Invisible Borders at Aperture Foundation New York
"How do artists already work together? Why do they? What models can they offer for how other artists or citizens can collaborate and organize? Can a gallery be a space of collectivity, production and exchange rather than a place to display individual achievement?"
We are pleased to announce the participation of Invisible Borders Trans-African Project in the exhibition, “Collective Thinking, For Freedoms” at the Aperture Gallery, New York. The exhibition, organised by Aperture and curated by the artist-run super PAC, For Freedoms is a two-week project which will feature live events that bring together six active photography collectives and communities to discuss the practices, benefits, and methodologies of collectivity while focusing on the question of what defines “the political” in art-making today.
The photographic collective is a form intended to amplify the individual voice and to provide a forum for artistic feedback and critique. Is the act of creating dialogue in and of itself political? Can diverse creative communities be inclusive while remaining coherent? What is there to learn from each other? How can an art space become, like a collective, a vehicle for dialogue? Each collective is invited to contribute a visual prompt for discussion and selected works to be presented in the space; the main propulsion for this activity, however, will be a series of in-person activities including meet-ups, salon-style conversations, and other events.
The collectives included in the exhibition are EverydayClimateChange, Invisible Borders, Kamoinge, Piece of Cake, Rawi(ya), and WRRQ.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, Aperture and For Freedoms, along with the participating collectives, will host a series of activities to unite artists, photographers, activists, and the broader community.
The works propose by Invisible Borders for this “Call for Collaboration” at the Aperture Gallery space is a three-screen multimedia installation extracted from a more extensive presentation at the 56th Venice Biennale of Arts. The piece brings together works of photographers, writers and filmmakers who took part in 5 editions of the Invisible Borders Road Trip project over the course of 6 years. It consists of several collections of individual artists’ work, including videos and images— several pieces of writing are interspersed within the slides, negotiating with the images. One could imagine the texts as shadows, trailing the visual work, subtly affirming it. The entire piece speaks to impulses generated from perpetually being in borderline conditions – “border-being” so to speak.
The Invisible Borders presentation will feature works from: Amaize Ojeikere, Jide Odukoya, Lilian Novo Isioro, Jumoke Sanwo, Emmanuel Iduma, Uche Okpa Iroha, Emeka Okereke, Ala Kheir, Vanessa Peterson, Teresa Menka, Ray Daniels Okeugo, Tom Saater, Lucy Azubuike , Charles Okereke.
For more information about the project and participating collectives, visit: http://aperture.org/exhibition/for-freedoms/
