Purple, by John Akomfrah - The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Purple, by John Akomfrah
                                                          20 February to 25 March 2018

                   Organized by TBA21–Academy and curated by Chus Martínez

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is presenting, together with the
contemporary art foundation TBA21 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary), an
immersive video installation by award-winning British artist and filmmaker John
Akomfrah titled Purple. Through six large-format screens Akomfrah explores the
effects of climate change and its consequence for biodiversity on the planet’s
different communities through both archival footage and newly shot film. The work
is co-commissioned by TBA21–Academy, which promotes advocacy for ocean
conservation through cross-disciplinary programs and artistic production. Part of
the museum’s 25th anniversary celebrations, the installation marks the first
collaboration with the foundation established by Francesca von Habsburg, daughter
of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

The exhibition is part of the special programme for ARCOmadrid2018 The Future is
not what’s going to happen, but what we are going to do, curated by Chus
Martínez.

Throughout his career writer, filmmaker, artist and thinker John Akomfrah (Accra,
Ghana, 1957) has explored a range of themes in his work associated with today’s
most relevant issues (post-colonialism, racism, emigration, memory, climate
change, etc.,) with the aim of provoking a reflection on each of them. In 1982 he
founded the Black Audio Film Collective comprising Akomfrah and six other artists
and filmmakers. In 2014 the Museo Nacional Reina Sofía presented an audiovisual
cycle on this collective but this is the first time that Akomfrah’s work has been seen
in a stand-alone event in Spain.

In his first film, Handsworth Songs (1986), Akomfrah explores events relating to the
1985 riots in Birmingham and London. Other more recent works include Mnemosyne

Images:
Stills from Purple (2017). Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
Foundation © Smoking Dog Films; Courtesy Lisson Gallery

More information and images:
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza – Press Office:
Paseo del Prado, 8. 28014 Madrid. Tel. +34 914203944 /
+34 913600236

http://www2.museothyssen.org/microsites/prensa/2018/purple/index.html

(2010) which looks at the experience of immigration in Britain, questioning the
country’s image as the “promised land” and revealing the reality of the economy
and racism; and Peripetia (2012), an imaginary visual drama based on characters
depicted by Dürer in the 16th century.

In 2015 Akomfrah presented
Vertigo      Sea,     a    3-screen
installation in which he reflects on
the cruelty of the whaling industry
with images that juxtapose scenes
of emigrants crossing the ocean in
search of a new life.

To some extent Purple (2017)
continues the latter work although
with a different aim; that of offering a reflection on man’s destructive power over
the planet and our indifference to this dramatic situation. This is a wake-up call, a
voice that alerts us to the danger that is threatening ecosystems and the beauty
that we are about to lose as a consequence of progress: contamination, the rise in
temperatures, build-up of waste products, deforestation, harmful fishing, oil
spillages, factories, cities, large-scale agriculture, uncontrolled tourism, etc. In
addition, natural phenomena such as typhoons, hurricanes, storms and tsunamis
further accentuate the havoc that these problems wreak on the life cycles of plants
and animals.

In order to make his work Akomfrah undertook a lengthy trip, part of which was
conducted as a TBA21–Academy expedition to most remote island archipelago in
the world. The viewer sees imposing panoramic shots of natural spaces today that
have been altered by man alongside archive images, through which the artist
communicates a sense of loss that we experience when looking at this lost
grandeur.

The solitary figures that appear in some of these views, normally seen from behind
and with which Akomfrah himself identifies, function to involve the viewer in the
scene. In contrast to the majestic scenes of endangered nature, the human figure
becomes small and insignificant:

“In a very real way I am present in the film. I am the figure wearing the brown
                                               shirt in the rain. It sounds a bit
                                               mystic but for me everything
                                               begins with the place. Aside from
                                               what we filmed, it began when I
                                               asked the landscape the same
                                               question: what can you tell me
                                               about the nature of climate
                                               change?”.

