Wolfgang Tillmans and DonChristian Jones discuss the relationship between artistic practice and community activism, the power of images and music to create new kinds of public space, and more. In 2017, Wolfgang Tillmans founded Between Bridges, a foundation committed to humanism, solidarity, and the advancement of democracy. In 2020, DonChristian founded Public Assistants Inc., a Brooklyn-based mutual aid network and community design lab. This conversation takes place in conjunction with the exhibition Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear, and will be introduced by Roxana Marcoci, The David Dechman Senior Curator, Department of Photography.
This event is currently overbooked, but there is a wait list. Seating will be available to those who successfully RSVPed on a first-come, first-served basis on the night of the event. Check-in and seating will begin at 6:30 p.m. Any open seats will be released to the standby line for those on the wait list at 6:50 p.m. This program will not be live-streamed, but it will be recorded and made available online after the event.
Speakers
Wolfgang Tillmans has pioneered a new kind of subjectivity in photography, pairing intimacy and playfulness with social critique and the persistent questioning of prevailing values and hierarchies. His activities have extended into musical recording and songwriting, as well as engagements with architecture and design. Since the early 1990s, his work has been the subject of international solo exhibitions. In 2018, Fragile, a major touring exhibition, opened at the Musée d’Art Contemporain et Multimédias in Kinshasa, traveling throughout Africa. Tillmans’s foundation, Between Bridges, supports the advancement of democracy, international understanding, the arts, and LGBTQ+ rights; previously Between Bridges was a nonprofit exhibition space in London (2007–11) and Berlin (2014–19) directed by Tillmans.
DonChristian Jones is an interdisciplinary multimedia artist, musician, and director. He has shown and performed in spaces such as the Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, New Museum, Brooklyn Museum, the Shed, Webster Hall, Dancespace, and the Center for Performance Research. Much of their work today is informed by their time spent painting murals on Rikers Island with incarcerated youth, and teaching at Harvey Milk HS/ Hetrick-Martin Institute. As a rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer, Jones released the studio album Where There’s Smoke in 2018. In 2020, DonChristian founded Public Assistants Inc. as an organizing base in response to the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic and global sociopolitical uprisings.
Registration
This event is free but registration is required.
Accessibility
American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and live captioning is available for public programs upon request with two weeks advance notice. MoMA will make every effort to provide accommodation for requests made with less than two weeks notice. Please contact [email protected] to make a request for these accommodations.
This theater is equipped with an induction loop that transmits directly to hearing aids with T-coils.
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Generous support for Adult and Academic Programs is provided by the Agnes Gund Education Endowment Fund for Public Programs, The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art Endowment for Educational Programs, the Jeanne Thayer Young Scholars Fund, and Christina R. Davis. Additional support is provided by the Annual Education Fund.