This October, join us at e-flux for the New York premiere of Metahaven’s The Sprawl (Propaganda About Propaganda); for a colloquium featuring Isaïe Nzeyimana, Natacha Nsabimana, and Christian Nyampeta; and for a discussion featuring Reza Negarestani, J.-P. Caron, and Patricia Reed; and at Bar Laika for a screening of Ryan Trecartin’s A Family Finds Entertainment.
New York premiere: Metahaven, The Sprawl (Propaganda About Propaganda)
Friday, October 18, 7pm
e-flux
311 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002
Two unknown men speak on the phone. They discuss their involvements in military operations in eastern Ukraine, accompanied by images of a chaotic stroll through a nightly, Russian forest.
A plane passes through the moonlit night sky, and a voice recites a poem by Anna Akhmatova, while a woman, in near darkness, looks at herself in the black mirror of her computer screen. Then, she looks at us. Enter the strange and deceptive world of The Sprawl, Metahaven’s feature debut film.
Silent sword fighters stare at us. Silent actors look at us. They gaze at their screens, and at the deepest corners of YouTube. Strange and colorful interfaces overlay their appearance until medium and message become one. Together with master cinematographer Remko Schnorr and electronic musician Kuedo, Metahaven in The Sprawl create a new visual world for the internet’s geopolitical agitprop.
The screening is organized on the occasion of Metahaven’s solo show Turnarounds, on view at e-flux through November 2.
An evening with philosopher Isaïe Nzeyimana, in dialogue with anthropologist Natacha Nsabimana and artist Christian Nyampeta
Wednesday, October 23, 6:30pm
e-flux
311 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002
In this colloquium, Nzeyimana outlines his major preoccupations in history, economy, and education, as he attempts to think “Africa” at once in its geographic unity and in its historical contradictions. Nzeyimana’s presentation will be followed by reflections from Chicago-based anthropologist Natacha Nsabimana, drawing from her research and studies on the everyday aftermath of violence, examining how such violence occupies the landscape and the kinds of individual and societal narratives such memory allows and disavows.The colloquium ends with a panel discussion moderated by New York-based artist Christian Nyampeta. The colloquium hopes to contribute to the question of how to live together in the history of the present.
This colloquium is organized with École du soir (The Evening Academy), Christian Nyampeta’s exhibition at SculptureCenter, on view through December 16.
The event will be livestreamed on e-flux.com/live.
On Generative Aesthetics: J.-P. Caron, Reza Negarestani, and Patricia Reed
Wednesday, October 30, 7pm
e-flux
311 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002
In Individuals (1959), Peter Strawson proposes a thought experiment for which one imagines a no-space world. The model for is a purely auditory world, wherein one only has access to auditory phenomena and must suspend entrenched concepts of spatial and material reality. Strawson’s exercise asks if we could reidentify particulars in such a framework where the coordinates of localization of ordinary experience are completely reformulated. While his investigations remain inconclusive, they offer a compelling example of the exercise we are calling Generative Aesthetics.
Generative Aesthetics is interested in reconfiguring ordinary experience and concepts, typically taken as givens, in order to produce counterfactually new worlds. It is interested in the question: What does it take to remake perception and experience? Such an inquiry is also related to what philosopher Nelson Goodman called Worldmaking: practices of constituting worlds through our aesthetic, scientific, philosophical, and political ideas.
For this evening, the speakers will interrogate the issues of Generative Aesthetics—remaking perception and experience—and what they imply today in terms of a reencounter with the artwork, and with imaginary worlds in the realm of the political imagination. Join us with J.-P. Caron, Reza Negarestani, and via Skype, Patricia Reed.
The event will be livestreamed on e-flux.com/live.
Bar Laika presents: Ryan Trecartin, A Family Finds Entertainment
Thursday, October 31, 9pm
Bar Laika
224 Greene Avenue
Brooklyn NY, 11238
Ryan Trecartin’s film A Family Finds Entertainment (41:12 minutes) is a camp extravaganza of epic proportions. Starring Trecartin’s family and friends, and the artist himself in a plethora of outrageous roles, A Family Finds Entertainment chronicles the story of mixed up teenager Skippy and his adventures in “coming out.” In this over the top celebration of queerness, Trecartin’s film mines the bizarre and endearing in an unabashed pastiche of “bad tv” tropes. Cheesy video special effects, dress-up chess costumes, desperate scripts, and “after school special” melodrama combine in the fluency of youth-culture lingo, reflecting a generation both damaged and affirmed by media consumption.
Stay tuned to upcoming programs on our website; or subscribe to our events mailing lists for e-flux and Bar Laika.
New on e-flux Video & Film
Ecologies of Care: Screening and conversation with Silvia Federici and Angela Anderson
On Wednesday, September 11, e-flux presented a screening of Angela Anderson’s new film, Three (or more) Ecologies: A Feminist Articulation of Eco-intersectionality – Part I: For the World to Live, Patriarchy Must Die. Following the screening, the filmmaker was in conversation with activist and feminist writer Silvia Federici.
New e-flux podcast episodes; available for listening on e-flux, iTunes, Spotify, and Soundcloud
The New Museum Union on collective bargaining
Rachel Ichniowski talks to three representatives from the New Museum Union’s Bargaining Committee—Dana Kopel, Francesca Altamura, and Gabe Gordon—about the decision by staff to form a union, and the details of their first five-year contract.
Metahaven on Turnarounds
Brian Kuan Wood talks to Daniel van der Velden of Metahaven (Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden) on the occasion of their exhibition at e-flux titled Turnarounds.
Interference Archive: Louise Barry and Rob Smith
Erin Ferro-Murray talks to Interference Archive volunteers Louise Barry and Rob Smith about the archive, and the exhibition Resistance Radio: The People’s Airwaves.