Motions

Motions is a program on the traumatic effects of immigration law that transforms the exhibition venue into an event space and ad hoc cinema. Starting from considerations on the somatic toll of allyship (what is known as secondary trauma), the program unfolds over three weeks with a focus on oppression and neurodiversity, the use of paradigms of victimhood, architectures of separation, and the concept of debt, complicity and reparation in the ally relation. Motions pushes for more radical forms of bearing each other’s weight.

Films by the following artists will be screened on rotation in four programs: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Edgardo Aragón, Kader Attia, Ursula Biemann, Ewa Einhorn and Jeuno JE Kim, Harun Farocki, Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani – Forensic Oceanography, Daryl Celeste Meador, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, and Yoshua Okón.

The lobby of Motions will feature a series of prints by Adelita Husni Bey, focusing on the language of U.S. immigration law from 1882-2017 and a booklet featuring exercises dealing with secondary trauma, piloted by the artist through a workshop with members of UnLocal*. Posters designed for the exhibition are on sale with all proceeds supporting UnLocal.

*UnLocal is a non-profit organization that provides direct immigration legal representation, legal consultations and community education to New York City’s undocumented immigrant communities.

With the support of The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture