A TIME TO BREAK SILENCE BY EDGAR ARCENEAUX

PERFORMANCE WITH FILM SCREENING AND LIVE MUSIC

4.30–5.30 PM FILM SCREENING

6.30–7.30 PM PERFORMANCE WITH LIVE MUSIC

In the one-hour film A Time to Break Silence (2014), Los Angeles-based artist Edgar Arceneaux links two events from the 1960s and reflects on their impact on the future of American cities: the assassination of Martin Luther King and Stanley Kubrick's dystopian film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The title of the work is borrowed from King's last major speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, which he gave at New York's Riverside Church on 4 April 1967. King was assassinated exactly one year later, two days before Kubrick's film premiered. In Arceneaux's film, 'Dr. King' reprises his speech in Detroit’s Saint Anne’s Church, which figures as a timeless ruin, while a prehistoric man named Stargazer aimlessly explores his alien environment. The artist used a directing strategy he calls “Probality Mapping”, which allows for improvisation to be mapped then overlayed with scripted performances. Both King's speech and Kubrick's film address the use of technology as a tool and as a weapon. In Arceneaux's film, this theme is underlined by the musical contribution of the Detroit techno project Underground Resistance. The evening screening of the film at Hamburger Bahnhof will take place as a performance with live music.

Language: English with German subtitles

Admission and participation are free of charge.

The COVID-19 regulations valid on the day of the event apply.

VOLKSWAGEN ART4ALL
Since 2018 the admission to the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin is free on the first Thursday of every month from 4 pm to 8 pm. As part of the VOLKSWAGEN ART4ALL initiative, visitors are invited to discover new approaches to works in the collection and current exhibitions. The initiative is supported by special educational events and a corresponding artistic programme aimed at reaching a broader public.