Nottingham Contemporary

To complement the inclusion of Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943-59) in Klaus Weber’s Already there!, Deren expert Elinor Cleghorn will introduce a selection of her short Surrealist films. Cleghorn has programmed the BFI’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Deren’s death.

During the event we will be screening the 16mm versions of Deren’s:

- At Land

- Witch's Cradle

- Ritual in Transfigured Time

- Outtakes from 'A Study in Choreography for Camera'

Two influential films by the director and anthropologist Jean Rouch, Petit à Petit (1971) and Les Maîtres Fous (1955), touch on ideas in Already there! and relate to our previous exhibition – Jean Genet’s play The Blacks was inspired by Les Maîtres Fous. Elizabeth Cowie, Professor of Film Studies at The University of Kent will introduce this pioneering figure of Nouvelle Vague cinema.

An opportunity to hear Klaus Weber in conversation about his exhibition, his art practice and his interests in general with Ian White, artist and Adjunct Film Curator. Followed by a Q&A session.

Panel Discussion including Hadrien Laroche, Kodwo Eshun, Emory Douglas and Alex Farquharson

Kobena Mercer is a Professor or History of Art and African American Studies at Yale University. He previously taught at New York University and University of California at Santa Cruz. Mercer’s writes and teaches on the visual arts of the black diaspora, examining African American, Caribbean, and Black British artists in modern and contemporary art. His books include, Welcome to the Jungle (1994), and his work features in several interdisciplinary anthologies including Art and Its Histories (1998), The Visual Culture Reader (2001) and Theorizing Diaspora (2003). Mercer is the author of monographic studies on Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Isaac Julien, Renee Green, and Keith Piper, as well as historical studies of James VanDer Zee, Romare Bearden, and Adrian Piper. He is the editor of the Annotating Art’s Histories series, published by MIT and INIVA.He is currently working on an essay collection, Travel & See: Writings on Black Diaspora Art.

Kobena Mercer is a Professor or History of Art and African American Studies at Yale University. He previously taught at New York University and University of California at Santa Cruz. Mercer’s writes and teaches on the visual arts of the black diaspora, examining African American, Caribbean, and Black British artists in modern and contemporary art. His books include, Welcome to the Jungle (1994), and his work features in several interdisciplinary anthologies including Art and Its Histories (1998), The Visual Culture Reader (2001) and Theorizing Diaspora (2003). Mercer is the author of monographic studies on Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Isaac Julien, Renee Green, and Keith Piper, as well as historical studies of James VanDer Zee, Romare Bearden, and Adrian Piper. He is the editor of the Annotating Art’s Histories series, published by MIT and INIVA.He is currently working on an essay collection, Travel & See: Writings on Black Diaspora Art.

Emory Douglas, the Panthers’ former Minister of Culture who will talk about his life and work. Douglas’ uplifting and acerbic political art helped forge the Panthers powerful imagery.

Emory Douglas was minister of culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until its discontinuation in the early 1980’s. Douglas’s powerful visuals helped define the style of the groups newspapers, posters and pamphlets. His bold illustrations and striking images spoke forcefully to a community ravaged by poverty, police brutality and poor living conditions and portrayed a populace fighting to assert their rights to equality.

The afternoon consists of a presentation on Genet and the Panthers by Kodwo Eshun, with academic Kobena Mercer, via Skype. They will focus on the significance of the Genet / Panther interface and the cultural legacy of the Panthers.

Artist Lili Reynaud-Dewar will join a panel discussion.

Kodwo Eshun lives and work in London. He is a member of The Otolith Group, their film Nervus Rerum (2008) is screened in the current exhibition Act 2: Prisoner of Love. Eshun is the author of More Brilliant than the Sun (1998) and co-editor of the new issue of Third Text on The Militant Image.

The Otolith Group were founded in 2000. Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun are its core members. Working with media archives, histories, legacies and themes around tricontinentalism, the group use moving image, sound, text and explore curatorial practice in their work.

Emory Douglas was minister of culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until its discontinuation in the early 1980’s. Douglas’s powerful visuals helped define the style of the groups newspapers, posters and pamphlets. His bold illustrations and striking images spoke forcefully to a community ravaged by poverty, police brutality and poor living conditions and portrayed a populace fighting to assert their rights to equality.

Agnès Vannouvong will investigate how Genet creates a poetics of ambiguity though a polymorphism of gender; circulating sexual, social and imaginary identity.

Dr Vannouvong is a Lecturer at Geneva University. Her research focuses on representations of the body and gender within contemporary art and literature. She co-edited Toutes les images du langage, Jean Genet (2008) and published her PHD under the title Jean Genet, les revers du genre (2010.) Her articles include The wounded man, For Genet, (2011), Dancing on the wire, The Tightrope of Jean Genet, (2009) Jean Genet and the arts, Arts Journal (2009) For a sexualization of the image in The Maids and The Balcony, Jean Genet, Journal Verso,(2006.)

Adrian Rifkin will discuss the implications of figures such as Sartre, Derrida and Fassbinder’s descriptions of Genet as a site of commentary and cultural fetishism with particular attention to Genet's self-reflection in Notre Dame des Fleurs.

Adrian Rifkin is currently Professor of Art Writing at Goldsmiths, London. He was previously Professor of Visual Culture at Middlesex University and Professor of Fine Art at the University of Leeds. Rifkin is the author of Street Noises, Parisian Pleasures, 1900 – 1940 (1993), Ingres then, and now (2001) and the site and blog gai-savoir.net.