Episode 6: February 19, THE LIVING VOICE: POWER & PLEASURE
Maria Hlavajova, Otobong Nkanga

Lacan Parle (1972), screening of an excerpt from a documentary film by Francoise Wolff
Future Vocabularies, Maria Hlavajova, artistic director of BAK, in conversation with Gabriëlle Schleijpen, head of Studium Generale Rietveld Academie
Live performance-lecture by Otobong Nkanga

PROGRAM
Lacan Parle (1972): screening of an excerpt from a documentary film by Francoise Wolff

Maria Hlavajova, artistic director of BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht and initiator of a new project entitled Future Vocabularies in conversation with Gabriëlle Schleijpen, head of Studium Generale Rietveld Academie.

With their emphasis on the intercommunication between art, knowledge and advocacy, exhibition projects at BAK are brought to live in dialogue with artists, theoreticians, and activists. In the face of the radically changing structure of power relations within the global condition of the present, BAK stands firmly as a space of art where the politically driven voice is welcome to speak up. What observations, ideas and ideals have lead Maria Hlavajova to become the determined director she is today?

Otobong Nkanga presents a performance-lecture especially conceived for VOICE ~ CREATURE OF TRANSITION

Otobong Nkanga is a visual artist and live performer born in 1974 in Kano, Nigeria and currently living and working in Antwerp, Belgium. Her drawings, installations, photographs, videos, sculptures and performances variously examine ideas around land and the value connected to its resources. Otobong Nkanga often utilizes ‘voice’ in order to articulate her reactions to existing structures and their implications. She finds inspiration for this in observing social and topographic changes in her surroundings.

PLUS
News from Rietveld Uncut and sneak peeks of tomorrow’s Beamclub screening and Quinsy Gario’s Spoken Word masterclass.

GUEST SPEAKERS / PERFORMERS
Maria Hlavajova is initiator and artistic director of the Former West project, and artistic director of BAK since 2000. Hlavajova has organized numerous exhibitions at BAK with artists such as Jonas Staal, Christoph Schlingensief, Lawrence Weiner, Sanja Iveković, Artur Żmijewski and Kutluğ Ataman. In 2011 Hlavajova organized the project of the Roma Pavilion in the framework of the 54th Venice Biennale entitled Call the Witness, and in 2007 she curated a three-part project Citizens and Subjects for the Dutch Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, which included a new video installation by Aernout Mik. Hlavajova is co-founder of the tranzit network, a foundation that supports exchange and contemporary art practices in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. Previously she was a faculty member at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York (1998 – 2002), co-curator of Manifesta 3, Ljubljana (2000), and director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts in Bratislava from 1994–1999. Hlavajova lives and works in Amsterdam and Utrecht.

Otobong Nkanga began her art studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria and continued at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She attended the Rijksakademie and obtained a master degree at Dasarts, both in Amsterdam. Recent shows and performances include: Glimmer Fragments in symposium Landings: Confrontation and Confession, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2014); Sharjah Biennial 11, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, (2013); Across the Board: Politics of Representation, Tate Modern, The Tanks, London, United Kingdom (2012); Inventing world: The Artist as citizen, Biennale Benin, Cotonou, Benin (2012); Tropicomania: The Social life of Plants, Betonsalon, Center of art and research. Associated venue of La Triennale 2012 — Intense Proximity, Paris, France (2012); and Object Atlas — Fieldwork in the Museum, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany (2012). Currently she is guest of the Artists-in-Berlin Program of the DAAD.