S P R I N G 2019
season
What’s inside
The Block?
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What’s inside The Block? It depends on how you look.
HOURS
GETTING HERE
Mon. Tues./Sat./ Sun. Wed./ Thurs./ Fri.
CLOSED 10 AM – 5 PM 10 AM – 8 PM
Location
FREE ADMISSION
The Block Museum of Art is located at 40 Arts Circle Drive, on the southeastern portion of Northwestern’s Evanston campus, near the lake and Sheridan Road.
Admission to exhibitions, screenings, and programming is always free and open to all.
Parking
RSVP Let us know you are coming! The Block Museum maintains a suggested RSVP list for public program offerings: bit.ly/BlockRSVP Event entry is first-come, first-served, and RSVP does not guarantee entry if capacity is reached.
Guest parking is available at the Segal Visitors Center Garage (1847 Campus Drive, Evanston). Parking is FREE after 4 PM on weekdays and all day on weekends. All other times parking is $8. The Arts Circle Drive is open to vehicles, and patrons with disabilities will find an accessible location for pick-up and drop-off directly in front of the museum. Public Transportation
CONTACT US Phone 847. 491. 4000 Email block-museum@northwestern.edu
The Block Museum is a 15–20 minute walk from the Davis and Foster stations on the CTA’s Purple Line. The Davis station has an elevator. On the Metra, the museum is a 15– 20 minute walk from the Union-Pacific North Davis station.
Web blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
Follow us! @nublockmuseum or https://nublockmuseum.blog
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C A R AVA N S O F G O L D F R AG M E N T S I N T I M E ART, CULTURE, AND EXCHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL SAHARAN AFRICA
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EXHIBITIONS
“This is a very, very special exhibition. Africa is a continent with this hugely long historical trajectory, with so much to teach us, and yet somehow we don’t seem to tap into it. We don’t seem to give our kids the opportunity to be inspired by its amazing cultures. Caravans of Gold tells a story which is a thousand years old but a story which still feels resonant.” Gus Casely-Hayford Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
Kneeling figure, Natamatao, Mopti region Mali, 12th to 14th century, Terracotta, 46 cm x 22.3 cm x 21.5 cm. Musée national du Mali. Photograph by Seydou Camara, 90-25-10.
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Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa January 26–July 21, 2019 Main Gallery Caravans of Gold reminds us that Africa has always been connected to the world and can share its story on its own terms. – The Chicago Reader Travel with The Block Museum along routes crossing the Sahara Desert to a time when West African gold fueled expansive trade and drove the movement of people, culture, and religious beliefs. Caravans of Gold is the first major exhibition addressing the scope of Saharan trade and the shared history of West Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe from the eighth to sixteenth centuries. Weaving stories about interconnected histories, the exhibition showcases the objects and ideas that connected at the crossroads of the medieval Sahara and celebrates West Africa’s historic and underrecognized global significance. Caravans of Gold draws on recent archaeological discoveries, including rare fragments from major medieval African trading centers like Sijilmasa, Gao, and Tadmekka. These “fragments in time” are seen alongside works of art that invite us to imagine them as they once were. They are the starting point for a new understanding of the medieval past and for seeing the present in a new light. Presenting more than 250 artworks spanning five centuries and a vast geographic expanse, the exhibition features unprecedented loans from partner institutions in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria, many of which will be seen in North America for the first time.
Traveling to The Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (Fall 2019) and the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Spring 2020)
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time exhibition and programs have been made possible in part by two major planning and implementation grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Caravans of Gold is also supported in part by Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Studies. An anonymous donor made possible the exhibition’s travel to the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Myers Foundations, The Alumnae of Northwestern University, the Robert Lehman Foundation, the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and The Evanston Arts Council, an agency supported by the City of Evanston. Special thanks to the Perucca Family Foundation and the Art Institute of Chicago for curatorial research support. The exhibition publication is supported in part by Northwestern University’s Office for Research; Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund; a gift from Liz Warnock to the Department of Art History at Northwestern University; and the Sandra L. Riggs Publications Fund at The Block Museum of Art.
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“Caravans of Gold brings humble yet remarkable remains from sites in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria into the spotlight along with the histories that they reveal. The challenge of the project and its significance have been in finding ways to reveal the value of these tangible remains of Africa’s medieval past as critical points of reference in an effort to comprehend a time that sits enticingly beyond our comprehension.” -Kathleen Bickford Berzock Curator of Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time
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Guests investigate a pot on stand excavated at Igbo Isaiah, Igbo Ukwu, Nigeria, from the 9th/10th century. Leaded bronze, 32.5 Ă— 124.5 cm. National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abuja, Nigeria, 79.R.4. The roped pot found within a storage area for ritual objects at Igbo Ukwu is a masterpiece of lostwax casting. Photograph by Sean Su.
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EXHIBITIONS
Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously: 2019 Art Theory and Practice MFA Thesis Exhibition May 2–June 23, 2019 Alsdorf Gallery
OPENING RECEPTION Thursday, May 2, 6-9 PM shai-lee horodi, Hyun Jung Jun, Jessica Frances Martin, and Hamilton Poe—2019 Master of Fine Arts degree candidates in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University—present their thesis projects, concluding two years of intensive artistic development. This year’s thesis exhibition is accompanied by events, programming, and a publication conceived by the MFA candidates. This exhibition and the associated events are co-organized by the Department of Art Theory and Practice and The Block Museum at Northwestern University. Support is provided by the Norton S. Walbridge Fund; the Myers Foundations; the Jerrold Loebl Fund for the Arts; and the Alsdorf Endowment.
