ARTHUR JAFA: A SERIES OF UTTERLY IMPROBABLE, YET EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS 

DURATION: 11 FEBRUARY – 25 NOVEMBER 2018

The Julia Stoschek Collection is excited to present the work of the acclaimed US filmmaker, cinematographer and artist Arthur Jafa in his first exhibition in Germany, featuring Ming Smith, Frida Orupabo, and Missylanyus. The exhibition was developed in partnership with Serpentine Galleries, London and curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Amira Gad.

The title of the exhibition relates to the sense of absence that Jafa observes as haunting Black life. The word 'rendition' refers to the artist's interpretation of the aesthetics associated with Black being, which are historically-inscribed in images, objects and artifacts. By re-performing these narratives in the present, Jafa imagines and constructs new possibilities for making them visible.

Jafa creates work that approximates the radical alienation of Black life in the West while seeking to make visible - or emancipate - the power embedded in modes of African expression. With reference points ranging from Fang sculpture to Mississippi juke joints, Duchamp's urinal to jazz, he is a filmmaker with a unique understanding of how to cut and juxtapose a sequence to draw out maximum visceral effect.

Explaining his favorite medium, Jafa has said: 'Film is one of the few things, particularly in the theatrical context, that takes up as much space as architecture but like music is fundamentally immaterial.'

ARTIST TALK

MONDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2018, 7 P.M.

On the occasion of Arthur Jafa’s exhibition at JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION, critic Jörg Heiser talks to Jafa about his work, Black visual aesthetics, Science Fiction, and resonances in specific local contexts such as Germany’s.

LOCATION: JSC BERLIN, LEIPZIGER STRASSE 60 / ENTRANCE: JERUSALEMER STRASSE, 10117 BERLIN. IN COLLABORATION WITH THE INSTITUTE FOR ART IN CONTEXT AT THE UNIVERSITY FOR THE ARTS, BERLIN. ADMISSION IS FREE. THE CURRENT EXHIBITION ARTHUR JAFA: A SERIES OF UTTERLY IMPROBABLE, YET EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS WILL BE OPEN FROM 6 P.M. PARALLEL TO THE EVENT. PLEASE NOTE THE LIMITED NUMBER OF SEATS!