Announcing PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus
January 16, 2020
Announcing
PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus
co-curated by MacArthur Award recipient, Okwui Okpokwasili
& Danspace Executive Director & Chief Curator, Judy Hussie-Taylor
February 22-March 21, 2020
Buy tickets today
View the Platform calendar
The Platforms were launched by Danspace Project in 2010 as “exhibitions that unfold over time” shaped by guest artist-curators. Marking 10 years since Judy Hussie-Taylor conceived of the series, this Platform will be the centerpiece of Danspace’s 45th anniversary year.
PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus emerged from Okpokwasili and Hussie-Taylor’s interest in creating containers for sharing artistic practices: “Could we create a Platform for artists to be in a conversation with one another and offer that to a broader audience?” The result is a program that will unfold over four weeks with multiple voices, artistic collaborations, and interdisciplinary juxtapositions. Together, Okpokwasili and Hussie-Taylor developed these lines of curatorial inquiry for the Platform:
How do we weave a collective song?
How can the voice and body be a site of resistance and transformation?
How can we share artistic practices – between artists and between artists and audiences?
PLATFORM 2020 follows Okpokwasili’s longstanding inquiries addressing the lives of young women of color. It takes its title from Saidiya Hartman’s introduction to her book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments.
In addition to Okpokwasili and Hussie-Taylor, the Platform’s curatorial team includes Danspace Associate Curator and Program Director, Lydia Bell, and Seta Morton, Assistant Curator for Public Engagement.
View the PLATFORM 2020 Calendar for information on participants, programs, and events, including The New York premiere of Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born’s durational practice, Sitting On a Man’s Head, featuring a rotating chorus of 30 performers.
RESEARCH GROUPS
As an inquiry-based extension of the Platform, Danspace invited individual artists to be part of two artistic Research Groups that have been meeting regularly over the last 8 months. They will curate two long-form programs as part of the Platform, one exploring ideas around “Kin & Care,” and the other exploring ideas around “Voice & Body.”
UPCOMING CATALOGUES, ALBUMS, AND PLATFORM WRITING
A new album by Okpokwasili, day pulls down the sky, will be released (in vinyl and digital platforms) February 22.
A collaborative book of songs and poems titled day pulls down the sky: a filament in gold leaf by Okpokwasili with writer Asiya Wadud will be available February 22.
For the first time, Danspace Project will issue a two-volume catalogue for the Platform. Volume One will include essays, writing, and interviews providing context and some of the research informing the Platform programs. Volume Two will be a document of the Platform including text by writers-in-residence, Chanelle Adams, Omar Berrada, Legacy Russell, and Asiya Wadud, as well as images and interviews with artists and curators.
PLATFORM 2020 ARTISTS
Martita Abril, Nacera Belaza, Lydia Bell, Peter Born, Jennifer Brogle, mayfield brooks, Tina Campt, Leslie Cuyjet, André Daughtry, Eisa Davis, Maura Nguyen Donohue, devynn emory, Brittany Engel-Adams, Lily Gold, Yves B Golden x Venïson Man, Naja Gordon, Melanie Greene, Audrey Hailes, Remi Harris, Saidiya Hartman, Jasmine Hearn, Justin Hicks, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Meryem Jazouli, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Kristin Juarez, NIC Kay, Chaesong Kim, Tendayi Kuumba, M Lamar, Simone Leigh, Breyanna Maples, Priscilla Marrero, Anais Maviel, Seta Morton, Benedict Nguyen, Okwui Okpokwasili, Maya Orchin, Kay Ottinger, iele paloumpis, Angie Pittman, jess pretty, Greg Purnell, Hans Rasch, Katrina Reid, Jean Carla Rodea, Lily Bo Shapiro, Jaime Shearn Coan, Alice Sheppard, Samita Sinha, Eleanor Smith, Pamela Sneed, Spiral Theory Test Kitchen (Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Quori Theodor & Precious Okoyomon), Tatyana Tenenbaum, David Thomson, Pyeng Threadgill, Ogemdi Ude, Mariana Valencia, Cecilia Vicuña, Asiya Wadud, Charmaine Warren, Ni’Ja Whitson, AJ Wilmore, Anna Witenberg, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Nehemoyia Young. Writers in-residence: Chanelle Adams, Omar Berrada, Legacy Russell, Asiya Wadud.
Tickets are on sale now!