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PRO G R A M S
PERFORMANCE
Movements: A Response to The Leopard Thursday, April 4, 6 PM Perfomance will take place in the museum galleries. Movement is central in Isaac Julien’s 2007 video installation The Leopard (Western Union: Small Boats), which presents a lyrical and visceral meditation on histories of African migration. Produced at a time of debate about immigration policies and the relations between the individual and the geopolitical, The Leopard traces the effects of trauma not just on people but also on buildings, monuments, architecture, and landscape. Vignettes choreographed by Russell Maliphant are woven throughout the work, echoing and rearticulating these journeys. Catch the groundbreaking video installation before it closes on April 14 and watch as a group curated by D. Soyini Madison, Professor of Performance Studies, responds to The Leopard and to our current moment through dance and movement. This program is presented by The Block Museum in collaboration with the Department of Performance Studies.
Exhibition Isaac Julien: The Leopard (Western Union: Small Boats) on view through April 14th Isaac Julien, Western Union Series No. 12 (Balustrade), 2007. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York Š Isaac Julien.
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PRO G R A M S LECTURE
You Can’t Decolonise African Studies without Decolonising Africa Conference Keynote: Robtel Neajai Pailey Friday, April 5, 3:30 PM Where is the “African” in African Studies? What is the state of African Studies today? These questions posed by acclaimed Liberian scholar and Oxford University Fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey are intended to provoke and energize the field of African Studies. Scholarship about Africa often relies on specific cultural viewpoints and political interests, and can fail to take into consideration ideas and movements occurring outside the confines of academia. Pailey’s talk, the keynote of the Program of African Studies annual conference titled African Studies Now: Decolonizing the Field, will consider the origins of African Studies, its current debates, and new ways of conceiving of the study of Africa. For more information on this free, open conference, taking place April 4 and 5, visit http://bit.ly/Africanisms This program is presented by Northwestern Program of African Studies graduate student seminar (AfriSem).
Street in Jenne-Youboucaïca. Photograph by Hamdia Traoré, 2015.
LECTURE
Saharan Futures Conference Keynote: Ann McDougall Thursday, April 11, 5 PM Saharan Futures is an open convening focused on the current politics and economics of transSaharan trade, aiming to illuminate contemporary realities of migration, security, economic exchange, cultural flow, and identity across the Sahara. The conference will explore how historical patterns of sub-Saharan, North African, and global exchange continue to shape the present and future, both in the challenges and the opportunities they present for human development and well-being. Keynote speaker Ann McDougall, Professor of History and Classics at the University of Alberta, focuses on commercial development in the desert-edge country of Mauritania. She is one of several conference experts on the movement of people, ideas, and resources within and across borders. For more information on this free conference, taking place April 11 and 12, visit http://bit.ly/SaharanFuturesPAS This program is presented by Northwestern’s Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa; Middle Eastern and North African Studies Program; and Program of African Studies. 10
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Fred Wilson. Photograph by Guy Ben-Ari, courtesy of Pace Gallery.
ARTIST TALK
Fred Wilson: Afro Kismet Tuesday, April 16, 6 PM Throughout his career, acclaimed artist Fred Wilson has challenged assumptions of history, culture, race, and museum display by reframing objects and cultural symbols. In Afro Kismet, an extension of his work produced for the 2017 Istanbul Biennial, Wilson sheds light on the presence of Africans in Turkey through materials including glass chandeliers, monumental Iznik tile walls, cowrie shells, engravings, photographs, and Yoruba masks—all building upon research originally conducted for the 2003 Venice Biennale. Join us as Wilson shares insights into Afro Kismet— resonant with themes of migration and history explored in the exhibition Caravans of Gold. Following his talk, Wilson will be joined in conversation by Block Museum curator Janet Dees. Since his groundbreaking and historically significant exhibition Mining the Museum (1992) at the Maryland Historical Society, Fred Wilson has been the subject of many solo exhibitions, including the retrospective Objects and Installations 1979–2000, organized by the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland; Works 2001–2011 at the Cleveland Museum of Art (2012); Local Color at The Studio Museum in Harlem (2013); and Fred Wilson at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College (2017). In 2003, Wilson represented the United States at the 50th Venice Biennale. Wilson’s accolades include the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius” Grant (1999); a Lifetime Achievement Award from Howard University (2017); and the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Award (2018). Presented by The Block Museum in partnership with the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program.
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PRO G R A M S PANEL DISCUSSION
From the Field: International Archaeologists in Conversation Wednesday, April 24, 6 PM The Block Museum presents a special opportunity to hear from six international archaeologists whose excavations in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria were fundamental to the shaping of the exhibition Caravans of Gold. Exhibition curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock will moderate a conversation that will include insights into the excavation process, the “archaeological imagination,” and the protection of cultural patrimony. Participants include Abidemi Babatunde Babalola (UK), Mamadou Cissé (Mali), Mamadi Dembélé (Mali), Abdallah Fili (Morocco), Ronald A. Messier (US), and Sam Nixon (UK)—joining us from institutions ranging from the Direction nationale du patrimoine culturel of Mali to the British Museum. Presented by The Block Museum in partnership with the Dept. of Anthropology and Program of African Studies.
