Artist Talks for the Deutsche Bank Series at the Guggenheim: Found in Translation

The Deutsche Bank Series at the Guggenheim: Found in Translation, on view through May 1, brings together recent works by eleven artists who look to translation as both a model and a metaphor to critically comment on the past and to produce richly imagined possibilities for the present. For these artists, converting a text from one language to another exposes a discursive field in which the terms of identity-class, race, religion, sexuality-are negotiated, and meaning is generated. The Guggenheim presents a series of talks by established and emerging artists whose works are currently on view in Found in Translation. Following each program, guests are invited to enjoy a private exhibition viewing and reception.

OMER FAST
Tues, Apr 5, 6:30 pm
Omer Fast (b. 1972, Jerusalem) works with film, video, and television footage to examine the complex interplay between personal and public histories. Through cinematic narratives his videos explore the postmodern fixation with misrepresentation in history and current events, as seen through both the media and the eye of the individual. In his installation Godville (2005), which is currently on view in Found in Translation, Fast manipulates interviews with reenactors at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, to create a witty and profound commentary on the place of history in American life.

Sharon Hayes
Wed, Apr 20, 6:30 pm
Sharon Hayes (b. 1970, Baltimore) engages in an artistic practice that utilizes performance, video, and installation to explore the intersections between collective movement and personal choice. Drawing from a multiplicity of artistic and academic methodologies-from theater and film to journalism and linguistics-Hayes develops an ongoing interrogation of the exchanges between history, politics, and speech. Her 35 mm slide installation In the Near Future (2009), which is now on view in Found in Translation, documents performances staged by the artist using protest placards to mark the memory of historical protests and the possibility of future ones, drawing out resonances between the past and contemporary society

SHARIF WAKED
Tues, Apr 26, 6:30 pm
Sharif Waked (b. 1964, Nazareth) creates films, installations, and paintings that explore the complicated landscape of contemporary politics and current events. Waked's richly diverse practice encompasses artworks that dissect and reflect on political history in order to examine present-day matters of protest, privacy, and free speech. His video To Be Continued...(2009), which is currently on view in Found in Translation, carefully stages a poetic intervention in the politically charged discourse around Islamic identity through the reading of an extended passage from One Thousand and One Nights.

Tickets are $10, $7 for members, and free for students under 25 with a valid ID. For tickets, visit guggenheim.org/publicprograms, or call the Box Office at 212 423 3587. Students may RSVP to boxoffice@guggenheim.org