Sunday, January 29
12:00–6:00 p.m.
Please join us for our Winter Open House, celebrating the openings of the exhibitions Henry Taylor and Darren Bader: Images.
The opening celebration includes an e-flux lecture by poet, journalist, and artist Bilal Khbeiz; a performance by Megafortress; a screening of YouTube Virals from Tahrir Cinema and conversation with Egyptian artist Lara Baladi; a cash bar; and an M. Wells Sandwich Station. Clifford Owens: Anthology; Rania Stephan; Frances Stark: My Best Thing; and Surasi Kusolwong will also be on view.
M. Wells Sandwich Station
12:00–6:00 p.m., courtyard
M. Wells will be preparing two slamming sandwiches, “The Casablanca” and “The Steak Frites,” on an outdoor grill in the courtyard all afternoon.
Egyptian Artist Lara Baladi presents YouTube Virals Screened in Tahrir Cinema
12:00–3:00 p.m.: Screening of Tahrir Cinema program (loop)
3:00 p.m.: Conversation with Artist and Curator Lara Baladi via Skype from Cairo
On the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution on January 25th, artist Lara Baladi presents the uprising through a selection of YouTube virals, many of which were screened in Tahrir Cinema.
Although the Egyptian revolution has been called the ‘Facebook Revolution’, the majority of Egyptians did not and still don’t have access to the Internet, and therefore have no access to news coverage other than through the Egyptian media. During the July 2011 sit-in in Tahrir Square in Cairo, a group of artists and filmmakers lit up a corner of the square with an open-source ‘revolutionary’ screen: Tahrir Cinema. Every night, a filmmaker, journalist, or activist presented a selection of visual material related to the Egyptian revolution, ranging from raw footage to documentary, from HD to mobile camera quality, from animation to YouTube virals.
Lara Baladi is a Cairo-based artist and one of the founders of Tahrir Cinema with the non-profit Egyptian media initiative Mosireen.
ARTBOOK and Cabinet present The Last Calendar
2:00 p.m., ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1
Join ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1 for the launch of Cabinet’s newest special edition, The Last Calendar. This oversized 2012 wall calendar ignores the familiar holidays in favor of more than 60 significant dates in the history of apocalyptic prophecy. The edition also features artwork by Swedish duo Bigert & Bergström illustrating 12 unique methods of divination. Cabinet’s Editor-in-Chief Sina Najafi and Editor C. Graham Burnett will give a reading of these prophesies at various locations in the museum, to be disclosed on the event day. The Last Calendar will be available for purchase for the Armageddon-like price of $12, tax included.
e-flux book co-op lecture by Bilal Khbeiz, with an introduction by artist Walid Raad
4:00 p.m.
Due to a complex chain of events, poet, essayist, journalist, and artist Bilal Khbeiz was forced to leave his home in Beirut permanently, adopting Los Angeles as his home before relocating to Washington, DC. While the circumstances surrounding his own exile are closely linked to the open wounds of the Lebanese Civil War, the feeling of estrangement felt most acutely by the exile can also be familiar to those who have not left their native country. For this event, Khbeiz presents a program titled “exile, memory, and mythology.”
Bilal Khbeiz (1963, Kfarchouba) is a poet, essayist, journalist, and artist. He regularly contributes to Beirut Al-Masaa, Annahar, Almustaqbal, Elaph, and Future TV. His publications include Tragedy in a Moment of Vision (2007), The Enduring Image and the Vanishing World (2005), and Globalization and the Manufacture of Transient Events (2003). Together with friend and collaborator Jon Rich, he is a frequent contributor to e-flux journal.
Performance by Megafortress
6:00 p.m.
Megafortress (New York musician Bill Gillim) layers processed voice, sampled bells, and synthesizer to concoct a strain of ‘secular devotional music’, resulting in stirring compositions that are simple, yet unpredictable. Using material originally conceived as a series of fictional field recordings, Megafortress transforms both home-brewed and studio-produced elements into sparsely layered, contemplative vocal meditations.
GETTING TO MoMA PS1:
E Train
Get off at the Court Sq-23 St stop. After exiting the train walk towards the 21 Street exit (away from 7 train connection and Jackson Avenue exit). Take a left onto 21 Street and walk 3 blocks.
7 Train
No trains between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square this weekend, please take the E or the G instead.
G Train
Get off at the 21st St. stop. MoMA PS1 is the large brick building across the street to the left. Walk around the building to come to our front entrance.