Rectilinear wall structures at the archaeological site of Gao Ancien. Photograph by Mamadou Cissé, 2016.
MYERS SYMPOSIUM
Trans-Saharan Exchange and the Global Medieval Keynote: Susan Keech McIntosh Friday, April 26, 5:30 PM As a culminating event of a day-long symposium, noted archaeologist Susan Keech McIntosh, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Anthropology, Rice University, reflects on the importance of working at the crossroads of art and archaeology and African and Islamic Studies to construct a greater understanding of the global Middle Ages. McIntosh has conducted excavations in Mali and Senegal, and has written extensively on protecting archaeological heritage and cultural property in Africa. Following her talk, McIntosh will be joined for conversation by Kathleen Bickford Berzock, curator of Caravans of Gold. For more information on this free symposium, visit http://bit.ly/GlobalMedieval This event is supported by the Myers Foundations and presented by The Block Museum and the Department of Art History at Northwestern University. 12
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DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY WARNOCK LECTURE SERIES
Kishwar Rizvi: Shah ‘Abbas’ Iran and Global Early Modernity Wednesday, May 1, 5 PM Kishwar Rizvi, professor at Yale University, will deliver a talk focused on the “golden age” of Iranian art and culture under the reign of Shah ‘Abbas, highlighting the central role the Islamic world played in global exchange, whether of people, ideas, or commodities. Presented by the Department of Art History at Northwestern University
Dario Robleto, Small Crafts on Sisyphean Seas [detail], 2018
CONVERSATION
Exploring Ethics: Across Art, Humanities, and Science Wednesday, May 8, 6 PM For many artists, researchers, and scientists investigating life—whether working with human remains, studying organ donation, or re-engineering the genetic code—ethical considerations inevitably appear. Questions of consent and personal autonomy, control and access, social responsibility and human rights proliferate across areas of research that work with living subjects. How do professionals in these fields identify, draw inspiration from, and respond to ethical questions within their work? In this program bridging disciplinary divides, artist Dario Robleto; synthetic biologists Josh Leonard, Julius Lucks, and Danielle Tullman-Ercek; and medical anthropologist Megan Crowley-Matoka will share specific dilemmas they’ve encountered in their own work—and discuss commonalities and differences that could lead to new ways of addressing contemporary ethical concerns. This event is part of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and The Block Museum of Art’s Artist-at-Large Program, and McCormick’s ongoing Art and Engineering Initiative.
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PRO G R A M S PANEL AND CONVERSATION
Driving Desires: How Gold Shaped the World Thursday, May 9, 6 PM Gold is one of the rarest and most malleable minerals, qualities that have contributed to its enduring value across time and place. Gold has been shaped by artists; its extraction has altered landscapes and its discovery has raised nations. The allure of gold is entwined with culture and economies, politics and religion, power and value. Join The Block’s Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs Kathleen Bickford Berzock in a conversation with NYU’s Robyn d’Avignon and Northwestern faculty Rebecca Zorach and Marc Walton—specialists from anthropology, art history, and material science—as they excavate the story of gold’s timeless power. This program is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Caravans of Gold, which explores how gold from West Africa fueled a global economy and propelled the movement of things, people, and ideas across the Sahara Desert to Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Presented by The Block Museum in partnership with the Department of Art History and the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts.
Gold jewelry from Durbi Takusheyi, Nigeria, 13th–15th century. National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria.
READING
Lesley Nneka Arimah Wednesday, May 15, 6 PM As part of the 2019 Spring Writer Festival, join writer Lesley Nneka Arimah, whose debut story collection, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (Riverhead, 2017), offers a “humanizing portrait of both the Nigerian citizen and first generation young female immigrant” (Liz von Klemperer). Evocative, wrenching, and subversive, this dazzlingly accomplished collection explores the ties that bind us–parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends–to one another and to the places we call home. For more information on the 2019 Spring Writer Festival, taking place from May 13–15, please visit http://bit.ly/NUWritersFest Presented by the Northwestern Department of English Creative Writing Program and in conjunction with the Evanston Literary Festival. 14
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P U B L I C TO U RS
Caravans of Gold Sunday Afternoon Tours Select Sundays, 3 PM
Explore Caravans of Gold with The Block Museum’s student docents. These free, informal tours kick off in the museum lobby at 3 PM and can be tailored to the questions and interests of those attending. Tours typically last 45-60 minutes
Caravans of Gold Tuesday Lunchtime Tours Select Tuesdays, 12 PM Take part in a walk-through of Caravans of Gold led by a member of the curatorial team and learn more about the creation of this groundbreaking exhibition. These free tours kick off in the museum lobby. Tours typically last 45-60 minutes.
April 7 April 14 April 28 May 5 May 12
May 19 May 26 June 2 June 9
April 2 April 9 April 16 April 30 May 7 May 14
May 21 May 28 June 4 June 11 June 18
Gallery tour showing bronze baby elephant, Tada, Nigeria, 14th/15th Century, from the National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Photograph by Sean Su.
