Previous Artist Talks

Emeka Ogboh

Emeka Ogboh (b. 1977) is a Nigerian artist based between Lagos and Berlin. Ogboh established an international practice with his soundscape installations of life in Lagos. He graduated with a degree in graphic design from University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2001, but became interested in sound art in 2008 during the Fayoum Winter Academy in Egypt in a course led by Austrian multimedia artist Harald Scherz. Ogboh began to consider the interaction of sounds in Lagos as compositions rather than individual voices, with layered registers rather than chaotic noise. Ogboh began experimenting with field recordings of, for example, the danfo share taxi system in Lagos, which evolved into multi-media installations.

Ogboh talked about how his artistic practice connects to places through hearing and taste. His sonic installations and gastronomic works explore the translation of private, public, collective memories and histories. He is interested in their transformation and encoding into sound and food and his talk will touch on these provoke the viewer/listener to consider existential relationships, frame our understanding of the world, and provide a context in which to ask critical questions on immigration, globalization, and post-colonialism.

Geo Wyex

On March 6, Pope.L was supposed to present a performance lecture for World in My Eyes. He suddenly passed away in the final days of 2023. Geo Wyex’s talk departed from the Pope.L seminal work “Hole Theory” from 2002.

In “Hole Theory” Pope L. engaged potentials of lack and fantasies of possession, examining broader social, and existential boundaries. Through the humor and aesthetics of negation expressed in “Hole Theory” the discussion will extend to the role of longing, absence and the inexistant in shaping our social and political imaginary.

Geo Wyex works primarily in performance, music, poetry and sound. His most recent record, ATM FM (2020), was released through Muck Studies Dept. – a constellational narrative framework and imaginary city agent that surveys the bottom of low-lying water areas, “looking for stars out of what stinks.” Muck Studies Dept. as a project is a Weltanschauung, with many forms and formats. Inspired by aesthetics and methodologies of black Atlantic poetics, investigative journalism and absurdist theater, the project connects mud, water, gas, ass, rocks, coins, keys, extractive industry, and sensual expression of belonging to that flood.

Wyex has presented work at MoMA PS1, New Museum, NY Live Arts, Stedelijk Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Dutch National Opera, L’Arsenic, Joe’s Pub, and many others. He was a resident at the Rijksakademie in 2015-2016. Recent collaborators include Constantina Zavitsanos, Will Rawls, A.K. Burns, Every Ocean Hughes, Colin Self, and Tourmaline. He has a solo exhibition forthcoming at JOAN in Los Angeles, 2024.

Yazan Khalili

Yazan Khalili (b. 1981) is an architect, visual artist, and cultural producer who works in and out of Palestine and is currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam.Khalili will speak about his image-based artistic work, which is focused on the complex intimacy of the technological gaze.

Using photography and the written word, Khalili unpacks historically constructed landscapes. In his work, the image allows the spectator to embody the progression of time and narrative.

Khalili addressed the effect of geographical distance on perception, the way territory is rendered, and the image’s ability to heighten or arrest our political and sentimental attachments.

Nairy Baghramian

Nairy Baghramian (b. 1971) was born in Iran and has lived and worked in Berlin since 1984. Baghramian’s work comprises sculpture and installation often in reference to architecture and the human body, capturing its poses in traditional materials such as marble and steel. This interest is inspired by the way Baghramian’s childhood dance teacher spoke of separating movement into distinct components. This early line of thought has expanded to the contemplation of the “prosthetic” relationship between the human body and its immediate surroundings with which her work has become associated.

Baghramian spoke about how her practice addresses temporal, spatial and social relationships to language, history, and the present moment. Her sculptural forms seek an open, discursive dialogue with a given site. Baghramian, through her artwork, seeks to free the assigned relationship between an object and its meaning.

Recent solo shows include those at Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM), Milan, (2021), MUDAM Luxembourg (2019), Palacio de Cristal, Madrid (2018), the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2017), Statens Museum for Kunst, National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2017), Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent (2016), Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (2016), and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2015). Shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize in 2020, Baghramian won the Nasher Prize in 2022. She has participated in the Yorkshire Sculpture International at The Hepworth Wakefield, UK (2019); Venice Biennale, Italy (2019 and 2011); Skulptur Projekt Munster, Germany (2017 and 2007); and the 8th and 5th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2014 and 2008).