The five countries—Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal and Zambia—whose modern architectural productions are featured in Architecture of Independence, present the opportunity to examine where the collective and the individual fit in the post colonial era. In his lecture architecture historian Nnamdi Elleh will connect the sociopolitical conditions of the newly independent countries with the modernist buildings erected post-independence. Elleh will address several key questions: Why did these countries fall into different states of violence following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, an era that has been seen as the rise of neoliberal economy in the world and in Africa in general? This lecture will draw from the exhibition to explore the challenges facing these countries and different parts of the continent today.

Nnamdi Elleh is associate professor of architecture, history and theory at DAAP, University of Cincinnati. He was trained as an architect and received his PhD in art history from Northwestern University. He was a Fulbright Teaching-Research Scholar at the University of Cape Town, where he studied post-apartheid nationalist inspired architecture in South Africa. His research focuses on modern and contemporary architecture as diverse, multi-centered, regional and localized experiences in different parts of the world. Elleh’s selected books include African Architecture, Evolution and Transformation (McGraw Hill, 1996); Architecture and Power in Africa (Praeger, 2001); and Reading the Architecture of the Underprivileged Classes: A Perspective on the Protests and Upheavals in Our Cities (Ashgate, 2014).

image: Photomontage of Bernard Nivert and Robert Boy’s Building for the Fund for Stabilization and Support of Agricultural Produce Prices (CAISTAB), 1970, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, featuring the country’s primary agricultural produce. Originally published in the national magazine Fraternité Matin, November 1981.

For more information on the exhibition, Architecture of Independence: African Modernism, click here.

The Graham Foundation in partnership with Lampo is pleased to present Roc Jiménez de Cisneros, one half of the Barcelona-based sound-art duo EVOL. De Cisneros will premiere Opus17aSlimeVariation#8—an interpretation of German conceptual artist Hanne Darboven’s legendary Opus 17a, newly arranged for computer and RGB laser.

EVOL’s approach to Darboven's original score focuses mainly on time manipulation. Hanne Darboven worked with processes that manipulated numbers and patterns. She often used calendar dates organized according to new rules and visually displayed these grids on paper. Her Opus 17a is derived from one such calendar-based artwork (Wunschkonzert, 1984), in which numbers are transcribed into musical notes. In both a tribute to the original, and an experiment in temporal distortion, EVOL transforms Darboven's grid into a new sonic experience.

Opus17aSlimeVariations is part of a series that began in 2014 and has been presented live and as an installation, using different sound materials each time. The project was first developed in collaboration with programmer Guy Birkin.

Roc Jiménez de Cisneros (b.1975, Barcelona) is an artist, composer and co-founder of the computer music project EVOL, which he started with Stephen Sharp in 1996. His work is a radical and playful exploration of algorithmic composition. Heavily influenced and inspired by cosmology, noise and rave culture, he describes his recordings, installations and performances as “computer music for hooligans.” His output has been released on labels such as Entr’acte, Presto!?, Mego, Fals.ch and ALKU, which he runs with Anna Ramos. He has performed extensively throughout the world. He lives and works in Barcelona.

This performance is presented in partnership with Lampo. Founded in 1997, Lampo is a non-profit organization for experimental music, sound art and intermedia projects. For information and to add your name to the Lampo list, visit http://www.lampo.org.

PLEASE NOTE: Seating for this performance is extremely limited. RSVP is required and event entry is first-come, first-serve, so please plan to arrive early. Doors will open at 7:30pm.

Please join us for a reception and talk by curator and author Manuel Herz to celebrate the opening of our winter exhibition, Architecture of Independence: African Modernism.

Friday, January 29
6:00pm: Talk by curator and author Manuel Herz
7-8:30 pm: Opening Reception

This exhibition is based on the book project African Modernism: Architecture of Independence by Manuel Herz in cooperation with the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

Manuel Herz is an architect based in Basel, Switzerland. His recent projects include the Synagogue and Jewish Community Center in Mainz, Germany. He has taught at the ETH Zürich and at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and is currently professor of architecture and urban design studies at the University of Basel. Manuel's research addresses the relationship between migration, architecture, and nation-building and the spaces of refugee camps. His publications include Nairobi: Migration Shaping the City (with Shadi Rahbaran and supported by a Graham Foundation grant; Lars Müller Publishers, 2014); From Camp to City: Refugee Camps of the Western Sahara (Lars Müller Publishers, 2013); and African Modernism: Architecture of Independence.

