. Conversations at the Edge (CATE)

Feb 22 – South by Southeast

Curator Greg de Cuir Jr. in person While the countries in southern and eastern Europe share common histories and cultures, they have alternately been classified as Balkan and Mediterranean, as capitalist and socialist, as Western and non-Western, and as European and non-European. South by Southeast convenes a wide range of artistic works, many of which […]

Spring 2020 Season Announcement

We’re pleased to announce the Spring 2020 season of Conversations at the Edge! We have a spectacular program lined up, including appearances by media artists  Vaginal Davis (Feb 6); Lori Felker (Feb 13); Linda Mary Montano (Feb 27); Mariah Garnett (March 5); Beatrice Gibson (March 12); Ian Cheng (March 24), and Wong Ping (April 9), […]

On Louis Henderson

Tomorrow English filmmaker Louis Henderson will join us for his first Chicago appearance!   Video Data Bank‘s Lindsay Bosch blogs about Henderson’s references to the Internet and computing in his complex meditations on neo-colonalism and contemporary Ghana.   Most of video art I watch, I watch on my laptop.  I dream of creating a perfect screening space—uninterrupted hours, big […]

October 8- Louis Henderson: Melts Into Air

Thursday, October 8 | Paris-based filmmaker Louis Henderson in person! In his first Chicago appearance, award-winning director Louis Henderson presents a pair of films on the networked links between colonialism, computing, and capitalism in contemporary Ghana. In Lettres du Voyant (2013), a series of mysterious letters describe the practice of “Sakawa”—e-scams fortified by Western African religious rituals—and the possibilities […]

On Daniel Sousa

I’m delighted to welcome SAIC art history graduate student Elizabeth Metcalfe to our blog for the second time. Elizabeth writes about Sousa’s unique ability to address the intrinsic human condition through his delicate animation. Keep your eyes peeled for Elizabeth’s upcoming interview with the artist himself! Painting springs to life in Daniel Sousa’s award-winning animated short films. […]

Special Preview: John Smith interviewed for Video Data Bank

A special preview of John Smith’s interview for Video Data Bank’s (VDB) ever growing On Art and Artists Collection, due for release late Spring 2015. In this interview excerpt Smith discusses, with VDB’s director Abina Manning, his film Shepherd’s Delight a film largely concerned with how context determines the reading of information. The Jarman Award winning artist presented his […]

Nov 13 – Mati Diop: A Thousand Suns

Thursday, November 13th | Mati Diop in person! Known for dreamlike shorts that experiment with the boundaries between documentary and fiction, award-winning French filmmaker Mati Diop mined her own history for A Thousand Suns. The film explores the public and private legacies of the seminal Senegalese film Touki Bouki (1972), directed by her uncle Djibril Diop Mambéty. She focuses […]

On John Smith…

It seems apt this week that Chicago is experiencing such a torrent of rather British-like weather, as we prepare to welcome the legendary John Smith to Conversations at the Edge (CATE). This week is a very special event due to the fact Smith was the first artist to present at CATE in 2001. We are […]

October 16 – An Evening with John Smith

Thursday, October 16th | John Smith in person! In his playful and thought-provoking short films and videos, UK filmmaker John Smith explores the language of cinema and reflects on the image’s role in politics, war, and the global economy. The 2013 Jarman Award winner presents a selection from across his 40-year career, including the seminal The Girl Chewing […]

April 4 – Spin/Verso/Contour: An Evening with Hannes Schüpbach

Thursday, April 4, 6 p.m. | Hannes Schüpbach in person! The films of renowned Swiss artist Hannes Schüpbach are lyrical, often transcendent portraits of people, spaces, and everyday life. A painter, performance artist, and expert on textile art, Schüpbach weaves together light, gesture, and a keen attentiveness to the material world into meticulously structured compositions. His films, […]

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