007 by Anton Vidokle and Tirdad Zolghadr. Inspired by the mock trials organized by André Breton in the 1920s and 30s, it playfully raises a number of polemical issues in the world of contemporary art: collusion with the “new bourgeoisie,” instrumentalization of art and its institutions, the future possibility of artistic agency, as well as other pertinent topics.
The trial begins with the assumption that a crime has been committed, yet its nature and evidence are allusive and no victims have come forward. The testimonies and cross-examinations become an attempt by the Judge (Jan Verwoert), the Prosecutors (Vasif Kortun and Chus Martinez), and the Defense Attorney (Charles Esche) to unravel the nature of the puzzling “crime against art.” Set as a television courtroom drama, the film serial presents a condensed 100 minutes version of the trial.
Can’t come to e-flux? View the film online.
e-flux
311 East Broadway
New York, NY
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Saturday, February 16, 3pm
Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind
A one day symposium with Khalil Rabah, Suad Amiry, Reem Fadda, Rasha Salti, Anton Vidokle and Brian Kuan Wood
In conjunction with the exhibition Pages 7, 8, 9 by Khalil Rabah, we are pleased to present a symposium on the Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind and other art works that produce meanings, objects, images and situations which embody what the political has been unable to iterate.
Khalil Rabah’s Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind (2003–ongoing) is an elusive national museum that was established, in the words of its newsletter, “to inspire wonder, encourage discovery, and promote knowledge.” For his exhibition at e-flux, Rabah presents the Summer 2011 issue of the Museum’s newsletter, which takes on three new forms: a printed copy of the twenty-four-page document stacked on the exhibition floor for visitors to take; a glaring red neon sign of the cover’s headline, In this issue: Statement concerning the institutional history of the museum, installed nearby as a stand-in exhibition title; and a new series of paintings based on pages of the Museum’s most recent newsletter, suspended in sliding archival racks.
e-flux
311 East Broadway
New York, NY
More here
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Saturday, March 2, 3pm
On The Lebanese Rocket Society a presentation by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
For several years Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige have explored the Lebanese Rocket Society project, a space adventure carried out at Haigazian, an Armenian university in Lebanon, by a group of scientists and students lead by Manoug Manougian who, from 1960 to 1967, designed, produced and launched the first rockets in the Middle East. Their research brings this buried story back to life to reconsider the rewriting of certain historical events and the production of the imaginary, and, far from the temptations of nostalgia, to revive it through what is known as ‘Reconstitution, Reenactment and Restaging’ or other activations of the past in the present.
The Lebanese Rocket Society is a feature film documentary (92 minutes) to be released very soon and video, photografic and sound installations that will be shown at CRG Gallery, New York from March 1.
e-flux
311 East Broadway
New York, NY
More here
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Los Angeles
Sunday, February 3rd
4–4:50pm, Mezzanine Theater
e-flux journal presents Art Between the Cracks at Printed Matter’s Los Angeles Art Book Fair
e-flux journal is pleased to announce our participation in Printed Matter’s Los Angeles Art Book Fair and a public conversation with Sylvère Lotringer and Anton Vidokle: Art Between the Cracks.
Let’s stop worrying about becoming professionals. Instead, let’s engage with the cultural field as passionate hobbyists, talented amateurs, dedicated tinkerers. Let’s be part-time artists who, out of pleasure or necessity, excel in innumerable other capacities to support an art practice. Teaching and education carry a great potential for emancipation, but in recent years art education has grown into an industrial machine, a ponzi scheme that puts artists into debt with the promise of securing professional careers that may or may not even exist. Maybe publishing books or a small journal can provide another way to become involved in a certain quality of art education that can still be emancipatory.
Los Angeles Art Book Fair
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-6222
moca.org
more here
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Chicago
Running from February 20–July 31, 2013
Opening: Wednesday, February 20, 7pm
Thursday, February 28, 7pm
Public conversation with journal editors Anton Vidokle and Brian Kuan Wood at threewalls.
e-flux book co-op
On its second stop on tour, e-flux book co-op takes up temporary residence at three walls, Chicago, brought in collaboration with Open Practice Committee and Logan Center Exhibitions, University of Chicago. The co-op is a mobile bookstore of over 600 titles on contemporary art, theory, and criticism from over 100 international art centers, artist-run spaces, and independent publishers.
More here
threewalls
119 N Peoria St. #2C
Chicago, IL 60647
Tuesday–Saturday, 11–5pm
three-walls.org