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CA L E N DA R
April 3
Wednesday
7 PM
CINEMA Looking for Langston (1989) The Attendant (1993)
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Thursday
6 PM
PERFORMANCE Movements: A Response to The Leopard
7:30 PM
CINEMA City of Lost Souls (1983)
p. 18
p. 9
3:30 PM
LECTURE You Can’t Decolonise African Studies...
p. 10
7 PM
CINEMA Dirty Looks: Eight Years On
p. 18
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Wednesday
7 PM
CINEMA Wanderers of the Desert (1984)
Thursday LECTURE Saharan Futures
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Friday
7 PM
CINEMA Life Without Death (2000)
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Saturday
10 AM
FAMILY PROGRAM Tales of Art at The Block
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Tuesday
6 PM
ARTIST TALK Fred Wilson: Afro Kismet
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Wednesday
7 PM
CINEMA Auto-Erotic: Female Sexuality in the First Person (1967–2006)
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CINEMA Our Century (1983) State of Weightlessness (1994)
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Friday
7 PM
CINEMA For All Mankind (1989)
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Wednesday
6 PM
PANEL DISCUSSION From the Field:
p. 19
p. 19
p. 12
Archaeologists in Conversation
Friday
5 PM
Thursday
7 PM
p. 18
5
11
18
25
Thursday
7 PM
CINEMA Spell Reel (2017)
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Friday
5:30 PM
MYERS SYMPOSIUM Trans-Saharan Exchange and the Global Medieval
p. 22
p. 12
May p. 20
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Wednesday
5 PM
LECTURE Kishwar Rizvi : Shah ‘Abbas’ Iran and Global Early Modernity
p. 10
2
Thursday
6 PM
OPENING 2019 MFA Thesis Exhibition Opening
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Friday
7 PM
CINEMA Channnels Presents...Is Never Done: Films on Gender and Labor (2000-2018)
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Saturday
12:30 PM
CINEMA A Bread Factory (2018)
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Wednesday
6 PM
CONVERSATION Exploring Ethics: Across Art, Humanities, and Science
p. 20
p. 30
p. 11
p. 24
p. 13
p. 8
p. 24
p. 27
p. 13
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Thursday
6 PM
PANEL & CONVERSATION Driving Desires: How Gold Shaped the World
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Friday
7 PM
CINEMA Ishtar (1987)
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Saturday
1 PM
CINEMA The Waldheim Waltz (2018)
p. 14
30
Thursday
7 PM
CINEMA The Image You Missed (2018)
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Friday
7 PM
CINEMA Branco Sai, Preto Fica (White Out, Black In) (2014)
p. 21
p. 23
p. 28
June p. 22
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Wednesday
7 PM
CINEMA 9 to 5 (1980)
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Thursday
7 PM
CINEMA Waiting for Happiness (2002)
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Wednesday
6 PM
READING Lesley Nneka Arimah
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Thursday
12
Wednesday
7 PM
CINEMA The Area (2018)
7 PM
CINEMA NU Docs: Program 1
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Friday
13
Thursday
7 PM
CINEMA Rubber Coated Steel (2016) Watching the Detectives (2017)
7 PM
CINEMA NU Docs: Program 2
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Friday
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Saturday
7 PM
1 PM
CINEMA Naila and the Uprising (2017)
CINEMA NU Docs: Program 3
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Wednesday
7 PM
CINEMA Losing Ground (1982)
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Thursday
7 PM
CINEMA Barbara Hammer: Mediated Sensuality (1974–2018)
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Friday
7 PM
CINEMA Barbara Hammer: Declarations of Identity (1973–1983)
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Wednesday
7 PM
CINEMA Yeelen (1987)
p. 14
p. 27
p. 28
p. 23
p. 26
p. 21
p. 28
p. 28
p. 28
TOURS OF CARAVANS OF GOLD p. 24
Tuesdays and Sundays See p. 15 for dates and times
p. 26
EXHIBITIONS January 26–July 21
p. 26
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa p. 5
May 2–June 23
p. 21
Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously: 2019 Art Theory and Practice MFA Thesis Exhibition p. 8
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CINEMA
City of Lost Souls,1983
Celebrating Queer Cinema Looking for Langston The Attendant Wednesday, April 3, 7 PM
Isaac Julien, 1989, UK, 16mm, 45 min Isaac Julien, 1993, UK, 35mm, 10 min
These two stunningly-realized works by British filmmaker Isaac Julien are his most direct explorations of black queer identity. Looking for Langston mixes archival material with stylized dramatic scenes to create a dreamlike essay film about the Harlem Renaissance that foregrounds the gay identities of several of the writers of the time, most significantly Langston Hughes. In the short The Attendant, a black museum guard’s fantasies combine fetishism, opera, and a camp sensibility as a painting of a slave and his white master becomes a living tableaux. City of Lost Souls Thursday, April 4, 7:30 PM
91 min Rosa von Praunheim, 1983, Germany, DCP
Like Hedwig in reverse, this 1983 trans punk musical is the instant cult classic you’ve never seen! Blurring the lines between farce and documentary, City follows the wily performances of trans punk legend Jayne County and Angie Stardust, who runs a boarding house where her lodgers—Tron Von Hollywood, Tara O’Hara, Joaquín la Habana, Judith Flex, and Gary—earn their keep. German film enfant terrible Rosa von Praunheim trained his lens on the gender-defying Americans who sought refuge in Berlin’s 80s club scene, catching some of the most honest and alarmingly prescient dialogue about trans life ever dedicated to celluloid in the process. Dirty Looks LA: Eight Years On Friday, April 5, 7 PM Dirty Looks compiles eight years of experimental screenings for a shorts program of signature delights that queer the pop canon and (under)mine history for all of her unanswered questions. Ranging from digital drag revisionism to post-bohemian celluloid, Dirty Looks: Eight Years On reassesses the past through a fiercely queer and politicized lens, asking “who brought us here?” and “where are we now?” This screening spins circles around contemporary queer subjectivities, snarling with a punk zeal and a utopian demand for more. In person: Dirty Looks LA founder and curator Bradford Nordeen Presented by The Block Museum and Northwestern’s Queer Pride Graduate Student Association and the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN) 18
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Space Programs: Views of Earth across the Iron Curtain Seen from space, the Earth depicted in the legendary “Blue Marble” photograph suggested a planetary unity belied by the deep schism between East and West during the Cold War. Celebrating Earth Day on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Block Cinema has brought together three breathtaking films by American, Polish, and Armenian filmmakers that revisit the conquest of space from across this once-unbridgeable divide.
