Arthur Jafa's Italian solo exhibition opens at the OGR in Turin. The images

Opening to the public on Nov. 4, at OGR Turin’s Binario 1, is the first solo exhibition in Italy dedicated to U.S. artist and filmmaker Arthur Jafa by an Italian institution, open until Jan. 15, 2023. RHAMESJAFACOSEYJAFADRAYTON, this is the title of the exhibition, was commissioned and produced by OGR Torino in collaboration with the Serpentine in London and is curated by Claude Adjil and Judith Waldmann with Hans Ulrich Obrist.

The exhibition was specially conceived for the spacious spaces of OGR and focuses on Arthur Jafa’slatest video work, AGHDRA (2021). In this 85-minute work, visitors are enveloped in computer-generated images of opulent, hypnotic black waves, constantly evolving under the sky of an eternal sunset. A state-of-the-art sound system allows visitors not only to hear the sound of theimmersive installation, but also to physically experience it through the vibrations. The sound supports and at the same time interrupts the viewer’s stream of consciousness. Lyrics from popular mostly Black songs, such as Love don’t live here, live here no more (Rose Royce, Love don’t live here anymore, 1978) accompany the installation, reinforcing the apocalyptic scenario evoked. Stimulating all of our senses, the experience of AGHDRA is contextualized through a series of wallpapers and prints that reflect Arthur Jafa’s ongoing exploration of the concept of Blackness. A section of the exhibition also presents a selection of images from the Picture Books - a series of images that the artist began collecting in the mid-1980s, driven by an obsessive urge to push himself toward things that disturb him and not back down, as he put it. The Picture Books contain intense, beautiful, raw, startling, terrifying, and thought-provoking images that have found their way into Arthur Jafa’s video works, such as Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016), APEX (2013), and, most recently, in Kanye West’s (Ye) Wash Us In The Blood music video feat. Travis Scott (2020).

Indeed, Arthur Jafa’s work includes films, artifacts, and happenings that defy categorization in an exploration of Black culture in the United States. Made over more than three decades, his multidisciplinary works challenge certain dominant cultural assumptions about issues of identity and race through experimental and immersive film experiences. At the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), he was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist with his work The White Album, shown in May You Live in Interesting Times at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini. A recurring question guides Arthur Jafa’s artistic practice: how can media, objects, static and moving images convey the power, beauty and alienation inherent in American Black music? An inquiry to which the title of the exhibition, RHAMESJAFACOSEYJAFADRAYTON, also alludes, citing the names of three electric guitars-Arthur Rhames (1957-1989), Pete Cosey (1943-2012), Ronny Drayton (1953-2020).

“We are truly honored to open here at OGR Turin the first solo exhibition organized in Italy and dedicated to an artist of Arthur Jafa’s caliber, in collaboration with the Serpentine in London. In front of Jafa’s works we cannot but recognize fundamental messages and stimuli on the themes of identity and inclusion that transcend all boundaries. Art here takes on a global connotation and expressive force and becomes an instrument of participation and sociopolitical dialogue, through cultural institutions called to a necessary role of sounding board,” says Massimo Lapucci, CEO of OGR Turin.

Originally the exhibition was developed with Amira Gad and this new iteration is part of the tour organized by the Serpentine following Arthur Jafa’s exhibition A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions. Since 2017, the exhibition has been presented at the Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2018) at Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019) at Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2019) and at Serralves Musem of Contemporary Art, Porto (2020). It has undergone a continuous evolution culminating in the new collaboration between Serpentine the artist and OGR. The exhibition at the Serpentine consisted of a site-specific installation in which the artist had transformed the gallery space into a series of assemblages combining film, photography, and found footage. During the 2017 exhibition, Jafa presented his film Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2016) in a site-specific installation at Store Studios, co-presented by the Serpentine and The Vinyl Factory. During the finissage weekend, the artist developed a Listening Session with Steve Coleman, Morgan Craft, Micah Gaugh, Melvin Gibbs, Jason Moran, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Kokayi Carl Walker followed by a limited-edition vinyl produced by The Vinyl Factory and Serpentine.

To highlight the relationship with music and the contamination between different disciplines and media characteristic of Arthur Jafa’s practice, on the occasion of the opening of RHAMESJAFACOSEYJAFADRAYTON, on Nov. 4 at 10:30 p.m., jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran, cellist and composer Okkyung Lee, and bassist Melvin Gibbs will perform together, in the OGR Turin Dome, for an evening conceived by the artist.

For info: www.ogrtorino.it

Hours: Thursday and Friday 6 to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Free admission.

OPENING Nov. 4, 2022: ENTRANCE TO THE EXHIBITION from 6 to 10 p.m.; MUSICAL PERFORMANCE from 10:30 p.m. to midnight with Jason Moran, Melvin Gibbs, Okkyung Lee. Free admission, until maximum capacity is reached.

Below are pictures of the set-ups.

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Image: Installation view of RHAMESJAFACOSEYJAFADRAYTON at OGR Turin (2022). Photo by Andrea Rossetti for OGR Turin. Courtesy of OGR Turin

Arthur Jafa's Italian solo exhibition opens at the OGR in Turin. The images

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