MAXXI for Black Lives MatterAgainst Racism

KENDELL GEERS
T. W. Batons (Circle), 1994

22 batons MAXXI Arte Collection Donated by Claudia Gian Ferrari Crosses, handcuffs, discarded objects like plastic bags, weapons and shards of glass bottles found on the streets, are the materials chosen by the artist, which are clear references to religious, political and social tensions. T.W. Batons (Circle) is a sculpture of batons arranged in a radial pattern, in which the essentiality of the circular geometric form contrasts the brutality of the weapons. The circular positioning of the batons confers a sort of “aestheticisation” of the violence, bestowing the work with irony and humour. Conceived during the revolts that preceded the 1994 South African elections, the work refers to the methods of repression used by the police and to the abuses authorised by the local government which led, on that occasion, to thousands of casualties. On the South African elections of 1994, which were the first free elections open to the whole population, Nelson Mandela became the first black president in the country’s history. Direct and without filters, the work is striking for its violence, and evokes in the spectator an initial feeling of uneasiness, a sense of danger and destabilisation. Photo © Musacchio & Ianniello22 batons Collezione MAXXI Arte Donated by Claudia Gian Ferrari Crosses, handcuffs, discarded objects like plastic bags, weapons and shards of glass bottles found on the streets, are the materials chosen by the artist, which are clear references to religious, political and social tensions. T.W. Batons (Circle) is a sculpture of batons arranged in a radial pattern, in which the essentiality of the circular geometric form contrasts the brutality of the weapons. The circular positioning of the batons confers a sort of “aestheticisation” of the violence, bestowing the work with irony and humour. Conceived during the revolts that preceded the 1994 South African elections, the work refers to the methods of repression used by the police and to the abuses authorised by the local government which led, on that occasion, to thousands of casualties. On the South African elections of 1994, which were the first free elections open to the whole population, Nelson Mandela became the first black president in the country’s history. Direct and without filters, the work is striking for its violence, and evokes in the spectator an initial feeling of uneasiness, a sense of danger and destabilisation. Photo © Musacchio & Ianniello22 batons MAXXI Arte Collection Donated by Claudia Gian Ferrari Crosses, handcuffs, discarded objects like plastic bags, weapons and shards of glass bottles found on the streets, are the materials chosen by the artist, which are clear references to religious, political and social tensions. T.W. Batons (Circle) is a sculpture of batons arranged in a radial pattern, in which the essentiality of the circular geometric form contrasts the brutality of the weapons. The circular positioning of the batons confers a sort of “aestheticisation” of the violence, bestowing the work with irony and humour. Conceived during the revolts that preceded the 1994 South African elections, the work refers to the methods of repression used by the police and to the abuses authorised by the local government which led, on that occasion, to thousands of casualties. On the South African elections of 1994, which were the first free elections open to the whole population, Nelson Mandela became the first black president in the country’s history. Direct and without filters, the work is striking for its violence, and evokes in the spectator an initial feeling of uneasiness, a sense of danger and destabilisation. Photo © Musacchio & Ianniello22 batons Collezione MAXXI Arte Donated by Claudia Gian Ferrari Crosses, handcuffs, discarded objects like plastic bags, weapons and shards of glass bottles found on the streets, are the materials chosen by the artist, which are clear references to religious, political and social tensions. T.W. Batons (Circle) is a sculpture of batons arranged in a radial pattern, in which the essentiality of the circular geometric form contrasts the brutality of the weapons. The circular positioning of the batons confers a sort of “aestheticisation” of the violence, bestowing the work with irony and humour. Conceived during the revolts that preceded the 1994 South African elections, the work refers to the methods of repression used by the police and to the abuses authorised by the local government which led, on that occasion, to thousands of casualties. On the South African elections of 1994, which were the first free elections open to the whole population, Nelson Mandela became the first black president in the country’s history. Direct and without filters, the work is striking for its violence, and evokes in the spectator an initial feeling of uneasiness, a sense of danger and destabilisation. Photo © Musacchio & Ianniello

