CBS Chicago Puts MoCP at the Top of Its "Best Photography Galleries in Chicago"

May 8, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

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Uriel Orlow Presents Multi-Media Lecture/Performance as a Part of Survival Techniques

April 23, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

Weaving together salvaged film clips, artist Uriel Orlow will present his multi-media masterpiece Aide-Mémoire at the Hokin Lecture Hall on April 25 at 6 pm.

The show, which runs in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s current exhibition, Survival Techniques: Narratives of Resistance is part slideshow and part obscure history lesson, blending distant places and times to create a pictorial narrative merging the past, present and future.

In his reconstructed pictorial landscapes, Orlow references such seemingly disparate sites as Biblical Mount Ararat, a Ghost Town in Northern Armenia on the site of an earthquake, and a Kurdish village in Turkey built out of the rubble of an ancient Armenian monastery.

Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Events page on the MoCP’s website. The Hokin Lecture Hall is located at 623 S. Wabash Ave.

Installing Survival Techniques

April 11, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

With two days until it opens, the MoCP staff is putting the finishing touches on its newest exhibition, Survival Techniques: Narratives of Resistance. The exhibition, which examines the ways individuals and groups endure long-term hardships, opens this Friday.

Take a look at the photos below to catch a sneak peak of the exhibition as it was installed:

Prior to the exhibition opening, the MoCP will host a screening of Thet Sambath’s Oscar-nominated film, Enemies of the People, which follows Sambath’s quest to uncover the truth behind Pol Pot’s government-sponsored massacre of Cambodian citizens in the late 1970s. The screening will take place Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at 623 S. Wabash Ave.

On Thursday, Survival Techniques curator, Davide Quadrio, will join contributing artists Julika Rudelius and Li Mu at the MoCP as they take visitors on a tour of the exhibition at 4 p.m. An opening reception will follow at 5 p.m.

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, check out the Events page on the MoCP’s website.

Survival Techniques Opens
with Video Screening and
Curator-Led Tour

April 9, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

Featuring fifteen artists from around the world, the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s newest exhibition, Survival Techniques: Narratives of Resistance examines social conflict, political corruption and the common ways humans learn to survive.

Prior to the opening reception – which takes place on April 12 from 5 to 7 pm – there will be two events held in conjunction with the exhibition:

Film Screening: Before Ai Weiwei and Enemies of the People
Wednesday, April 11, 6:30 pm
Join the MoCP for a film screening pairing two documentary films addressing the ways humans interpret and cope with government oppression.

Daria Menozzi’s Before Ai Weiwei is based on an interview with the artist Ai Weiwei in 1995 and exposes his early political beliefs at a time when he is both estranged from the country where he lives and also poised to position himself as a global force within the art world. The second film, Enemies of the People directed by Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin, interviews the men and women who perpetrated government-sponsored massacres between 1975-79. The screening will take place at the Hokin Lecture Hall, located at 623 S. Michigan Ave.

Curator Talk and Opening Reception
Thursday, April 12, 4 pm
Welcome Survival Techniques guest curator, Davide Quadrio, and contributing artists, Julika Rudelius and Li Mu, as they walk visitors through the exhibition at 4 p.m. The opening reception, which will be held at the MoCP, will immediately follow.

Annual Talkin’ Back: Chicago Youth Respond Draws a Crowd

April 5, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

Last Thursday, the MoCP opened its annual student exhibition Talkin’ Back: Chicago Youth Respond, showcasing work by Chicago Public School students. And what these students had to say did not fall on deaf ears: the MoCP was packed with students, their families, community activists and art lovers.

The weeklong exhibition, which closed yesterday, exhibited young artists from six of Chicago’s public schools. To see photos from the exhibition, please take a look at the Picasa page for the Center for Community Arts Partnerships (CCAP).

Talkin’ Back: Chicago Youth Respond features works by students at Crown Community Academy; Curie Metropolitan High School; Juarez Community Academy; Nicolas Senn High School; Theodore Herzl Elementary School; and Manuel Perez Jr. Elementary School. The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), Project AIM and CCAP sponsor the annual program.

