Target Free Thursday Nights at the Walker Art Center in February are highlighted by two Drawn Here (and There) design talks, featuring long distance design collaborations. The talks feature Kjell Ekhorn (Oslo, Norway) and Jon Forss (Minneapolis) from the design team Non-Format (February 18, 7 pm), whose work includes art direction for the publications The Wire, Varoom, and Very Elle; and Blair Satterfield (Houston) and Marc Swackhamer (Minneapolis) from HouMinn (February 25, 7 pm), who often collaborate with experts outside architecture in order to create work that is more rigorous and resonates with a wide audience.
Other highlights in February include programs presented in conjunction with artist Haegue Yang’s artist residency, including the seminar From Page to Stage (February 4, 5:30 pm) and screenings of the artist’s own short films (February 11, 18, and 25, 6:30 pm); the second edition of The Inquisition quiz forum, where guests submit questions to walkerart.org/inquisition and try to stump Walker curators and guest panelists (February 11, 7 pm); a screening of the final part of Yang Fudong’s black-and-white experimental masterpiece Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (February 4, 7:30 pm); an art lab creating architectural models led by designer Adam Jarvi (February 18, 6–9 pm); and a Making Music talk with Low’s Alan Sparhawk and choreographer Morgan Thorson, copresented with mnartists.org and the Whole Music Club at the University of Minnesota (February 25, 8 pm).
Target Free Thursday Nights in February also feature several screenings from the Walker’s five-week film series Expanding the Frame: Journeys, featuring film and video works that challenge the forms of mainstream cinema. Included are screenings of films by Marguerite Duras (February 4, 7:30 pm); Jennifer Kroot’s It Came from Kuchar, a tribute to legendary experimental filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar, followed by two of George Kuchar’s short films (February 11, 7:30 pm); and Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath’s The Betrayal, which was nominated in 2008 for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (February 18, 7:30 pm). A post-screening Q&A with Kuras follows.
Sound Bites gallery talks, offered throughout the month on select Thursday evenings at 6:30 and 7 pm, illuminate an artist or work of art from the Walker’s world-class collection or one of its special exhibitions.
Target Free Thursday Nights
February 4, 11, 18, 25
Galleries open 5–9; special events follow.
Free
Thursday, February 4
Seminar: From Page to Stage, 5:30–7 pm
Cinema
Free, but reservations required: 612.375.7600
Marguerite Duras intended for her 1986 novella, The Malady of Death, to be translated to the stage; now Walker artist-in-residence Haegue Yang is developing it for a future theatrical production. At this roundtable conversation, Yang and local dramaturgs and theater directors talk about the process of adapting written text for the stage.
Sound Bites: Haegue Yang, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.
Film: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, Part V, 7 pm
Directed by Yang Fudong
Lecture Room
This black-and-white experimental masterpiece traces the epic journey undertaken by a group of young people—as a meditation on the changes China is undergoing. The title refers to the legendary Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a group of third-century intellectuals who dropped out of society to take up residence in the countryside for Daoist-inspired reflection and drinking. Yang Fudong shot this atmospheric, visually lush film in five parts over five years, and presented it in its entirety at the 2007 Venice Biennale. 2007, video transferred from 35mm, in Mandarin with
English subtitles, 290 minutes. Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.
Film: Marguerite Duras’ The Truck (Le Camion) and Césarée, 7:30 pm
Cinema
Introduced by Joëlle Vitiello, professor of French and Francophone Studies, Macalester College
In Duras’ typically minimalist style, this conversation in a dark room between Elle (Duras) and Lui (Gérard Depardieu) is interspersed with images of life on the highway. The dialogue creates a seamless juxtaposition of images, and the sparse lyrical plot alludes to the journey of life that we all share. 1977, 35mm, 80 minutes. Preceded by Césarée; 1979, 35mm, 11 minutes. Both in French with English subtitles.
This screening is presented as part of the series Expanding the Frame: Journeys.
Thursday, February 11
Screenings: Short Works by Haegue Yang, 6:30 pm
Lecture Room
In conjunction with the exhibition Haegue Yang: Integrity of the Insider and the artist’s residency, five of her video works will be screened.
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Sound Bites: Robert Irwin, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.
The Inquisition: Art Is Fun—Quiz Party Proves It, 7 pm
Perlman Gallery
Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6 pm
Join us for a spirited revival of the Walker’s 1940 quiz forum, an event that took a lighthearted approach to the heavyweight challenges of modern art. Novices and experts alike were tested on their range of art-historical knowledge and expertise. For the 2010 Inquisition, the audience is encouraged to submit questions, facts, and topics by visiting
walkerart.org/inquisition. Prizes will be awarded and egos will be bruised. Arrive early—space is limited.
