Nadine Robinson, Coronation Theme: Organon, 2008. Collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2008.175. Image courtesy the artist and the High Museum of Atlanta. Photo by Mike Jensen.
Kunstquartier Bethanien
Black Sound White Cube
July 10-August 28, 2011,
daily from 12-7 pm
Opening:
Saturday, July 9, 2011, 5-9 pm
Studio 1
Mariannenplatz 2
D-10997 Berlin
www.blacksoundwhitecube.com
Participating artists:
Sanford Biggers, Sonia Boyce, Nate Harrison, Jennie C. Jones, Minouk Lim, Yvette Mattern, Robin Rhode, Nadine Robinson, Maruša Sagadin, Ina Wudtke
Curated by:
Dieter Lesage and Ina Wudtke
Performance, Lectures & Artist's Talks:
July 10, 2011, 4 pm: Sanford Biggers' Performance with Satch Hoyt (Berlin)
July 10, 2011, 5 pm: Artist's talk with Sanford Biggers (NY)
July 10, 2011, 6 pm: Artist's talk with Nadine Robinson (NY)
July 29, 2011, 6 pm: Lecture by Valerie Cassel Oliver (Curator CAMH Houston)
August 27, 2011, 6 pm: Lecture by Franklin Sirmans (Curator LACMA Los Angeles)
August 27, 2011, 7 pm: Artist's talk with Sonia Boyce (London)
The exhibition Black Sound White Cube
The exhibition Black Sound White Cube will present works by ten international artists that refer to the musical traditions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora. Black Sound White Cube thus seeks to trigger discussions off the beaten track of the hegemonic fields of avant-garde and pop. Black Sound White Cube is based on the eponymous book by German artist Ina Wudtke and Belgian philosopher Dieter Lesage published in 2010. The central proposition of the book is that the white cube not only looks white but also sounds white.
In its history as a hegemonic form of presenting art, from the 1920s to the present, the white cube has only hesitantly opened itself up to black sound. At the same time, forms of expression, contexts and languages of traditional white music scenes were and are integrated in the context of art without problems. From rock, punk and new wave to experimental noise avant-garde, everything is represented in leading contemporary shows. In face of an art that makes reference to the (musical) tradition of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora, contemporary Continental European art still appears to be speechless, words are missing as well as the cultural reference.
In the Continental European context, it still seems difficult to grasp a beat as complex avant-gardes, as during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s with the invention of syncopated swing rhythms. And yet the discourses of black sound and fine art overlap in manifold ways, as is demonstrated by the works of an entire generation of contemporary artists. The exhibition Black Sound White Cube, curated by Ina Wudtke and Dieter Lesage, shows works by Sanford Biggers, Sonia Boyce, Nate Harrison, Jennie C. Jones, Minouk Lim, Yvette Mattern, Robin Rhode, Nadine Robinson, Maruša Sagadin, and Ina Wudtke. Black Sound White Cube will be on view from July 10, 2011, through August 28, 2011, at Kunstquartier Bethanien / Studio 1, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin, and is funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
The catalogue of the exhibition Black Sound White Cube
A catalogue in German will be published in conjunction with the show: Dieter Lesage & Ina Wudtke, Black Sound White Cube. Die Audiologie des Ausstellungsraums, Vienna, Loecker Verlag, 2011, 124 pp. ISBN: 978-3-85409-612-2. Published with the support of Hauptstadtkulturfonds and Erasmus University College Brussels. See: www.loecker.at.
The English original edition of the book from 2010 is also available: Dieter Lesage & Ina Wudtke, Black Sound White Cube, Vienna, Loecker, 2010, 112 pp. ISBN: 978-3-85409-547-7. See: www.loecker.at.
For more information
www.blacksoundwhitecube.com
contact@blacksoundwhitecube.com