Welcoming Vanina Géré
Vanina Géré
Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, in partnership with the French Embassy in the United States and INHA, and with support from the Ford Foundation, is proud to welcome the first recipient of the new Beauford Delaney Research Grant ; Vanina Géré for her research residency from the 16th of November to the 8th of december.
This new grant has been awarded to art historian and critic Vanina Géré for her research project “Hacking Apparatuses of Control: Contemporary African-American Political Digital Practices (and beyond).”
The recipient of the 2021 edition of the Beauford Delaney Research Grant, Vanina Géré, will carry out a project entitled ‘Hacking Apparatuses of Control’: Contemporary African-American Political Digital Practices (and beyond).
For her research, Géré is looking forward to meeting and discussing with many artists as well as curators and writers. After beginning her research in Summer 2021, she plans to travel to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, London, Los Angeles, and Berlin, and to conduct her research in collaboration with major institutions like Electronic Arts Intermix, the Whitney Museum, MoMA, the Kadist Foundation, MOCA Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, MOCA LA, the School for Poetic Computation, Studio Museum Harlem, Powerplant, the Hammer Museum, and more.
Within the context of increased visibility for Black struggles for social justice in the US (#BlackLivesMatter, 2013) and ever-clearer exposure of the myth that computer and digital technologies are sociopolitically “neutral,” the continuum between historic apparatuses of control and contemporary technologies of surveillance targeting African-Americans—from historic slavery to present-day police violence—has been clearly highlighted by a range of academic and activist works over the past decade.
The research project aims at providing a view of contemporary practices by African-American and Afro-diasporic artists active in the United States who question computer technologies, software, and/or hegemonic digital cultures, with race (as well as gender and sexual identity) as a central concern. The majority of the 12 artists selected for this research project use code, software creation, computer programming, 3D animation or virtual reality as part of their multimedia practice; many of them conceive of computer and digital technologies at the intersection with community organization and (h)ac(k)tivism. Though by no means homogeneous, their work is resonant within a coherent network that brings to the fore political art and a critique of the “farewell to the world” that characterizes the digital age, and they all bring a strong, radical political presence to the current North American and international art scene.
A transdisciplinary approach will be brought to the research project, which will rely on software and code studies as well as African-American studies and contemporary art history. A broader perspective will also be brought through dialogue with a number of curators and writers who have been active in the promotion of some of these artists in particular, and of political digital arts in general.
Learn more about the Beauford Delaney grant
In partnership with
FACE Foundation
FACE Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, FACE Foundation promotes artistic, literary, and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries. With additional corporate, foundation, and individual support, FACE Foundation administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. FACE Foundation focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language.
Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA)
The INHA is a leading research institute dedicated to art history. It welcomes scholars and curators from all horizons and offers free access to one of the largest art history libraries in the world. Its scientific programs cover fundamental research from antiquity to the present day and address issues that concern our society today. The INHA supports research through a wide range of invitation programs, grants and scholarships.