For All Mankind,1989
Our Century State of Weightlessness Thursday, April 18, 7 PM
Artavazd Peleshian, 1983, Armenia/USSR, 35mm, 50 min Maciej J. Drygas, 1994, Poland/France, DCP, 58 min
Armenian filmmaker Artavazd Peleshian created a small but astounding body of work from the 1960s to the early 90s, including Our Century, his only feature. Here, Peleshian applies his unique conception of “distance montage” to footage of Soviet cosmonauts, using the space program to find a poetic evocation of the human condition. Maciej Drygas’s film State of Weightlessness also takes Soviet space exploration as its subject, combining contemporary interviews with cosmonauts and archival footage to look at both the tedious realities of space flight (brushing one’s teeth in zero gravity) and the larger cosmic implications.
For All Mankind Friday, April 19, 7 PM
79 min Al Reinert, 1989, USA, DCP
In July, it will have been a half century since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Nothing since has captured the worldwide excitement of this technological “leap for mankind.” For All Mankind was a passion project; Al Reinert taped 80 hours of interviews with the astronauts, and he and editor Susan Korda edited millions of feet of film from nine Apollo missions into a tight 79 minutes. The end result is not a documentation of a single event or even the NASA program as a whole; it’s a deeply moving celebration of mankind’s great adventure into space. Brian Eno’s score captures the feeling of wonder, joy, and levity seen in the images.
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CINEMA
Saharan Exchanges One of the most distinctive and extreme environments in the world, the Sahara Desert has a fascinating cinematic history. While Western filmmakers have sought sublime spectacle among the dunes since the silent era, North African and sub-Saharan filmmakers have also used the desert as a backdrop for bold experiments in style and narrative. Programmed to complement The Block’s exhibition Caravans of Gold, the diverse films in Saharan Exchanges prove that the vast expanses of the region cannot be exhausted by any single genre or perspective.
Yeelen, 1987
Wanderers of the Desert Wednesday, April 10, 7 PM
95 min Nacer Khemir, 1984, Tunisia/France, DCP
This beguiling fable weds traditions of Arabic literature with modern cinema through stunning compositions and unpredictable narrative structures. An inexperienced schoolteacher arrives in a remote Saharan village, where he learns that a curse afflicts the young men of the region, calling them to wander aimlessly in the desert. As the teacher loses himself in the village’s strange atmosphere, director Nacer Khemir deftly balances the mystical with the contemplative, summoning the inexplicable and the timeless from the everyday. The film has been newly restored by the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique. Life Without Death Friday, April 12, 7 PM
82 min Frank Cole, 2000, Canada, 16mm
His life transformed by the passing of his grandfather in the early 1990s, Canadian filmmaker Frank Cole found himself obsessed with the idea of death. Determined to overcome his fear, he resolved to cross the Sahara Desert by camel, training for years to prepare himself for the emotional and physical ordeal. Cole filmed his travels from Mauritania to the Sudan with a 16mm Bolex, capturing the harsh reality of the desert environment with an unflinching intimacy. Cole offers a deeply personal, yet distinctly Western, perspective on the desert as a space of Romantic sublimity.