BOUCHRA KHALILI
Foreign Office, 2015

Photographs, silkscreen, video 22’ Courtesy the artist and Galerie Polaris, Paris Commissioned for Sam Art Prize, Paris With this work the artist returns to the decade 1962-72, when Algiers became “the capital of the revolutionaries” after the country gained independence. The city welcomed many militants from liberation movements across the world, such as Eldridge Cleaver’s International Section of the Black Panther Party, Nelson Mandela’s ANC or Amilcar Cabral’s PAIGC (AfricanParty for the Inde-pendence of Guinea and Cape Verde).Taking as its starting point this fragment of Algerian history, relegated to the past because of the way it has been communicated, namely disjointed and idea-lised, the film features two young people who recount this story, questioning sources and looking for the reasons it is no longer remembered today. The series of photographs presents some of the places in Algiers that hosted these liberation movements, inserting the places into the contempo-rary topography of the city. The artist proposes a reflection on how history is transmitted and a retrospective reading of a collective legacy, questioning the elements that make up “History”, its potential narratives and its resonance in the present. Photo © Musacchio & IannielloPhotographs, silkscreen, video 22’ Courtesy the artist and Galerie Polaris, Paris Commissioned for Sam Art Prize, Paris With this work the artist returns to the decade 1962-72, when Algiers became “the capital of the revolutionaries” after the country gained independence. The city welcomed many militants from liberation movements across the world, such as Eldridge Cleaver’s International Section of the Black Panther Party, Nelson Mandela’s ANC or Amilcar Cabral’s PAIGC (AfricanParty for the Inde-pendence of Guinea and Cape Verde).Taking as its starting point this fragment of Algerian history, relegated to the past because of the way it has been communicated, namely disjointed and idea-lised, the film features two young people who recount this story, questioning sources and looking for the reasons it is no longer remembered today. The series of photographs presents some of the places in Algiers that hosted these liberation movements, inserting the places into the contempo-rary topography of the city. The artist proposes a reflection on how history is transmitted and a retrospective reading of a collective legacy, questioning the elements that make up “History”, its potential narratives and its resonance in the present. Photo © Musacchio & IannielloPhotographs, silkscreen, video 22’ Courtesy the artist and Galerie Polaris, Paris Commissioned for Sam Art Prize, Paris With this work the artist returns to the decade 1962-72, when Algiers became “the capital of the revolutionaries” after the country gained independence. The city welcomed many militants from liberation movements across the world, such as Eldridge Cleaver’s International Section of the Black Panther Party, Nelson Mandela’s ANC or Amilcar Cabral’s PAIGC (AfricanParty for the Inde-pendence of Guinea and Cape Verde).Taking as its starting point this fragment of Algerian history, relegated to the past because of the way it has been communicated, namely disjointed and idea-lised, the film features two young people who recount this story, questioning sources and looking for the reasons it is no longer remembered today. The series of photographs presents some of the places in Algiers that hosted these liberation movements, inserting the places into the contempo-rary topography of the city. The artist proposes a reflection on how history is transmitted and a retrospective reading of a collective legacy, questioning the elements that make up “History”, its potential narratives and its resonance in the present. Photo © Musacchio & IannielloPhotographs, silkscreen, video 22’ Courtesy the artist and Galerie Polaris, Paris Commissioned for Sam Art Prize, Paris With this work the artist returns to the decade 1962-72, when Algiers became “the capital of the revolutionaries” after the country gained independence. The city welcomed many militants from liberation movements across the world, such as Eldridge Cleaver’s International Section of the Black Panther Party, Nelson Mandela’s ANC or Amilcar Cabral’s PAIGC (AfricanParty for the Inde-pendence of Guinea and Cape Verde).Taking as its starting point this fragment of Algerian history, relegated to the past because of the way it has been communicated, namely disjointed and idea-lised, the film features two young people who recount this story, questioning sources and looking for the reasons it is no longer remembered today. The series of photographs presents some of the places in Algiers that hosted these liberation movements, inserting the places into the contempo-rary topography of the city. The artist proposes a reflection on how history is transmitted and a retrospective reading of a collective legacy, questioning the elements that make up “History”, its potential narratives and its resonance in the present. Photo © Musacchio & Ianniello