Filmmaker Daria Menozzi joins Survival Techniques

March 22, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

The Museum of Contemporary Photography recently added Italian filmmaker Daria Menozzi to the long list of international artists participating in its upcoming group exhibition, Survival Techniques.

Featuring more than a dozen artists from across the globe, Survival Techniques explores displacement, exile and the struggle to exist in a nation of constant turmoil. The exhibition, which runs April 12 through July 1, showcases people’s experiences living through political uncertainty and social unrest, while commenting on the one thing shared by them all: survival.

On Wednesday, April 11 – the day before Survival Techniques opens – the MoCP will host a screening of Menozzi’s film, Before Ai Weiwei. This film provides an intimate look into the life of Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, as he estranges himself from the country where he lives and positions himself as a global force within the art world. It will be shown at 6 p.m. at 623 S. Wabash Ave.

For more information about this screening, visit the events page on the MoCP’s website. To learn more about the other artists exhibiting in Survival Techniques, visit the exhibitions page.

Visit the University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society for a Sneak Peak at Survival Techniques Artist, Yto Barrada

March 20, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

Hailing from Tangier, Yto Barrada’s work about contemporary social and political issues in Morocco is getting a lot of attention here in Chicago.

Barrada, whose work will be featured in the MoCP’s upcoming exhibition Survival Techniques, also has an exhibition currently running at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.

Barrada’s show, Riffs, at the Renaissance Society explores the seemingly mundane aspects of the historical changes currently taking place in North Africa. Similarly, her work in Survival Techniques discusses these same political issues… but in a more satirical fashion. Using photographs, illustrations, diagrams, slogans, stories and games to comment on social and political issues in contemporary Morocco, Barrada pokes fun at the struggles the country faces in the eyes of globalization.

Riffs is on display at the Renaissance Society through April 22. Survival Techniques runs at the Museum of Contemporary Photography April 12 through July 1. Admission to both museums is free and open to the public.

About Yto Barrada
Born in France, Barrada grew up between Tangier and Paris, where she studied history and political science at the Sorbonne. After attending the International Center for Photography in New York and spending 16 years abroad, Barrada returned to Tangiers, where she continues to base her artwork on the cultural climate of the city. Recently, she had a solo exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, and also exhibited at the 2011 Venice Biennale.

Venue Change for Tomorrow’s W.J.T. Mitchell Lecture

March 19, 2012 | Details | Comments (0)

Those of you coming to tomorrow’s W.J.T. Mitchell lecture will have to walk a little father to get here... about 20 steps farther.

The lecture by distinguished University of Chicago Iconology scholar will be moved down the hall of 600 S. Michigan Ave., from the Ferguson Lecture Hall to the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s main gallery.

The lecture, which begins at 6:30 p.m., discusses the capability of digital photography to expand “the potential scope of photographic truth-claims along with the potential for lying.” Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Events page on our website.

About W.J.T. Mitchell
W.J.T. Mitchell is a scholar and theorist of media, visual art, and literature associated with the emergent fields of visual culture and iconology (the study of images across the media). A Professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago, Mitchell is editor of the interdisciplinary journal, Critical Inquiry, and the author of numerous publications including What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images (2005).

Filmmaker J.J. Murphy to Present and Discuss Rarely Seen Classic

January 30, 2012 | Details | Comments (1)

This Thursday, we will be hosting acclaimed filmmaker J.J. Murphy for a screening of his rarely seen, seminal film, Print Generation, which raises questions about perception, memory, time and the transmission of information. The film, which duplicates the same one-minute piece of film 50 times, maps the deterioration of each generation from abstract to concrete and back again.

The screening will start at 6 p.m. in the MoCP at 600 S. Michigan Ave. Afterward, Murphy will answer questions from the audience.

Installing Limits of Photography

January 19, 2012 | Details | Comments (1)

With less than a week between shows, the MoCP team has been hard at work putting together its newest exhibition, Limits of Photography. Take a look at the photos below to see the MoCP staff hard at work during this short install time, and catch a glimpse of the artwork featured in Limits of Photography, which opens on Saturday!