                                                 When discussing his choice of title,
Purple, Akomfrah has referred to the hybrid nature of that colour, created from a
mixture of red and blue and ideal for representing opposing concepts, which is what
his art is about: the vitality and volubility of things. Purple is the colour that
envelops the viewer as we move into the space of the video installation, with six,

large adjacent screens that are
                                                almost touching each other and
                                                which extend to floor and ceiling
                                                level. Ambient light is reduced to a
                                                minimum as a result of which it is
                                                the luminosity given off by the
                                                projected images that surrounds
                                                the viewer, creating an effect of
                                                total immersion which removes us
                                                from our own reality and confronts
us with another one presented by the artist, as well as with the modern-day
arrogance which locates human beings at the centre of all things in our belief that
we have sovereign power over all other species.

As the exhibition’s curator Chus Martínez has written: “The most destructive agent?
Us. Influenced by the thinking of the American philosopher Timothy Morton,
through his images John Akomfrah declares that the word ‘climate change’ is a
euphemism to describe this vast and radical revolution against life. It is not a
‘change’ but rather a total substitution of a world for nothing, for its annihilation.
The work is art but what it deals with is real.”

A recent recipient of the Artes Mundi Award (2017), the most prestigious British
award given to contemporary artists committed to social, political and human
issues, John Akomfrah lives and works in London. He has held numerous solo and
collective exhibitions, most recently at institutions including the MoMA (New York,
2011), Tate Britain (London, 2013-14), and the Venice, Liverpool and Taipei
Biennials (2015, 2012 and 2012 respectively). He has also participated in
international film festivals such as Sundance (Utah, 2011 and 2013) and the
Toronto International Film Festival (2012).

Purple is commissioned by the Barbican,
London     and   co-commissioned     by
Bildmuseet Umeå, Sweden, TBA21–
Academy    and    The    Institute of
Contemporary Art/Boston.

Associated activity

On 19 February 2018, John Akomfrah,
TBA21–Academy´s       director  Markus
Reymann and curator Chus Martínez will            John Akomfrah. © Smoking Dogs Films;
participate in a informal discussion,        Courtesy Lisson Gallery. Photograph by Jack
                                                                                  Hems
introduced by Francesca von Habsburg, in
the museum’s Auditorium (7 pm). Free entry until all places filled.

About TBA21 and TBA21–Academy

Founded in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg, TBA21 is a catalyst and partner in the
creation of pivotal works by emerging and established artists from around the
world. The nonprofit foundation is distinguished by its commitment to works of
social practice that negotiate urgent socio-political and environmental issues and
pursue new lines of inquiry across disciplines. In 2011, the foundation launched

TBA21–Academy, which leads artists, scientists, and thought-leaders on
expeditions of collaborative discovery with a mission to foster a deeper
understanding, new research, and advocacy in support of our ocean. TBA21 and
TBA21–Academy builds upon a deep history of art patronage that extends back
generations in the Thyssen family; von Habsburg’s father, Baron Hans Heinrich
Thyssen-Bornemisza, is the founder of Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

Title: Purple by John Akomfrah

Venues and dates: London, Barbican Centre, 6 October 2017 to 7 January 2018;
Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, 20 February to 25 March 2018;
Umeå, Bildmuseet, 13 April to 16 September 2018; Lisbon, Museo Coleção Berardo,
October 2018 - January 2019 (dates TBC); Boston, ICA, May - September 2019

Credits: The installation is organized by TBA21–Academy and curated by Chus
Martínez. The work is a new commission by the Barbican, London, and co-
commission by Bildmuseet Umeå, Sweden, TBA21–Academy and The Institute of
Contemporary Art/Boston.

Number of works: 1 video installation comprising 6 screens

VISITOR INFORMATION

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Address: Paseo del Prado, 8. 28014 Madrid. Moneo temporary exhibition galleries,
basement level 1.

Opening times:

Tuesdays to Fridays and Sundays, 10am to 7pm. Saturdays, 10am to 9pm

Single entry ticket: Permanent collection + temporary exhibitions:

-      Standard ticket: 12 Euros
-      Reduced price ticket: 8 Euros for visitors aged over 65, pensioners and
       students with proof of status.
-      Group ticket (7 or more people): 10 Euros per person
-      Free entry: visitors aged under 18, officially unemployed Spanish citizens,
disabled visitors, Large Families and actively employed teachers.

Advance ticket sale purchase at the Museum’s ticket desks, from its website and
on tel: 91 791 13 70

More information: www.museothyssen.org

PRESS INFORMATION:

https://www2.museothyssen.org/microsites/prensa/2018/purple/index.html