MATADERO MADRID PRESENTS “AGAINST RACE” IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SHOWROOM
Guest Curator Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of The Showroom (London), presents the project ‘Contra la raza’ [Against Race] at Matadero Madrid within the framework of PHotoESPAÑA 2021. This multidisciplinary initiative incorporates a video-based installation and live programme focusing on futuristic imaginaries expressed through poetics of the Black experience that generate new forms of global and egalitarian humanism.
‘Contra la raza’ [Against Race] is a platform questioning how imagery in audiovisual formats communicates from a global Black and Pan-Africanist perspective. It is inspired by the eponymous book by British historian Paul Gilroy, Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line (2000), which addresses the fundamental role played by decolonial and antiracist movements in both the historical and contemporary fight for human rights. “No one talks about human identity”, he writes at the beginning of this century, appealing to our collective consciousness to advocate for the establishment of a new planetary humanism. Departing from Gilroy’s quest to dismantle racializing and marginalizing politics, ‘Contra la raza’ [Against Race] proposes poetics for an emerging egalitarianism as a catalyst for holistic cosmopolitan democracy.
These reflections comprise the backdrop of Dyangani Ose’s proposal for PHotoESPAÑA 2021 hosted by Matadero Madrid and Círculo de Bellas Artes: two collective exhibitions, a film series and a live performance and talks programme all focusing on imagery —photography, film and video— from Black, global and Pan-Africanist perspectives.
Matadero’s enigmatic, soaring Nave 0 hosts a multimedia installation of Relic Traveller by Larry Achiampong, alongside a group screening of audiovisual works by artists including Romane Anderson, Rubén H. Bermúdez, Sally Fenaux, Amartey Golding, Jérôme Havre, Julianknxx, Katia Kameli, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Grada Kilomba, Mónica de Miranda, Nástio Mosquito, Paulo Nazareth, Heidi Ramírez, Sara Sadik, Berni Searle, Cauleen Smith, Camille Turner and Belinda Zhawi.
Contra la raza [Against Race]
June 3–November 28, 2021
Matadero Madrid - Centro de Creación Contemporánea
Pº de la Chopera, 14
28045 Madrid
Spain