PUBLIC PROGRAMS: NOW THAT WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A COMMON GROUND

Opening Reception, Now That We Have Established A Common Ground, March 2022, Protocinema, at The Clemente, New York

Protocinema presents a public program of artist talks, discussions, a film screening, and walkthroughs to accompany Now That We Have Established A Common Ground. This group exhibition includes works by Eleana Antonaki, Orlee Malka, and Sara Ouhaddou, and is curated by Lila Nazemian within Protocinema’s Emerging Curator Series 2022. Taking place in virtual, physical, and hybrid spaces, the program will offer in-depth conversations on each participating artists’ practices and discussions on repatriation, western institutions, colonial legacies, and practices to further elaborate on the themes explored within the exhibition. Now That We Have Established A Common Ground is organized at and in partnership with The Clemente, New York, to share contemporary concerns through art between communities of the global majority. This exhibition and public programs explore knowledge production and dissemination through rethinking institutional practices within the fields of museology, archeology, and geology.

March 12, Saturday, 3:00 - 4:00 pm
Conversation:
Orlee Malka, Artist, New York
Lila Nazemian, Curator, Protocinema, New York
Digital program only
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9692533691

March 19, Saturday, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Conversation:
Sara Ouhaddou, Artist, Paris
Lila Nazemian, Curator, Protocinema, New York
Digital program only
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9692533691

March 24, Thursday, 7:00 - 8:00 pm
Conversation:
Eleana Antonaki, Artist, New York
Lila Nazemian, Curator, Protocinema, New York
IRL program at The Clemente, also via zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9692533691

March 30, Wednesday - 5:00 - 7:30 pm
Conversation:
Beatriz Santiago-Muñoz, Artist, San Juan
Lila Nezamian, Curator, Protocinema, New York
Sofia Reeser del Rio, Senior Program Manager, The Clemente
Digital program only
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9692533691

April 2, Saturday, 5:00 - 7:30 pm

Exhibition Walkthrough & Film Screening:
5 pm Walkthrough with Lila Nazemian, Curator
6 pm Screening: Surviving Fortress, 51 minutes
Directed by Farshad Fadaian, Co-Produced by Ava Studios, Paris
Winner of the “Best Film,” “Best Director” and “Best Cinematography” at the Cinema Vérité Film Festival in Iranhttp://avastudiosparis.com/This program is presented in partnership with ArteEast.

April 9, Saturday, 3:00 - 4:00 pm

Conversation: How do objects and people live?
A timely conversation about the repatriation of art objects from the perspective of law, art, and culture set within Now That We Have Established a Common Ground
Fionnuala Rogers, Art and Cultural Heritage Lawyer, Founder and Director of Canvas Art Law, and Chair of the U.K. Committee of the Blue Shield
Mary Rinebold, Writer, Consultant at Canvas Art Law
Mari Spirito, Director, Curator, Protocinema, New York, Istanbul
Lila Nazemian, Curator, Protocinema, New York
Digital program only
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9692533691

EXHIBITION PRESS RELEASE
Now That We Have Established A Common Ground
Exhibition: March 4 - April 2, 2022
Opening Times: EVERY DAY, from 11 am to 5 pm
Location: LES Gallery at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center
107 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, New York

Protocinema presents Now That We Have Established A Common Ground, a group exhibition with Eleana Antonaki, Orlee Malka, and Sara Ouhaddou, curated by Lila Nazemian within our Emerging Curator Series 2022. Organized at and in partnership with The Clemente, New York, to share contemporary concerns through art between communities of the global majority, this exhibition explores knowledge production and dissemination through rethinking the practice of archeology. Now That We Have Established a Common Ground investigates archeological practices, language, heritage, and ironically, the ambiguity of common ground that exists between the artists’ works. Situated within varying temporalities, the featured artworks transform the exhibition space into a site from which to reconsider the ways that historical narratives and subjectivities are codified through the legacies of archeology. Proposing perspectives that engage forms of intergenerational memory, some works contest obsolete aspects of lingering archeological practices, another presents a post-human reality existing within centuries-old and subjectively programmed states of being, and others trace histories of repression through erasure.

Launched in 2015, Protocinema Emerging Curator Series (PECS) is a mentorship program that provides professional training in the form of learning through doing. Protocinema Emerging Curator for 2022 Lila Nazemian is mentored by Lumi Tan, Senior Curator, The Kitchen, New York; Tirdad Zolghadr, Curator and Writer, Artistic Director of the Sommerakademie Paul Klee, Bern; and Mari Spirito, Executive Director, Curator, Protocinema, Istanbul, New York.

Protocinema is a cross-cultural art organization that commissions and presents site-aware art around the world. Our purpose is to support dialogue between cultures on equal footing and create opportunities for listening & expression. By doing so, Protocinema aids the development of relationships both at the mindfully local & globally interconnected levels. Protocinema advocates for empathy, working towards an understanding of difference across regions through its exhibitions, commissions, public programs, publications, and mentorship. Founded in 2011 by Mari Spirito, Protocinema is an ambulant nonprofit 501(c)3, free of ‘brick and mortar.’ Our locations are varied, responding both to global concerns and changing conditions on the ground. protocinema.org

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center Inc. is a Puerto Rican/Latinx multi-arts cultural institution that has demonstrated a broad-minded cultural vision and inclusive philosophy rooted in NYC’s Lower East Side/Loisaida. While focused on the cultivation, presentation, and preservation of Puerto Rican and Latinx culture, the Center is equally committed to a multi-ethnic/international latitude, determined to operate in a polyphonic manner that provides affordable working space and venues to artists, small arts organizations, emergent and independent community producers that reflect the cultural diversity of the LES and our city. theclementecenter.org

Biographies:
Lila Nazemian
Eleana Antonaki
Orlee Malka
Sara Ouhaddou

Press Inquiries: Alper Turan, alper@protocinema.org, +49 17670518587, +90 5068706808; Mari Spirito, mari@protocinema.org, +1917 660 7332

Supporters of Protocinema Emerging Curator Series: Charlotte Feng Ford, New York; Sam Soltani, New York; Stephan Stoyanov, Sofia; Hamid Reza Tabarraei, Paris.

Special Thanks to Koray Duman, New York; ICI (Independent Curators International), New York; Gülben Çapan, Istanbul; Libertad O. Guerra & the entire team at The Clemente, New York; Gallery Polaris, Paris; Elma Art Gallery, Brooklyn.