The Body, the Social Space + Aesthetics of Resistance with Karen Mirza & Brad Butler

MORE INFO/TIX: www.uniondocs.org

This event was organized with Bradley Eros and Sonel Breslav

Karen Mirza and Brad Butler have worked together since 1998, and in 2004 formed no.w.here, an artist-run space for the production, discussion and dissemination of practices engaged with the moving image, politics, technology and aesthetics. no.w.here’s role as a cooperative environment is directly related to the centering of Mirza and Butler’s own practice upon collaboration, dialogue and the social.

The centerpiece of the evening will be Deep State, a film by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler that has been scripted in collaboration with author China Miéville. The film takes its title from the Turkish term ‘Derin Devlet’, meaning ‘state within the state’. Although its existence is impossible to verify, this shadowy nexus of special interests and covert relationships is the place where real power is said to reside, and where fundamental decisions are made – decisions that often run counter to the outward impression of democracy.

This work will be framed beforehand by a brief discursive presentation, involving excerpts & clips, along with other media & publications, focused on the history & initiatives of no.w.here and The Museum of Non-Participation, both interventions of language & exchange. Following the screening will be an extended dialogue with a number of invited guest artists, writers & curators engaged in activist & theoretical investigations.

“In thinking about our friends & co-conspirators, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler, coming to New York, or more specifically, Brooklyn, what’s exciting for us is the way they open up the questioning processes, thus including so many different horizons in the picture(s) of the world. This is truly horizontal thinking, that invites you into the forms and materials, by not accepting the givens, but by trusting in ambiguity, risk, intuition, intellect, instability, & resistance. We personally wanted to hear them think out loud, to interrogate their own work as well as situations of power and change, to be challenged in public, and especially to experience how their generosity of approach & dialogue affects a New York audience.” – Bradley Eros & Sonel Breslav, artists & curators