Bonnefanten Presents ‘Blknws’ By Kahlil Joseph

Bonnefanten in collaboration with Lee Stuart (Patta) presents ‘BLKNWS’ by Kahlil Joseph, on view from September 11th at HipHopHuis, Rotterdam and on view from September, 17th 2020 at OSCAM, Amsterdam.

The video artwork ‘BLKNWS’ (Black News) by Los Angeles based filmmaker and artist Kahlil Joseph will be on view from mid-September in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Maastricht. OSCAM and HipHopHuis partnered with Bonnefanten to host the high-profiled video work of Kahlil Joseph, that first drew attention during the 2019 Venice Biennale.

"Thanks to the enthusiasm of my colleagues at the HipHopHuis and OSCAM, the efforts of Lee Stuart (Patta) and the generous contribution from Fonds 21, BLKNWS will also be available from mid-September at two satellite locations. This does justice to the intentions of the artist and puts the work in an even more relevant context,” says Stijn Huijts, director Bonnefanten.

BLKNWS
The video installation BLKNWS by Kahlil Joseph is a 2-channel ‘news broadcast’ that is continuously updated in real-time. These broadcasts will be showing existing news broadcasts mixed with scenes filmed by Joseph himself and ‘found footage’, images of Black culture that he has collected from everywhere. The images on display blur the lines between art, journalism, entrepreneurship and cultural criticism, where BLKNWS manifests as a critical analysis of how racial issues and storytelling collide within our current system. BLKNWS is one of the most iconic art pieces Kahlil Joseph ever made.

OSCAM & HipHopHuis
Marian Duff, OSCAM’s director and curator: "This period we faced an exceptional challenge: the opening of the exhibition, in collaboration with Patta, 'We Will Be Here Forever, Do You Understand?' But also preparations for new exhibitions, the closing of all cultural institutions, the lockdown, the death of George Floyd and the accompanying international demonstrations around the Black Lives Matter movement. It was important during this time to keep a close eye on our environment, our networks and the creative industry. What voices were heard here? How do the creatives around us express themselves in these days? What do they find important and how do our communities get through this period of time? Gradually new ideas came along, a new online and offline direction for collaborations between OSCAM, the HipHopHuis and its partners."

Aruna Vermeulen, director HipHopHuis is equally pleased with this partnership: "We are very much looking forward to showing BLKNWS at HipHopHuis and making the work accessible to our audience. We made the Street Dreams exhibition at Kunsthal with Lee Stuart last year, bringing our culture and our people to the museum. Being able to show this work in our own space is the next step. With his work, Kahlil Joseph initiates a new infrastructure; his wish is to do the work to be displayed in several relevant places to create new connections between individuals, communities and institutions. Our mantra is ‘Meet new people where they are’, and this fits in perfectly with that."

BLKNWS will play an important role in the Bonnefanten exhibition ‘SAY IT LOUD’, an exhibition with contemporary artists who feel connected to topics related to diversity, the colonial past and the arts or the interpretation of it.

These events were made possible with the support of Fonds21, Vereniging Rembrandt and Turing Foundation.