Mafe Izaguirre—The Mirror, a cybernetic installation will be open for the public as part of the show [Move Semantics]: Rules of Unfolding at The Elizabeth Foundation Space Project.
[MOVE SEMANTICS]: RULES OF UNFOLDING
March 27-May 1, 2021
Arakawa + Gins / Reversible Destiny Foundation
Martin Byrne
Sky Cubacub / Rebirth Garments
Scarlet Dame
Kelly Fritsch & Aimi Hamraie / Crip Technoscience Manifesto
Shaina Garfield
Mafe Izaguirre
New York Mycological Society
Alán Peláez López
Constanza Piña
Quimera Rosa
Sunaura Taylor
A project facilitated by Elæ Moss and Jeff Kasper
DESCRIPTION
[Move Semantics]: Rules of Unfolding troubles the speculative potentialities of organisms and intelligences across systems––seeking out and proposing strategic futures while reflexively considering the formation of the site of this inquiry itself. The exhibition reimagines EFA Project Space as a laboratory, troubling these conceptual possibilities as a shared frame for translating and forecasting the intersecting roles of biome, body, built environment, media, and machine. These themes extend into the gallery experience as well as into virtual events taking place online assembled as the Move Semantics Lab.
Taking its name from a feature in programming language that allows you to create an efficient workaround to counter the detritus of “temporary objects,” (here, redundant code), the exhibition turns a critical eye on the invented, temporary semantic objects of human experience, proposing a breakdown of the structures both material and ontological that prevent the collective building of reparative, just, biophilic futures.
In keeping with EFA’s 2021 season, and reflecting on Project Space’s history of process-based exhibition-making, led by artists, [MS]:RU asks: “what are the BRIGHT FUTURES for the intersectional body?” Furthermore, how must our practices, our institutions, our networks, our spaces, and our infrastructures radically change in order to survive, live together, communicate, and plant (or provide) the seeds to ensure a future beyond the Capitalocene?
As a key feature of the exhibition, the Move Semantics Lab bridges physical and virtual space, with a core intention of re-imagining curatorial, institutional, and archival possibilities for public activation and futurecasting. [MS]:RU will continue to evolve in virtual space over the course of the exhibition and beyond. Here, the curators offer further reconsideration and re/presentation of the Lab’s strategies in the framework of the public health crisis transforming our landscape, speculating on the adaptive evolution offered to culture work by this profound moment. A Screening Room (also presented online) rounds out the lab’s offerings, with video content from exhibition participants running in a durational program throughout the exhibit.
EXHIBITION EVENTS
The Move Semantics Lab presents a series of weekly events in conjunction with the on site exhibition at EFA Project Space. Co-hosted by the curators, these virtual events provide a guided “tour” through [MS]:RU’s central themes, in conversation with featured artists and their projects. Additional artist-led workshops and programs along these themes will be offered weekly. All events have live captioning, see below for events with ASL.
- Wednesday, March 31 @ 7:30 PM EST – Re/orientation Roundtables Week 1: Welcome to Move Semantics Lab: Series / Exhibit Orientation, with special guests Mafe Izaguirre and Shaina Garfield. The event will feature live captioning and ASL translation by Billy Sanders. Broadcasted and recorded via Zoom
- Friday, April 9 @ 7:30 PM EST – Deep Meditation: The Mirror. Mafe Izaguirre performs an intimate meditation with her Sensitive Machines. This deep meditation will be broadcasted and recorded via Zoom. A 30 minutes sharing session with the artist will take place after the meditation. Register via Zoom.
- Sunday, April 11 @ 2 PM EST – Talking Bird. The New York-based Venezuelan poet Enrique Enriquez, will talk bird with Izaguirre’s Sensitive Machines. This poetic encounter between Enrique and the Machines will be broadcasted and recorded via Zoom.
ABOUT BRIGHT FUTURES
Project Space’s 2021 programming season is dedicated to Bright Futures, envisioning a radical push for transparency, equality, and justice through exhibitions and artist projects that grapple with key political and social issues including racial capitalism, digital surveillance, mobility and access, gender, toxic masculinity, transition, multi-species repair, and ecological crisis. After a year of forced reckoning with America’s broken healthcare systems, the plague of systemic racism and violence, and deep class and gender divides, Bright Futures will connect the work of artists and communities that are united in sparking action and dialogue for changemaking. Taking a prompt from the conceptual frameworks of artist (and Project Space advisor) Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Bright Futures counters the current mood of political, social, and ecological despair. Expanding outward from Project Space’s renewed mission, the 2021 season will spotlight art that is community-based and future-looking, revealing contemporary practices that engage with technology and society, politics and poetics, and fuse belief and praxis in the promise of a better world.
Exhibition Photography © EFA Project Space/Yann Chashanovski
