Clapping with Stones: Study Session 1

What role does place play when it comes to producing and curating an exhibition? Curator Sara Raza and architect Jaeho Chong discuss re-thinking issues of space and place as they relate to site specific and site responsive art and curation.

In conjunction with the exhibition Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance, the Rubin is offering three study sessions that explore more deeply the shared themes of power and non-conformity. Curator Sara Raza and Curatorial Assistant Anna Cahn invite special guests for each three hour session to break down and discuss the themes of place, non-conformity and transculturalism through an art historical and curatorial lens.

Each of the 3 Study Sessions can be taken independently, or as a series. A suggested reading list for each session can be found, here.

Session 2: Upending Power Structures Through Nonconformity

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

How can artists and curators collectively unravel and understand nonconformity as part of their contemporary practice? Curator Sara Raza and MoMA PS1 curator Ruba Katrib facilitate a discussion about upending power and position as a curatorial and artistic framework.

Session 3: Unpacking Transculturalism in Contemporary Art

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

How can contemporary artists and curators overcome deep rooted colonial ideologies and rethink geographical borders and migration? Curator Sara Raza and Guggenheim Assistant Curator of Asian Art, Kyung An, discuss their experience and thoughts surrounding shifting ideologies and practices in the field.

About The Exhibition

Contemplate the power of non-conformity and your own potential for action at Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance. Using the Rubin’s circular architecture to create an immersive site-specific display, the exhibition examines social, cultural, and political events through a local and global lens, offering unique perspectives from 10 contemporary artists living and working in the United States and internationally — all of whom are grouped together for the first time in this constellation.

About the Speakers

Sara Raza is a writer and curator specializing in contemporary global arts. In 2016, she won the ArtTable New Leadership Award for Women. Recently she was the Guggenheim UBS MAP curator for the Middle East and North Africa, and she curated But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2016), which travelled to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan (2018). Raza has curated exhibitions and projects for international biennials, festivals and museums, including Mathaf, Doha, Qatar; MacKenzie Art Gallery, Canada; Tashkent Biennale, Uzbekistan; Rhizoma (Generation in Waiting), Saudi Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale (2013); and Baku Public Art Festival, Azerbaijan (2015). In addition, she has organized a number of exhibitions for Maraya, Sharjah, UAE. Formerly, she was the head of education at YARAT, Azerbaijan; founding curator of Alaan Art Space, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and curator of public programmes at Tate Modern, London. Raza is the West and Central Asia editor for ArtAsiaPacific.

Anna Cahn is a curatorial assistant at the Rubin Museum of Art. She joined the museum in May 2016, contributing to exhibitions such as Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance, A Lost Future: Shezad Dawood, The Otolith Group, and Matti Braun. She was also one of the lead organizers for the Rubin’s performance art series, Refiguring the Future. Her writing has been published in Hyperallergic, and the Rubin Museum’s Spiral Magazine. Previously she held positions at the City College of New York as an adjunct lecturer, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as a curatorial intern, and at Stanford University as a summer research fellow. She received her BA from Clark University and an MA in art history with a concentration in museum studies from the City College of New York.