Visual arts: exhibitions and conversations
septembersept 21 – 28
Saturday september 21
15h30
Monday september 23
13h
Tuesday september 24
13h
Wednesday september 25
13h
Thursday september 26
13h
Friday september 27
13h
Saturday september 28
13h
Artists Jumana Manna and Sille Storihle, Manthia Diawara, Michael Rakowitz & Robert Chase Heishmans will be in La Commune from 20 to 28 September to present five works and invite you to take part in two conversations.
The works of Nil Yalter will be on display in the public space of Aubervilliers.
The Goodness Regime, Jumana Manna et Sille Storihle (21 minutes – 2023)
The Goodness Regime is an experimental documentary that explores the myths and images that have helped to understand Norway as a nation of peace and goodness. The linking element is a series of children's dramatisations recounting the myths, historical events and cultural figures that have propelled Norway's image as a peaceful nation. These dramatisations are interwoven with archive footage, political speeches and voice-overs from Hollywood films depicting Norway par excellence. In a satirical deconstruction of the regime of goodness that pervades Norwegian society, Manna and Storihle explore the moral dilemmas embedded in the history of one of the richest nations on the planet.
Edouard Glissant: One World in Relation, Manthia Diawara (50 minutes – 2010)
In 2009, Manthia Diawara followed Édouard Glissant across the Atlantic with her camera. This poetic meditation continued in Martinique, Édouard Glissant's native land. These journeys gave rise to an intellectual biography in which Glissant develops his theory of Relation and the concept of the ‘Whole World’.
Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom, Manthia Diawara (77 minutes – 2023)
Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom examines the life and work of the North American activist Angela Davis. It is not a biography. Manthia Diawara's camera follows Angela Davis as she wanders through a forest of giant redwoods, works in her garden or walks her dog, all the while reflecting on a myriad of fundamental issues such as freedom, resistance, rebellion, remaking our world, radical black thought, music, (inter)nationalism, (Southern) feminism...
Negritude: A Dialogue Between Wole Soyinka and Senghor, Manthia Diawara (59 minutes – 2015)
Using archive footage, Manthia Diawara organises an imaginary dialogue between Léopold Senghor, one of the founders of the concept of Négritude, and Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer. Soyinka says that his film ‘questions the relevance of the concept of Négritude, against its many detractors, not only to the decolonisation and independence movements of the 1950s and 1960s, but also to understanding the contemporary artistic and political scenes of nationalism, religious intolerance, multiculturalism, the exodus of Africans and other populations of the South, and the xenophobic migration policies of the West’.
Conversation with Manthia Diawara, Saturday 28 at 2pm at Restaurant de La Commune (free admission).
I’m good at love, I’m good at hate, it’s in between I freeze, Michael Rakowitz & Robert Chase Heishman
I'm good at love, I'm good at hate, it's in between I freeze (2023) takes the form of a video filmed at the Alhambra Palace Hotel in Ramallah, Palestine. The project retraces the historical context and consequences of a concert that never took place. In 2009, Leonard Cohen was due to perform in Israel. Due to increasing pressure from pro-Palestinian voices to dissuade Cohen from performing in Israel, a parallel event was organised in Palestine. Amid protests and claims that this latest concert was merely a symbolic show of solidarity and a hollow attempt to appease the demonstrators, the concert was boycotted and eventually cancelled. This story illustrates Cohen's personal struggle with art and politics, the cultural histories of Palestine and Israel, and the ethical dilemmas facing artists under the conditions of a boycott.
Conversation with Michael Rakowitz, Friday 20 September at 5.30pm at the Restaurant de La Commune (free admission). The conversation will be in English, without translation.
Exile Is A Hard Job, Nil Yalter
Exile Is A Hard Job is an installation of a series of ephemeral immigrant posters painted with the slogan ‘C'est un dur métier que l'exil’ (‘Exile is a hard job’), an ongoing project that Nil Yalter began in 1975. Exile is a Hard Job contemplates the often difficult experience of being an ignored and ostracised immigrant in a foreign land. The title of the work is taken from a poem by Nâzım Hikmet, an important Turkish poet who spent many years in exile in Russia.
See also
Carte Blanche Dream City
The multi-disciplinary Tunisian festival Dream City is moving to Aubervilliers at the joint invitation of the Festival d'Automne and La Commune, with the shared desire to make this area rustle, resonate and dream through a dozen creations by international performing and visual artists.
