Open Studio / Screening
With Vartan Avakian, spring 2022 artist in residence of the Kaplan Humanities Institute and the Middle East and North African Studies Program.
Avakian will screen two videos — Short Wave Long Wave and The Video Story — and lead a chat / Q&A about his process and materials.
About the videos:
Short Wave Long Wave
(2010, Video)
Behind the sea, when the weather was clear, stood a city with a high skyline and big structures. It looked like cities in films. Actually, it looked like New York in American films and TV series. I believed it was America.
The Video Story
(2015, Video)
He bought a video camera in 1983, and nothing has been the same since. “Films are reality,” he told me. Some years later he asked for Nicole Ballan’s leaked sex tape.
(Image credit: Vartan Avakian, from Suspended Silver (2015): Accumulated dust on film negatives from Studio Mario collection found in Barakat Building. Image Courtesy of Arab Image Foundation.)
Cost: Free; public welcome!
Jill Mannor
(847) 467-3970
Email