Film: It Came from Kuchar, 7:30 pm
Directed by Jennifer Kroot
Cinema
This documentary is a well-deserved tribute to legendary experimental filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar, the Bronx-born twins who spent five decades pioneering underground filmmaking. Their campy, zero-budget parodies—an homage to Douglas Sirk melodramas laced with a healthy dose of Ed Wood’s aesthetic—influenced multitudes of directors from Guy Maddin and David Lynch to John Waters, who called them his first inspiration: “These were the pivotal films of my youth, bigger influences than Warhol, Kenneth Anger, even The Wizard of Oz.” 2009, video, 86 minutes.
with
Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966, 16mm, 17 minutes) and the locally made Curse of the Kurva (1990, video, 16 minutes), both directed by George Kuchar.
This screening is presented as part of the series Expanding the Frame: Journeys.
Thursday, February 18
Art Lab: Built for Play, 6–9 pm
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Designer Adam Jarvi leads participants of all ages in constructing an architectural model that relies on the wind to stand up. This workshop is part of the “Designing Play” series and the Walker’s Raising Creative Kids initiative.
Screenings: Short Works by Haegue Yang, 6:30 pm
Lecture Room
(See listing above.)
Sound Bites: Nikki de Saint Phalle, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.
Drawn Here (and There): Contemporary Design in Conversation
Kjell Ekhorn and Jon Forss, Non-Format, 7 pm
McGuire Theater
Free tickets available from 6 pm at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk
Kjell Ekhorn (Oslo, Norway) and Jon Forss (Minneapolis) have worked together as the creative direction and communication design team Non-Format since 2000. Their influential work spans art direction, design, illustration, and custom typography for arts and culture, music industry, fashion, and advertising clients. Well-known for their design of publications, Non-Format has art-directed the independent music monthly The Wire; Varoom, a journal of illustration and made images; Greg Lynn Form, a survey of the contemporary architect’s work; and Very Elle, a special edition of the Paris-based fashion magazine. The recipients of numerous prizes, including a New York Art Director’s Gold, two Tokyo Type Director Club Prizes, and a British D&AD Yellow Pencil award, their bestselling hardback monograph Non-Format Love Song was published by Die Gestalten Verlag in 2007, and is now in its second printing.
Film: The Betrayal, 7:30 pm
Cinema
Written and directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
Post-screening Q&A with Ellen Kuras
“Impressionistic and lyrical, as well as somber and gripping, The Betrayal conveys a ceaseless flow. It’s as if the filmmaker has opened a window onto a parallel world traveling beside our own.”—Village Voice
Twenty-three years in the making, this story of a Laotian refugee family ripples with the impact of the covert U.S. war in Laos. Thavisouk “Thavi” Phrasavath escaped Laos at age 12 and landed in Brooklyn with his mother and siblings in the 1980s. Phrasavath’s role evolved from being Kuras’ translator to the documentary’s subject and its codirector, writer, and editor. A poetic tale of loss, The Betrayal was nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary. 2008, video, 96 minutes.
This screening is presented as part of the series Expanding the Frame: Journeys.
Thursday, February 25
Screenings: Short works by Haegue Yang, 6:30 pm
Lecture Room
(See listing above.)
Sound Bites: Cao Fei, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.
Drawn Here (and There): Contemporary Design in Conversation
Blair Satterfield and Marc Swackhamer, HouMinn Practice, 7 pm
Cinema
Free tickets available from 6 pm at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk
Blair Satterfield (Houston) and Marc Swackhamer (Minneapolis) began their collaboration as architects in Houston, Texas, in 1998. HouMinn (pronounced “human”) Practice, their present-day moniker, is both an acronym of their current geographical locations and a homophone to describe their research-based practice, which seeks collaboration with experts outside architecture in order to create work that is more rigorous and resonates with a wide audience. Their innovative wall-based systems, such as OSWall, an open-source platform; Cloak Wall; and Drape Wall are evolving explorations of this primary architectural element, while projects such as Pore House, Draft House, and Feedback House have tackled issues of sustainability and affordability. These research projects have been featured in numerous publications, including Dwell and Fast Company, and have garnered prestigious honors such the 2008 R&D Award from Architect magazine and the Best in Environments award from ID Magazine.
Making Music: Alan Sparhawk from Low with choreographer Morgan Thorson, 8 pm
McGuire Theater
Free tickets available at the Hennepin Lobby desk from 7 pm
Minneapolis’ Morgan Thorson, a rising force on the national contemporary dance scene, has been collaborating for months with Low’s Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker on Heaven, a Walker commission that premieres March 4–6. Local musician and Making Music host James Everest (Vicious Vicious, Roma di Luna) talks to the artists about their work and ways that this new piece breaks both choreographic and musical conventions. Copresented with mnartists.org and the Whole Music Club at the University of Minnesota.
