Basma Alsharif Cécile B. Evans Yang Fudong Laura Huertas Millán Kiluanji Kia Henda Karrabing Film Collective Garush Melkonyan Tuan Andrew Nguyen Fernando Ocaña & Alejandro Veneno Luiz Roque Himali Singh Soin WangShui Kandis Williams Tania Ximena Crossing Currents

Mexico City, May 21, 2021 May 22, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted an increasing awareness that the dominant modes of human life are no longer tenable. This extended moment of stress and isolation forces many to confront their living conditions and demands a broader reconsideration of the presupposed divisions between cities and the countryside, culture, and nature. While rural terrain is often romanticized through lexicons replete with pastoral imagery, it is also highly regulated—it is the place of deforestation, fracking, mining, factory farming, imminent urbanization, and countless other forms of resource extraction, in which humans often engage with other species violently. The pandemic is a symptom of this ecological crisis—an environmental attitude of exploitation in which lines are drawn between the idea of human and environmental space, with humans placed at the center. Nevertheless, these zones are not discrete. Humans and their homes exist within entangled ecosystems that implicate non-human actors as well as peri-urban and rural expanse.

Indeed, there is no absolute end or beginning to the city and its supposedly peripheral exterior—the waste and chemical toxins that are produced in densely populated areas and emitted in the countryside are recycled back through food and water systems, all while disrupting local and Indigenous communities. Natural resources that are extracted without proper consideration for sustainability threaten survival and contribute to chronic ecological disasters. This screening program brings together an international group of artists who consider the relationship between the built and natural environment, the traffic between city and countryside, and the embattled ideological currents circulating through this multi-form flow.

What might a return to nature look like in this discursive field beyond literal settlement and migration? What is gained by recourse to probing the sociopolitical investments in defining nature, city, and space more generally? What is to be gained from an ecological approach to unlearning—i.e. re-entangling—prevailing notions of these discrete geographic categories? How can strategies of the imagination enter into these conversations? While the pandemic is foremost an issue of globalization and ecological exploitation, it is also one of affective intimacy and intersubjectivity, as all of our actions affect those we engage with, directly or not.

Samantha Ozer
The project is curated by Samantha Ozer.

Ozer (b. 1996, New York) is an independent curator, producer, and writer, based between London, Mexico City, and New York. As a curatorial member of The Racial Imaginary Institute, she recently co-curated the online exhibition Listening for the Unsaid in collaboration with the David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, USA. As a content researcher and writer for the Poetic Justice group at the MIT Media Lab, she is organizing the guest lecture series for Ekene Ijeoma’s course Black Mobility and Safety in the US. As a former curatorial assistant at MoMA PS1, New York, USA, she worked on the exhibitions Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2011, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, and Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life. As a former consultant and research fellow for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA’s Research & Development department, she organized the salon series with Paola Antonelli, Director, MoMA R&D and Senior Curator, Architecture & Design. She has previously worked with the curatorial teams at The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, UK and the XXII Triennale di Milano, Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, Milan, Italy. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, PIN–UP magazine, Shifter journal, and Texte zur Kunst. She has a forthcoming essay in Volume III of Sternberg Press’ Intersubjectivity series, edited by Lou Cantor and Emily Watlington.
She studied visual culture and film at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, New York, USA, before transferring to the history of art department at The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. She is currently undertaking graduate work at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK.

Friday, May 21st, 7-11pm
WangShui, "From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances" (2018)
Himali Singh Soin, "we are opposite like that" (2019)
Tania Ximena, "Tesalonicenses" (2014)
Garush Melkonyan, "Ubi sunt" (2019)
Luiz Roque, "Zero" (2019)
Basma Alsharif, "Ouroboros" (2017)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen, "The Boat People" (2020)

Saturday, May 22nd, 7-11pm
Yang Fudong, "Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part I (zhu lin qi xian)" (2003)
Cécile B. Evans, "A Screen Test for an Adaptation of Giselle" (2019)
Kandis Williams, "Annexation Tango" (2020)
Karrabing Film Collective, "Windjarrameru (The Stealing C*nt$)" (2015)
Laura Huertas Millán, "The Labyrinth" (2018)
Kiluanji Kia Henda, "Concrete Affection - Zopo Lady" (2014)
Fernando Ocaña (in collaboration with Alejandro Veneno), "Junkspeed" (2018)

Yang Fudong, *Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part I (zhu lin qi xian) *(still), 2013, 29' 32''. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Himali Singh Soin, *We are opposite like that* (still), 2019, 12'56''. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Himali Singh Soin, *We are opposite like that* (still), 2019, 12'56''. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
WangShui, *From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances* (still), 2018, 13'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen, *The Boat People* (still), 2020, 20'. © Tuan Andrew Nguyen 2021. Image courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen, *The Boat People* (still), 2020, 20'. © Tuan Andrew Nguyen 2021. Image courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York.
Laura Huertas Millán, *The Labyrinth* (still), 2018, 21'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Cécile B. Evans, *A Screen Test for an Adaptation of Giselle* (still), 2019, 8'49". Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Cécile B. Evans, *A Screen Test for an Adaptation of Giselle* (still), 2019, 8'49". Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Laura Huertas Millán, *The Labyrinth* (still), 2018, 21'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Kiluanji Kia Henda, *Concrete Affection - Zopo Lady* (still), 2014, 12'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Garush Melkonyan, *Ubi sunt* (still), 2019, 20'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Garush Melkonyan, *Ubi sunt* (still), 2019, 20'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Tania Ximena, *Tesalonicenses* (still), 2014, 11'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Basma Alsharif, *Ouroboros* (still), 2017, 77'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Basma Alsharif, *Ouroboros* (still), 2017, 77'. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Fernando Ocaña (in collaboration with Alejandro Veneno), *Junkspeed* (still), 2018, 60'59''. Image: Courtesy of the artists.
Fernando Ocaña (in collaboration with Alejandro Veneno), *Junkspeed* (still), 2018, 60'59''. Image: Courtesy of the artists.
Luiz Roque, *Zero* (still), 2019, 5'39''. Image: Courtesy of the artist.
Karrabing Film Collective, *Windjarrameru (The Stealing C*nt$)* (still), 2015, 35'. Image: Courtesy of the artists.
Kandis Williams, *Annexation Tango* (still), 2020, 10'31''. Image: Courtesy of the artist.