Image: Jean Francois Lamoureux and Jean-Louis Marin, FIDAK - Foire Internationale de Dakar, 1974, Dakar (Senegal). Photo © Iwan Baan.

For more information on the exhibition, Architecture of Independence: African Modernism, click here.

To conclude our current exhibition, Barbara Kasten: Stages, please join us for a conversation between Barbara Kasten and Chicago-based artist Chelsea Culprit. The discussion will be accompanied by a special screening of Inside Outside / Stages of Light (1985), Kasten’s collaborative performance with noted choreographer and dancer Margaret Jenkins, which marked a critical moment in the artist’s interests in theatricality, the prop, and architectural scale.

Barbara Kasten received her BFA from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1959 and her MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, in 1970. She has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as the George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the International Center of Photography, New York, among others. Her work is in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Chelsea Culprit is a Chicago-based artist and curator whose practice spans multiple disciplines. Her recent solo projects include Cloud Illusions I Recall at Born Nude, Chicago and ella, ella, ella... at Johannes Vogt Gallery, NY, among others. Culprit has performed at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The New Museum; and The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. She is Co-Director with artist Ben Foch of New Capital, a Chicago-based exhibition space and curatorial project. Culprit graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a dual degree in Studio Art, Art History Theory and Criticism.

Image: Inside Outside/Stages of Light, 1985. Still from the video documentation of a performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Courtesy of the artist and Margaret Jenkins. Collection of the BAM Hamm Archives, Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Please note: Seating is first-come, first-served and RSVP does not guarantee entry, so please plan to arrive early.

For more information on the exhibition, Barbara Kasten: Stages, click here.

*This performance will take place at Rebuild Foundation at the Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave, Chicago (map).*

In his Chicago debut, artist and Graham grantee James Hoff will present a new four-channel work using computer viruses to infect beats, where the mutated results become the building blocks for new compositions.

His interest in computer viruses lies in their ability to self-distribute through (and ultimately disrupt) networks of communication, and Hoff’s agency as an artist centers on placing these parasitic forms into pre-existing genres, such as dance music.

“Viruses, like art, need a host. Preferably a popular one,” he writes.

James Hoff is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. His work encompasses painting, sound, writing, performance and publishing, among other media. Taking cues and inspiration from the computer works of Emmett Williams, BP Nichol and Jackson Mac Low; conceptual writers Vito Acconci, Aram Saroyan and Douglas Huebler; and early to late computer viruses (from Pervade to Flame), Hoff works with malware to infect media files as a compositional strategy for painting and music.

Hoff is also a co-founder of Primary Information, a nonprofit arts organization devoted to publishing artists’ books and art historical documents. Primary Information is the recipient of three Graham Foundation grants, most recently in 2015 for “Dan Graham and the Static,” a limited-edition cassette featuring the unique recording of a seminal artwork by Dan Graham that connects architecture, performance, and music.

This performance is presented in partnership with Lampo and Rebuild Foundation. Founded in 1997, Lampo is a non-profit organization for experimental music and intermedia projects. Rebuild Foundation is a nonprofit organization that endeavors to rebuild the cultural foundations of underinvested neighborhoods and incite movements of community revitalization that are culture based, artist led, and neighborhood driven.

Related Talk: On Saturday, December 12, at 2:30pm James Hoff will discuss the history of artists’ books and Primary Information, the organization he co-founded to publish books and writings by artists. He will have a small selection of his artists’ books on hand to share with the audience. This talk will take place at Rebuild Foundation at the Stony Island Arts Bank. For more information, click here.

Related Grants: 2015 Organizational Grant to Primary Information for “Dan Graham and the Static” (2016); 2014 Organizational Grant to Primary Information for “Fantastic Architecture” (2015); and 2013 Organizational Grant to Primary Information for “The Sound Works of Vito Acconci” (2016).

Image: James Hoff, Skywiper No. 3 (detail), 2014. Chromaluxe transfer on aluminum, 30 x 16 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Callicoon Fine Arts, New York.

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