Basquiat: Boom for Real

Video Jam & Basquiat: Boom for Real

The Barbican Hall (London) January 2018 (date TBA)

Brooklyn Bridge. Photo: Scout Stuart

The event

Video Jam has been commissioned by The Barbican Centre in London to curate an event to accompany its forthcoming exhibition Basquiat: Boom For Real - the UK’s first major retrospective of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work.

For this, we have commissioned 7 filmmakers - based in either the UK or US - to create new short moving image works inspired by their personal take on Basquiat's work or influences. Upon completion, each film will be paired with a UK musician or sound artist to create an accompanying score, resulting in a series of unique audio/visual works that will be presented at a standalone event in the Barbican Hall, January 2018 (date TBA).

The Barbican Centre’s exhibition is the first of its kind to focus on Basquiat’s personal relationship to music, literature, film and television. We’re excited to be working with a variety of artists at different stages in their career who will be drawing on these influences in their work across an eclectic range of genres. Each commissioned artist will gain access to groundbreaking research behind the Barbican's exhibition, and will have the opportunity to meet with the Video Jam curators in either London or New York City this summer to discuss their work.

This project extends and develops an ongoing trajectory of Video Jam events responding both to exhibitions, such as the Colombo Art Biennale 2016, and the work of individual artists, including Jeremy Deller, Ryan Gander, Hedy Lamarr, Ryoichi Kurokawa and Igor Stravinsky.

A Jean Michel-Basquiat print as seen at Soho Contemporary Art Gallery, NYC. Photo by Scout Stuart

Video Jam residency at Flux Factory (Queens, NY)

As part of our research for this project, we embarked on a 2 month curatorial residency during summer 2017 at Flux Factory (Queens, New York City) kindly supported by the Arts Council International Artist Development Fund and a Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant.

Having an extended period of time in New York has enabled us to meet with relevant individuals and organisations, and to visit some of the most important sites of Basquiat's life in New York City; an artist famous for his connection with the city's art scene in the 80s and contemporary street culture. Our work here has allowed us to explore how the contexts within which Basquiat was working have continued to influence current generations of artists both in the UK and the US.

As a public and community space, our residency host Flux Factory has a longstanding history of supporting international curators and artists. Through Flux Factory’s networks and our own we have met and collaborated with local musicians and filmmakers based in New York to organise an informal Video Jam at Knockdown Centre (Brooklyn, NY), alongside workshops and other related projects.