NINA FISCHER & MAROAN EL SANI Freedom of Movement, 2017

3 channel video installation, HD, 9:45 min Commissioned and co-produced by MAXXI With the support of Medienboard Berlin/Brandenburg Production support: Galerie Eigen + Art, Berlin / Leipzig and Marie-Laure Fleisch Gallery, Rome / Brussels Thanks to Liberi Nantes, Emmaus School of Maenza and FENDI With the technical contribution of Istituto Luce MAXXI Architecture Collection The Freedom of movement piece by Nina Fischer (1965) and Maroan el Sani (1966), co-produced by the MAXXI, is a mixture of video installation, research and photography, and enables artists to keep investigating the most extreme aspects of the relationship between architectural and human space. The project was commissioned by the museum, and it perfectly fits within the MAXXI architectural collection, which is not new to investigating the boundaries of architectural styles and their links with the visual forms of artistic expression. While cooperating with “new resident” communities, Fischer & el Sani dug deep into the archives and brought to light the“barefooted”pictures of Abebe Bikila, the first African athlete to win the Olympic gold medal. This way, they show the unconscious links between the pictures of Rome in the 1960s and those of today’s migrants and refugees, who also run barefooted among the – mainly modern – monuments of the city. They claim their right to“freedom of movement”as to sport and the possibility to find space in another county, starting living again and expressing themselves through sport and culture. The wonderful treble voice chorus of the Emmaus School of Maenza moves through the spaces of the Palazzo della Civiltà e del Lavoro, thereby giving shape to such culture, and sings a revisited version of the famous sentence carved in the façade of the building. Photo © Emanuele Manco3 channel video installation, HD, 9:45 min Commissioned and co-produced by MAXXI With the support of Medienboard Berlin/Brandenburg Production support: Galerie Eigen + Art, Berlin / Leipzig and Marie-Laure Fleisch Gallery, Rome / Brussels Thanks to Liberi Nantes, Emmaus School of Maenza and FENDI With the technical contribution of Istituto Luce MAXXI Architecture Collection The Freedom of movement piece by Nina Fischer (1965) and Maroan el Sani (1966), co-produced by the MAXXI, is a mixture of video installation, research and photography, and enables artists to keep investigating the most extreme aspects of the relationship between architectural and human space. The project was commissioned by the museum, and it perfectly fits within the MAXXI architectural collection, which is not new to investigating the boundaries of architectural styles and their links with the visual forms of artistic expression. While cooperating with “new resident” communities, Fischer & el Sani dug deep into the archives and brought to light the“barefooted”pictures of Abebe Bikila, the first African athlete to win the Olympic gold medal. This way, they show the unconscious links between the pictures of Rome in the 1960s and those of today’s migrants and refugees, who also run barefooted among the – mainly modern – monuments of the city. They claim their right to“freedom of movement”as to sport and the possibility to find space in another county, starting living again and expressing themselves through sport and culture. The wonderful treble voice chorus of the Emmaus School of Maenza moves through the spaces of the Palazzo della Civiltà e del Lavoro, thereby giving shape to such culture, and sings a revisited version of the famous sentence carved in the façade of the building. Photo © Emanuele Manco