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Ishtar Friday, May 10, 7 PM
107 min Elaine May, 1987, USA, 35mm
Elaine May’s uncompromising fourth feature, starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as a pair of talentless songwriters who bumble their way into Cold War intrigues in Morocco, has enjoyed a critical re-evaluation in recent years. J. Hoberman of the Village Voice calls it “the most adroit political satire to emerge from Hollywood during the Iran-Contra stupefaction of Ronald Reagan’s second term.” Shot by acclaimed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro on location in the Sahara, the film offers a comical, self-referential send-up of both American foreign policy and Hollywood exoticism. Northwestern Professor of History Daniel Immerwahr, author of the new book How to Hide an Empire, will offer an introduction to the geopolitical context of the film. Yeelen Wednesday, May 29, 7 PM
105 min Souleymane Cissé, 1987, Mali/Burkina Faso, 35mm
A landmark in African cinema, Souleymane Cissé’s film is set in the Malian empire of the 13th century and depicts the quest of a young son across the West African landscape to confront his father, a tyrannical magician. Although the film’s mythic narrative and arresting visual style lend it universal appeal, Yeelen’s use of Bambara, Fulani, and Dogon languages and its representation of power struggles across generations have been interpreted as a commentary on Malian politics of the postcolonial era. Waiting for Happiness Thursday, June 6, 7 PM
96 min Abderrahmane Sissako, 2002, Mauritania/France, 35mm
Set in a Mauritanian coastal town at the edge of the Sahara Desert, Waiting for Happiness elliptically explores the gateways between Africa and Europe, tradition and modernity, childhood and adulthood. The cast of characters radiates around Abdallah, a 17-year-old intellectual distanced from the language and culture of his hometown; while he waits to emigrate to France, he struggles to communicate with the inhabitants and migrants around him. Abderrahmane Sissako weaves together disparate yet invariably intoxicating sights and sounds, teasing out the systems of exchange and translation that exist even when life seems at a standstill.
Waiting for Happiness, 2002
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CINEMA
Personal Archives, Political Memories: The Radical Past in Contemporary Documentary As activists around the world revisit the successes and failures of earlier political movements, a new wave of documentaries and essay films has begun to look beyond official archives, recovering lost, forgotten, and unseen images to tell stories of struggle. Whether incorporating family photos, home movies, or decades-old documents of protest, the films in this series explore turbulent histories through a distinctly personal lens. Spell Reel Thursday, April 25, 7 PM
96 min Filipa César, 2017, France/Portugal, DCP
Freedom fighter Amílcar Cabral commissioned a group of young filmmakers to document the independence movement in late 1960s Guinea-Bissau; lost for decades, their footage was recently restored. Portuguese artist Filipa César collaborates with the surviving filmmakers to tour the material around Guinea-Bissau, staging public screenings with live narration and discussion. Recovering layers of history behind these images, César and her collaborators also expose a yearning for African self-determination that persists today. Presented with an introduction by Sarah Estrela, doctoral candidate in Art History at Northwestern. The Waldheim Waltz Saturday, May 11, 1 PM
93 min Ruth Beckermann, 2018, Austria, DCP
In 1985, the Austrian presidential campaign of former UN General Secretary Kurt Waldheim was disrupted by shocking allegations that the candidate had hidden the true extent of his participation in Nazi war crimes in Greece and Serbia. Director Ruth Beckermann methodically recounts the revelations and denials through news reports, archival interviews with the unrepentant Waldheim, and her own trove of videotapes shot as part of the left-wing opposition against him. Exposing a lingering anti-Semitism that plagued Austria long after the end of the war, The Waldheim Waltz offers chilling lessons for the present.
The Image You Missed, 2018
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Naila and the Uprising, 2017
Naila and the Uprising Saturday, May 18, 1 PM
76 min Julia Bacha, 2017, USA/Palestine, digital
This galvanizing 2017 documentary turns a spotlight on the role of Palestinian women in leading non-violent protests against the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank in the late 1980s. The film is centered around the experiences of Naila Ayesh, an activist whose arrest and torture by Israeli forces coincided with the first stirrings of the uprising. Bacha builds upon her firsthand testimony through animated sequences, family dialogues with Naila’s son Majd, and remarkable archival material. In person: Suhad Babaa, the film’s Executive Producer and Executive Director of Just Vision The Image You Missed Thursday, May 30, 7 PM
74 min Donal Foreman, 2018, France/Ireland/USA/UK, DCP
Arthur MacCaig spent thirty years documenting the Troubles in Northern Ireland, leaving behind an archive of searing footage. In The Image You Missed, his estranged son, filmmaker Donal Foreman, recovers this material to reflect on the personal and political conflicts that came between them, and the commitment to filmmaking that brings them together after his death. Foreman’s poignant, brilliantly edited essay film raises difficult questions about the nature of family, representation, and activism both then and now. In person: filmmaker Donal Foreman
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CINEMA
Visual Pleasures: The Work and Play of Women’s Liberation This year’s One Book One Northwestern selection, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, imagines how the hard-fought economic and sexual freedoms won by the women’s movement might be stripped away. Copresented with One Book, the Northwestern Women’s Center, the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN), the films in this series manifest those freedoms in both form and content. Visual Pleasures encompasses both mainstream comedies of empowerment and experimental representations of desire through a distinctly female gaze, celebrating liberation across a spectrum of cinematic forms. Auto-Erotic: Female Sexuality in the First Person Wednesday, April 17, 7 PM
120 min 1967–2006, 16mm/digital
Curated by Northwestern professors Amy Partridge and Helen Thompson, this program brings together three daring works of film and video that forged new paths towards women’s sexual self-representation on screen. Carolee Schneemann’s classic Fuses (1967), shown in a restored print, remains one of experimental film’s most uncompromising evocations of intimacy. The Continuing Story of Carel and Ferd (1970–75) offers an early use of video as a medium for confession and confrontation. The late Chicago artist Barbara DeGenevieve playfully deconstructs the motives behind her affair with a truck driver in Desperado (2004–06). ...Is Never Done: Films on Gender and Labor Friday, May 3, 7 PM
72 min 2000–2018, digital/16mm/35mm
Block Cinema welcomes Channels: A Quarterly Film Series, organized by local film programmers Josh B. Mabe and Erin Nixon, to present its newest installment in response to Visual Pleasures: The Work and Play of Women’s Liberation. This program features filmmakers that consider structures of the workplace, gendered labor, and the issues surrounding work and class, including films by Abigail Child, Janie Geiser, Cristiana Miranda, and others. Channels: A Quarterly Film Series presents experimental film, expanded cinema, documentary, installation, and video and new media art to audiences across Chicago. Losing Ground Wednesday, May 22, 7 PM
86 min Kathleen Collins, 1982, USA, DCP
With the release of Losing Ground and the publication of her writings, the work of Kathleen Collins is one of the great discoveries of the last decade. Collins died at age 46 in 1988, leaving behind two films and a vast trove of short stories, diaries, and screenplays; a rich artistic legacy exploring the African-American experience. In Losing Ground, Collins tells the semi-autobiographical story of a college professor (Seret Scott) and her painter husband (Bill Gunn), whose marriage is tested by his disregard for her career, flirtatious behavior on both sides, and jealousy as they summer away from the city.
