On the occasion of the conference Focus on the Funk: Journeys… at Birkbeck College, Serpentine Galleries and Birkbeck presented three days of screenings bringing together moving-image work by artists, documentaries and essay films addressing the legacy of Frantz Fanon, decolonising thought, the aesthetic and political dimensions of rising up and the prison-industrial complex. With films by Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Arthur Jafa, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler, Coco Fusco, Shana Griffin & Brice White, Adrian Piper, Claudia Rankine & John Lucas, Sable Elyse Smith, Rico Speight, Hito Steyerl and more. Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD. Click on ‘Read more’ for a full programme
Focus on the Funk: Journeys… was organised by Oscar Guardiola-Rivera and Kojo Koram (Birkbeck, University of London) with participants Alicia Garza; Lewis R. Gordon (University of Connecticut); Paget Henry (Brown University); Gail Lewis (Birkbeck, University of London); Nina Power (Roehampton University/Birkbeck, University of London); Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia University). At Birkbeck, University of London, Malet St, London WC1E 7HX
The screenings programme was:
DAY 1: Friday 20 May, 5:30pm, Hito Steyerl/Adrian Piper: A selection of works by artist and filmmaker Hito Steyerl, as well as excerpts from Adrian Piper’s Shiva Dances with the Art Institute of Chicago (2004)
Hito Steyerl, After the Crash, 2009, 6’27’’
Hito Steyerl, Lovely Andrea, 2007, 30’
Hito Steyerl, November, 2004, 25’
Hito Steyerl, The Empty Center, 1998, 62’
Adrian Piper, Shiva Dances with the Art Institute of Chicago (excerpts), 2004
DAY 2: Saturday 21 May, 6:45pm, On Frantz Fanon and Rising Up: An evening of documentary, essay film and moving image-based visual art, exploring the life and legacy of Frantz Fanon as well as the aesthetics and politics of ‘rising up’. Includes works by Rico Speight, Claudia Rankine and John Lucas, Karen Mirza and Brad Butler and Sable Elyse Smith
Rico Speight, Rediscovering Fanon, 2016-, excerpts from the work-in-progress documentary, 25’
Sable Elyse Smith, The History of Silence, 2013, 5’51’’
Claudia Rankine and John Lucas, Situations 1 – Zidane, 2015, 6’12’’
Karen Mirza and Brad Butler, Deep State, 2012, 45’
Claudia Rankine and John Lucas, Situations 1 – Stop and Frisk, 2015, 6’51’’
DAY 3: Sunday 22 May, 1-4:30pm, Journeys…: A day-time screening of art works and documentaries addressing hybridity, decolonising thought, rising up and the structures of the prison-industrial complex. Includes work by Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, Manthia Diawara, Coco Fusco, Arthur Jafa, Shana Griffin and Brice White and Sable Elyse Smith
Manthia Diawara, Edouard Glissant: One World in Relation, 2009, 50’
Edouard Glissant in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, excerpts, 10’
Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, Finding Fanon I, 2015, 15’22’’
Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, Finding Fanon II, 2015, 9’13’’
Shana Griffin and Brice White, Sooner or Later, Somebody’s Gonna Fight Back (work in progress), 12′
Sable Elyse Smith, How to Tell Stories to Children, 2015, 5’09’’
Arthur Jafa, Slowly This, 1995, 26′
Coco Fusco, Operation Atropos, 2006, 59’
