Filmforum has commissioned five artists to make new work, generously funded by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and over the next year will be presenting the premieres of the works, including discussions with the artists.
Tabita Rezaire is the first of our recipients. Based in French Guyana (a province of France in South America, still remaining from colonial days), and frequently making work in Africa, Rezaire is a healer, artist, and farmer whose multi-faceted practice has revolved around concerns of the internet as a colonial technology, the possibilities of digital interfaces for spiritual and ancestral information, African spirituality, ecological collapse, untold histories of Black womxn, decolonizing uses of technology, and the power of the womb. The works we are exhibiting gather imagery from the internet, machinima, appropriated films, and her own interviews with philosophers and others in vivid and colorful geometric landscapes.
Rezaire’s work has been presented around the world: Centre Pompidou, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; MASP, São Paulo; Serpentine, London; MoMA, NY; New Museum, NY; Gropius Bau, Berlin; MMOMA, Moscow; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; ICA London; V&A London; National Gallery Denmark; The Broad LA; MoCADA, NY; Tate Modern, London; Museum of Modern Art, Paris – and in international biennales in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kochi, Athens, and Berlin and Sydney.
In addition to the two works being screened in person, with a remote discussion with Rezaire, three earlier works of hers will be available online for viewing before or after the show, from Sunday September 18 to Friday September 30, available through the Filmforum website.
This program is made possible by generous support from the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.
Tabita Rezaire is infinity longing to experience itself in human form. Her path as an artist, devotee, yogi, doula, and farmer is all geared towards manifesting the divine in herself and beyond. As an eternal seeker, Tabita’s yearning for connection finds expression in her cross-dimensional practices, which envision network sciences – organic, electronic and spiritual – as healing technologies to serve the shift towards heart consciousness.
Embracing digital, corporeal and ancestral memory, she digs into scientific imaginaries and mystical realms to tackle the colonial wounds and energetic imbalances that affect the songs of our body-mind-spirits. Through screen interfaces and healing circles, her offerings aim to nurture our collective growth and expand our capacity for togetherness.
Tabita is based near Cayenne in French Guyana, where she is currently studying Agriculture and birthing AMAKABA – her vision for collective healing in the Amazonian forest. Tabita is devoted to becoming a mother to the world.