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Technology Transformations: A Feminist History of the Supercut Friday, February 22, 7 PM This screening traces histories of gendered reproductions in media through the form of the “Supercut.” A viral video genre, supercuts compile multiple instances of a single theme, utterance, cliché, or image from pop culture sources. Pairing early feminist supercuts by artists such as Dara Birnbaum, with contemporary works by such artists as Natalie Bookchin and Jennifer Proctor, this program reveals how the supercut offers a powerful tool for remixing the social reproduction of gender in media from cinema to YouTube. Filmmaker Jennifer Proctor will join Professor of English James Hodge for a conversation after the screening. Birthright: A War Story Friday, March 8, 6:30 PM
105 min Civia Tamarkin, 2017, USA, digital
While access to abortion is often front and center in debates, the matter of choice is just one factor in a broad assault on the privacy and autonomy of women. This searing documentary, described as a real-lfe “handmaid’s tale,” provides a comprehensive overview of the “war on women.” Anchored in the lived experiences of women whose access to reproductive healthcare has been regulated and restricted, the film builds on these testimonies to paint a shocking picture of the forces shaping women’s health policy. Director Civia Tamarkin will introduce the film, and will join Sekile Nzinga-Johnson, Director of the Northwestern Women’s Center, for post-film discussion. Ilo Ilo Saturday, March 9, 1 PM
99 min Anthony Chen, 2013, Singapore, DCP
Winner of the Camera d’Or award for best first feature at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Anthony Chen’s engrossing and empathetic drama Ilo Ilo tackles the emotional and socioeconomic complexities of care work in the age of globalization. The story centers on Teresa, a Filipina domestic worker hired by a Singaporean family just before the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Drawing on his own experiences, Chen looks incisively at inequities of class and gender in family dynamics and the delegation of domestic labor. (In Hokkien, English, Tagalog, and Mandarin with English subtitles)
Carolee Schneeman, Fuses, 1967
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Visual Pleasures: The Work and Play of Women’s Liberation Barbara Hammer: Mediated Sensuality Thursday, May 23, 7 PM
84 min Barbara Hammer, 1974–2018, USA, 16mm/digital
Since the late 1960s, lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer has restlessly challenged the limits of the visible, pushing against the formal, social, and sexual boundaries of cinema. This program of films (including newly restored prints) showcases Hammer’s ability to translate embodied experience through expressive technique. Includes Dyketactics (1974), Sync Touch (1981), Vital Signs (1991), and others. Curated by KJ Relth and Mark Toscano. Barbara Hammer: Declarations of Identity Friday, May 24, 7 PM
75 min Barbara Hammer, 1973–83, USA, 16mm
Our second program dedicated to Barbara Hammer’s pioneering work includes recent Academy Film Archive and Electronic Arts Intermix restorations of Menses (1974), Superdyke (1975) and Audience (1983). Hammer’s overlapping identities as a queer woman, artist and activist coalesce in films that capture feminist and lesbian social movements in public and private, transforming the act of documentation into jubilation. Curated by KJ Relth and Mark Toscano. In person May 23 and 24: UCLA Film & Television Archive programmer and curator KJ Relth. Barbara Hammer films courtesy of Academy Film Archive and Electronic Arts Intermix.
9 to 5 Wednesday, June 5, 7 PM
109 min Colin Higgins, 1980, USA, DCP
The film 9 to 5 remains a classic for many reasons: its top-tier cast, catchy theme, and the powerful way it blends comedy with a rallying cry for working women. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton’s characters fight against the patriarchy to enact progressive ideas—their platform is equal pay for equal work, ending discriminatory hiring and office sexual harassment, and instituting social programs, including workplace child care. Nearly forty years later, these issues are still being grappled with as a new battle for equal rights is waged by the most diverse Congress ever elected.
