As part of Artists Experiment, a collaboration with MoMA’s Department of Education, artist Michael Rakowitz worked with cultural professionals in Amman, Jordan, to develop a performative reading. The reading is based on material in MoMA’s Archives, about an exhibition planned in 1940 intended to address the rising global threat of fascism and cultivate faith in American democracy. Known as Exhibition X, the project was never realized. Rakowitz and his collaborators adapted a reading from the extensive archival material for the exhibition, rewriting it from a Middle Eastern perspective and creating a link between New York’s (and MoMA’s) place as a hub for displaced artists in the 1940s and Amman’s similar role today amid ongoing conflict in that region.
Michelle Elligott, Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections, will introduce her research into Exhibition X, and Rakowitz will give an introduction to his project. The script will be read by Rakowitz, Noura Al Khasawneh, Yazan Ashqar, Lama Altakruri, and Toleen Touq. Following the reading, Rakowitz will be joined in conversation by Sean Anderson, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design.
Musical accompaniment by Aslıhan Erkişi, Ertuğrul Erkişi, and Fatih Bayram.
This project was developed in collaboration with Spring Sessions, a residency program in Amman, Jordan.
A reception follows.
RSVP is required, space is limited.
This event will be live-streamed.
Artists Experiment is an initiative in the Department of Education that brings contemporary artists into dialogue with MoMA educators to develop innovative and experimental approaches to public engagement.
The artists who participated in past years of Artists Experiment are:
2017–18
• Michael Rakowitz
• Emily Spivack
2014–16
• Nina Katchadourian
2013–14
• Paul Ramirez Jonas
• Allison Smith
• The Office for Creative Research
2012–13
• Raúl Cárdenas Osuna
• Kenneth Goldsmith
• Xaviera Simmons
• Caroline Woolard