Summer 2012
Maryam Jafri
Geographies
Re.act.feminism #2
- a performing archive
Let Us Speak Now Re/Vision
15 interviews
16 June–19 August 2012
Museet for Samtidskunst, Denmark
Staendertorvet 3D
4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Maryam Jafri, Geographies
Maryam Jafri will present her first solo exhibition in Denmark, titled Geographies. The exhibition Geographies features four works including American Theatre (2007), Independence Day 1936-1967 (2009–), Death With Friends (2010), and the newly developed Global Slum (2012). Each work focuses on a distinct space-time, from the 1950s United States in the midst of the Red Scare, to Medieval South Asia in the grips of feudalism, to the twentieth century era of decolonization across large parts of Africa and Asia, and finally to the ruthlessly deterritorializing and reterritorializing economic flows of a contentious present. Diverse visual languages structure the distinct space-times investigated; from the deadpan, vernacular photos images in the Global Slum photo series, to the visually elaborate film Death With Friends featuring a group of actors on a golden stage, to the archival, black-and-white photos of rituals and ceremonies solemnly marking Independence Day 1936–1967, to the loose, meandering sequence of slides and voice-overs that comprise American Theatre. By weaving together different events taking place at different times or in different places at the same time, Jafri’s exhibition creates a complex web of parallel histories, disparate geographies, and the migration of aesthetic forms.
re.act.feminism # 2 – a performing archive
re.act.feminism # 2 is a growing, temporary, and living performance archive traveling through Europe from 2011 to 2013. It presents feminist, gender-critical, and queer performance art from a vast number of artists and artist collectives from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s, as well as contemporary positions. Bringing together works from Eastern and Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the US, and Latin America, the project offers artistic views across time and geography, aiming to strengthen cross-generational and trans-cultural dialogue. En route Europe, this temporary archive will be continuously expanded through local research and cooperation with art academies and universities and accompanied by exhibitions, workshops, performances, and talks. re.act.feminism is organized by Beatrice Stammer and Bettina Knaup. See more on www.reactfeminism.org.
re.act.feminism workshop
27–30 June 2012
Workshop by Mary Coble, professor at Funen Art Academy and Judith Schwarzbart, PhD, Roskilde University at Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde.
Let Us Speak Now Re/Vision
The Let Us Speak Now Re/Vision archive project is an ongoing collaboration between Danish artists Kirsten Dufour and Ninna Poulsen, Swedish artist Cecilia Wendt, and Det 4. Kontor (Bonnie Fortune and Sophia Seitz-Rasmussen). The project presents 15 new interviews with artists and cultural workers working in a Scandinavian context. Interviewees include: Rikke Andreasen, Uzma Ahmed Andresen, Mary Coble, Kajsa Dahlberg, Mathias Danbolt, Nynne Haugaard, Susan Hinnum, Jeuno JE Kim, Vibeke Mejlvang and Sofie Hesseholdt, Lisa Nyberg, Jane Rowley, Lise Skou, Gritt Uldall-Jessen, Louise Wolthers, and Pia Rönicke. In their interviews, these artists and cultural workers discuss issues ranging from intersectionality to integration, boredom as a source of political inspiration to politics as a source for creative inspiration, critical curation to critical media, and queer feminism to queering the archive.
For further information and images contact:
Director Sanne Kofod Olsen
sannekol [at] samtidskunst.dk / T +45 4631 6572
Press photos can be downloaded from the museum’s website under press.
The exhibitions are supported by: Danish Arts Council Committee for Visual Art and Danish Art Workshops (Maryam Jafri); Kulturstiftung des Bundes, ERSTE Stiftung, Danish Arts Council Committee for Visual Art and International Visual Art (re.act.feminism); Danish Arts Council Committee for Visual Art and Municipality of Roskilde (Let Us Speak Now Re/Vision).