Barbara Hammer, Vital Signs, 1991
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Cinema Selections Special single-screening selections for Spring 2019
A Bread Factory, 2018
A Bread Factory Saturday, May 4, 12:30 PM
242 min Patrick Wang, 2018, USA, DCP
Supported for decades by community funding, a modest arts space in small-town New York suddenly finds its future in question when a group of art-world celebrities and their corporate backers propose a performance space nearby. In his third feature, director Patrick Wang recaptures the risk-taking spirit of classic independent cinema, cleverly weaving themes of gentrification, aging, and the bonds of community into a hilarious, casually epic two-part satire. Between tap-dancing techies, teenage journalists, and two-timing city councilmen, A Bread Factory captures the bittersweet reality of American public life with compassion and conviction. With intermission Made in Chicago: The Area Thursday, May 16, 7 PM
93 min David Schalliol, 2018, USA, digital
The Area is a new documentary telling a story that’s well known to many. It follows the fiveyear odyssey of a South Side Chicago neighborhood, where more than 400 African-American families are being displaced by a multibillion-dollar freight company. The film is told through the perspective of its residents: homeowner-turned-activist Deborah Payne, who vows to be “the last house standing,” and the Row Row Boys, teen friends who must start a new life across gang lines. In person: filmmaker David Schalliol, protagonist/producer Deborah Payne, and producer Brian Ashby
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CINEMA Security Sound and Vision Rubber Coated Steel Watching the Detectives Friday, May 17, 7 PM
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 2016, Lebanon/Germany, digital, 21 min Chris Kennedy, 2017, Canada, 16mm, silent, 36 min
Presented in conjunction with the 2018-2019 Kaplan Institute for the Humanities Dialogue, the two films in this program apply minimalist techniques to the forensic examination of sound and vision, deconstructing deceptive images of security. British-Jordanian artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan stages an intricate relay of sound and image to investigate the use of live ammunition in crowd control by Israel Defense Forces in Rubber Coated Steel. Chris Kennedy’s Watching the Detectives uses text and still images to reconstruct the mistaken efforts of the amateur socialmedia sleuths who sought to identify the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing. In person: filmmaker Chris Kennedy Branco Sai, Preto Fica (White Out, Black In) Friday, May 31, 7 PM
90 min Adirley Queirós, 2014, Brazil, DCP
An act of racialized police brutality against attendees of a dance club near Brasília in 1986, an artist in a post-apocalyptic world, and a time-traveling detective who arrives in a modified shipping container on a mission to determine the causes of the inequity: these three elements make up Branco Sai, Preto Fica, a hybrid film using many genres and forms to interrogate the politics of Brazil. The tropes of dystopian science fiction are used to portray the real-life disparity between those who build the cities and those who get to live in them.
Branco Sai, Preto Fica, 2014
NU DOCS Wednesday–Friday, June 12-14, 7 PM Northwestern University’s MFA in Documentary Media Program is proud to present the thesis films of its fourth graduating class. Please join us to watch a great selection of new short documentaries, engage in dialogue with the filmmakers, and celebrate their accomplishments. This free, three-night event will give audience members a chance to discover the next generation of filmmakers who are making exciting films and tackling a wide range of topics.
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LEARN WITH US
Students tour Caravans of Gold. Photograph by Sean Su.
Schedule a Group Visit to Caravans of Gold Bring your group to The Block Museum for a free gallery tour of our current exhibitions. We are happy to work with you to plan a visit that meets your group’s needs and interests. All guided tours are led by Northwestern student docents, who come from a wide range of academic backgrounds, including art history, psychology, journalism, science, and engineering. On guided tours, our docents provide information about the works on view and also facilitate open discussion. If you would like to request a tour for your organization, please visit our website to complete a request form.
Visit our Eloise W. Martin Study Center We welcome scholars, classes, and researchers to our Eloise W. Martin Study Center to further explore The Block Museum’s permanent collection. To select works for your visit, you may search the online database or contact one of the curators. Appointments can be scheduled for Monday through Friday between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM. To schedule your appointment, contact Collections Coordinator Joseph Scott at 847.467.0734 or printroom@northwestern.edu.
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LEARN WITH US
Young artist meeting Morikeba Kouyate, a traditional West African Jeli, at The Block Museum. Photograph by Sean Su.
Family Storytelling: Tales of Art at The Block Saturday, April 13, 10 AM Museums are full of stories. Join us for read-aloud story zones and interactive activities designed to help you look closer and think deeper about the art on view at the museum. Come discover the stories hidden beneath the surface of the art at The Block and invent your own. Geared for children ages 3–8 but all are welcome. Space is limited and registration is required.
Let us know you’re coming! RSVP at http://bit.ly/BlockRSVP
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P U B L I CAT I O N
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa The Block Museum and Princeton University Press Hardcover | 2019 | $65.00 | ISBN 9780691182681 | 304 pp. | 9 x 11 | 192 color illus.
The Sahara Desert was a thriving crossroads of exchange for West Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe in the medieval period. Fueling this exchange was West African gold, prized for its purity and used for minting currencies and adorning luxury objects such as jewelry, textiles, and religious objects. The publication Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time draws on the latest archaeological discoveries and art historical research to construct a compelling look at medieval trans-Saharan exchange and its legacy. Contributors from diverse disciplines present case studies that form a rich portrayal of a distant time. Featuring a wealth of color images, this fascinating book demonstrates how the rootedness of place, culture, and tradition is closely tied to the circulation of people, objects, and ideas. These “fragments in time� offer irrefutable evidence of the key role that Africa played in medieval history and promote a new understanding of the past and the present. Purchase at The Block Museum or online at www. press.princeton.edu
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@nublockmuseum @nublockm useum e
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