KILUANJI KIA HENDA
Le Merchand de Venise, 2010

Digital print on wallpaper This photographic portrait is an homage to the play by William Shakespeare. The male figure, photographed inside the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Veneto Institute of Science, Literature and Arts) in Venice, is a Senegalese musician forced to accept any work that comes his way in order to survive. Henda engages with Africa’s colonial past in an ironic way, challenging concepts of identity, politics and modernity: Le Merchand de Venise transforms the African street vendors that populate tourist sites across Europe into Shakespearian heroes. courtesy of the artist and Galleria Fonti, Napoli/Naples. Photo © Musacchio & IannelloDigital print on wallpaper This photographic portrait is an homage to the play by William Shakespeare. The male figure, photographed inside the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Veneto Institute of Science, Literature and Arts) in Venice, is a Senegalese musician forced to accept any work that comes his way in order to survive. Henda engages with Africa’s colonial past in an ironic way, challenging concepts of identity, politics and modernity: Le Merchand de Venise transforms the African street vendors that populate tourist sites across Europe into Shakespearian heroes. courtesy of the artist and Galleria Fonti, Napoli/Naples. Photo © Musacchio & Iannello

SARAH WAISWA
Ballet in Kibera (series), 2017

In this series of photographs, the artist presents her vision for a potential new African identity. Dance has played a fundamental role in Africa’s culture: seen as more than just a form of entertainment, it is known as a way of celebrating rites of passage. Since ballet lessons are extremely expensive, the dance is often associated with privilege and the power that comes with it. The artist says: “I wanted to capture the state in between imagination and reality, in the absence of social barriers, blurring the lines between audience and performer.

Photo © Luis Do Rosario
courtesy the artist

JOHN AKOMFRAH
Peripeteia, 2012

HD video, color, sound 18’12’’
© Smoking Dogs Films, courtesy Lisson Gallery

In this video the artist gives life to two figures that appear in the drawings of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, Head of a Negro Man (1508) and The Moorish Woman Katharina (1520). The drawings are considered among the first representations of people of African origin in Western figurative culture. Akomfrah imagines their actions, giving concreteness to the figures who would otherwise be lost in history. Times and places overlap in a non-linear narrative structure, while pictorial, literary and historical elements weave together generating a collage. Through polyphonic and highly poetic works, the artist develops a language that investigates the trauma and the sense of alienation felt
by those forced to relocate or emigrate, giving them a voice and a physical, tangible presence. His films are born from a combination of documentary research and imaginary narratives, creating real visual experiences that manage to move away from simple rhetorical narratives motivated by resentment to propose new perspectives and original points of view.

Photo © still from video

YINKA SHONIBARE
Invisible Man, 2018

Manichino in vetroresina, cotone stampato a cera olandese, scarpe di pelle, base di acciaio
cm 175 x 73 x 100
Donazione dell’artista e Blain | Southern

The artwork Invisible Man, which delves into reflections on race and social class, was inspired by the portrait of missionary Quarantotti’s family, painted by Marco Benefial in 1756 and currently preserved in the collection of the Barberini Corsini National Galleries. Yinka Shonibare MBE’s sculpture – produced for the exhibition Eco e Narciso. Ritratto e Autoritratto nelle collezioni del MAXXI e delle Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini, held in Palazzo Barberini in 2018 – represents a lackey who could have worked in the house of the Quarantotti family as a simple servant. The figure has a heavy bundle full of utensils and supplies on its back; its 18th century clothes showcase the batik patterns (which, being of Dutch origin, are typical of the Western world) distinctive of Shonibare, since they represent the movement of people and global relationships. Finally, the arti- st used an astrological map where the names of constellations have been replaced by those of the noble palaces of Rome and Latium as the figure’s head. In this artwork, the observer’s atten- tion shifts from the celebration of nobleness to what cannot be seen, namely the Invisible Man.

Photo © Musacchio & Ianniello

ROBIN RHODE
A Day in May, 2013

16:9, digital animation 3’15”
Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris/London

Robin Rhode is considered «a modern artist with roots in the road, and who adopts the mentality of the road». Inspired by labour day celebrated on May 1st, the digital animation A Day in May proposes the interaction between filmed images and wall drawings, which are characteristic of the artist’s language. A demonstrator, holding a black flag symbol of anarchy and antagonism advances but is hampered by gigantic clothespins that interrupt its march, continuously bringing him back. According to the author, it is «domestic life that stops his revolutionary fervour and dries it out». The tensions in these two movements result in a return «to a sense of self and a sense of home».

Photo © still from video