Six years in the making, curator Bennett Simpson’s inspired and surprising exhibition Blues for Smoke takes its title from the 1960 Jaki Byard jazz piano album of that name. Filling the expanse of MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary in its first incarnation, Blues For Smoke is neither a show about the blues, nor a show about American history. CoNtINUE

21st Century Theory
Quentin Meillassoux

The nature of objects, the role of science and the problematics of aesthetics are being approached by a new generation of thinkers. Our ongoing series of 21st century thought opens with Quentin Meillassoux’s proposal for a new philosophical materialism. Introduction by Armen Avanessian. CONTINUE

The body understood as an object
Mårten Spångberg

In the last years, the art world fell in love with live and time-based practices. Since then, a lot has been said and written about performance and performativity, but too little time has been given to listen to those whose work has been stretching the tight disciplinary confinements that shape dance, performance and visual arts. That is what Filipa Ramos  sought to do in asking the Swedish performance-related artist-dancer-choreographer-producer-writer Mårten Spångberg to give us his thoughts on four concepts: Space, Rhythm, Expectation and Embodiment. The result of this encounter can hardly be described, as ideas, concepts and words sprang out all over the place without restraint and with such overwhelming speed that capturing it in writing was a performative feat in itself. CONTINUE