… burn this manifesto as soon as it gets boring.
A manifesto is a special kind of text, one that demands its readers act upon its dictates. When a manifesto is also an artwork, how do we respond? Self-defined conceptual entrepreneur Martine Syms has been working with The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto since 2007 and, as an artist, filmmaker, publisher, and writer, Syms' work is a call to action, a reckoning, a recognition, and an acknowledgement of the overlapping spaces of art and politics.
Join Art Metropole curator Nasrin Himada and exhibition co-curator Jayne Wilkinson for an out-loud reading of The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto and a mundane-afrofuturist reading group that discusses manifestos as a radical art form. No prior reading or knowledge of the works is required. Attendees are free to arrive early to see the exhibition.
Presented at Trinity Square Video (suite 121) as part of What does one do with such a clairvoyant image?
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Nasrin Himada is a writer, editor, and curator residing in Toronto. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on experimental cinema, the relationship between art and poetry, and the militarization of urban space through prison infrastructure and police surveillance. She has lectured extensively on these topics, including presentations at the California Institute of the Arts, Georgetown University, and INCA Seattle. Her curatorial work has been exhibited at DHC/ART: Foundation for Contemporary Art, Echo Park Film Center, 16 Beaver, and Image + Nation. From 2011 to 2016, Nasrin co-edited the journalScapegoat: Architecture/Landscape/Political Economy. She is the co-editor of the inaugural issue of MICE Magazine on the theme of invisible labour, and is presently the curator at Art Metropole.
Jayne Wilkinson is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and curator. She holds an M.A. in Art History and Critical Theory from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and her research focuses on contemporary art and photo-based practices, with specific attention to issues of surveillance, security and representation. She has contributed critical essays to a variety of journals and publications, including C Magazine, Prefix Photo, Inuit Art Quarterly, InVisible Culture and others. She has worked at the Vancouver Art Gallery, was Editor/Publisher at Prefix Photo, Director/Curator at Prefix ICA, and has taught seminars in Cultural Theory at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto St. George. She is Assistant Curator at the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga.