Selma & Sofiane Ouissi BIRD
Starting with ordinary everyday gestures such as feeding, living together and getting around, Sofiane Ouissi explores our relationship with birds. Passionate about encounters and the journeys they generate, this time he delves into the relationship with another species.
Éric Minh Cuong Castaing, Shonen company Sous Influence
First staged in Marseille on the roof terrace of La Friche Belle de mai, and then at Nuit Blanche 2018, Sous Influence is a techno party for all ages and all bodies in a dance epidemic. This party situation invites the audience to dance under the influence of a hundred or so amateur accomplices and professional dancers, bathed in the electronic music of Tunisian live-act composer Pan-J.
Conference by Sophie Bessis Tunisia in the turmoil of populism
After a decade of chaotic but richly experienced democratic apprenticeship, Tunisia found itself plunged into a new cycle of its post-colonial history from 2021 onwards. From that date onwards, Kaïs Saïed, who was democratically elected in 2019, assumed all the powers, transforming a fledgling democracy into an autocracy.
Radouan Mriziga Libya
Libya, the third piece by Moroccan choreographer Radouan Mriziga to be performed at this year's Festival d'Automne, explores the notion of 'knowing', in which eight dancers and a series of lines on the floor seem to trace the trajectories of a constellation of movements that we are about to observe.
Alsarah & The Nubatones
The Dream City Carte Blanche will be marked by a concert given by the group Alsarah & the Nubatones, born out of discussions between Alsarah and Rami El Aasser about Nubian songs, migration and cultural exchanges between Sudan and Egypt.
Sammy Baloji Missa Utica
The first black bishop appointed by the Catholic Church should have settled in Utica, Tunisia, but never did. His story is the starting point for Sammy Baloji's work.
Samaa Wakim & Samar Haddad King Losing it
"Can you still hear the bombs? Because I can." What happens when you grow up in a war zone? When you breathe in and physically feel the political conflict every day? How do you cope as a child in such an environment?
Winter Family H2-Hébron
Winter Family is an experimental music and documentary theatre duo founded by Israeli artist Ruth Rosenthal and French musician Xavier Klaine. They play minimal, obsessive, abrasive and political music. They created H2 Hebron, their 3rd show in 2018, a documentary piece in which the transcription of nearly 500 pages of testimonies, their translation, selection and reappropriation by Winter Family are the central element and the main dramaturgical material of the show.
In the same place
Carte Blanche Dream City
The multi-disciplinary Tunisian festival Dream City is moving to Aubervilliers at the joint invitation of the Festival d'Automne and La Commune, with the shared desire to make this area rustle, resonate and dream through a dozen creations by international performing and visual artists.
Selma & Sofiane Ouissi BIRD
Starting with ordinary everyday gestures such as feeding, living together and getting around, Sofiane Ouissi explores our relationship with birds. Passionate about encounters and the journeys they generate, this time he delves into the relationship with another species.
Conference by Sophie Bessis Tunisia in the turmoil of populism
After a decade of chaotic but richly experienced democratic apprenticeship, Tunisia found itself plunged into a new cycle of its post-colonial history from 2021 onwards. From that date onwards, Kaïs Saïed, who was democratically elected in 2019, assumed all the powers, transforming a fledgling democracy into an autocracy.
Sammy Baloji Missa Utica
The first black bishop appointed by the Catholic Church should have settled in Utica, Tunisia, but never did. His story is the starting point for Sammy Baloji's work.
Winter Family H2-Hébron
Winter Family is an experimental music and documentary theatre duo founded by Israeli artist Ruth Rosenthal and French musician Xavier Klaine. They play minimal, obsessive, abrasive and political music. They created H2 Hebron, their 3rd show in 2018, a documentary piece in which the transcription of nearly 500 pages of testimonies, their translation, selection and reappropriation by Winter Family are the central element and the main dramaturgical material of the show.
Lina Majdalanie, Rabih Mroué Biokhraphia
These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia et Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.
Rabih Mroué Riding on a cloud
These two one-person shows, Biokhraphia and Riding on a cloud, are an investigation into the self-portrait. In Riding on a Cloud, a man called Yasser speaks into a dictaphone, projects videos and broadcasts recordings, whilst expressing reservations about the extent to which these documents coincide with his true self. In Biokhraphia, it is Lina Majdalanie who becomes the subject of a very unusual interview.