As art critic and journalist Steven Litt puts it, this is “a remarkably beautiful document that peels away layers of cliché and stereotypes to reveal the radiant humanity of Teixeira’s subjects, who come from countries torn by civil war or the fight against ISIS, the Islamic State.”

We’re delighted to host José Carlos Teixeira for the NYC premiere of this exciting feature along with the NYC launch of its accompanying print publication On Exile – a monograph published on the occasion of Teixeira’s solo exhibition at MAAT in Lisbon, Portugal.

At the intersection of art, anthropology, and politics, On Exile, elsewhere within here is an experimental documentary that reflects on the refugee experience, expanding on issues of migration, displacement, and otherness. As a quiet meditation, it develops intimate psychological portraits of Muslim refugees from Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia, resettled in North America (Cleveland, OH). Concerned with the ethics of ethnographic encounter and representation, the artist asks: How to represent without patronizing or speaking on the behalf of others? How to generate a process of empathy and intersubjectivity? Using interview as an art practice and cinematic territory, this film attempts to listen and restore the voices and bodies of refugees, as opposed to a dominant discourse which often denies them personal and political agency. On Exile reframes assumptions of home and belonging, delves into the challenges of language and translation, and explores the complex adjustment to another culture by those who, forcibly displaced, seek safety and a new beginning.

“Every refugee, regardless of nationality, race or creed, points to the refugee within ourselves”.
(K. C. Cirtautas)

José Carlos Teixeira will be in attendance for a conversation with writer and scholar Steven Henry Madoff, following the program. Madoff is one of the contributing writers in Teixeira’s 2018 monograph.

As a quiet meditation, On Exile presents the moving testimonies of Muslim refugees from Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan, resettled in the United States. This unconventional documentary film creates intimate psychological portraits, restores the refugees’ voices, and allows them full personal and political agency.

This project has been exhibited at SPACES, MAAT, MMOCA, and The Sculpture Center, in addition to being an official selection in numerous international film and video festivals.
[Travel to UnionDocs event sponsored by Efroymson Family Fund/Contemporary Arts Fellowship.]

Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/260167145

Book:
http://ideiascompeso.pt/stolenbooks/product/on-exile-jose-carlos-teixeira/

Articles:
Sarah Rose Sharp
https://hyperallergic.com/423785/on-exile-jose-carlos-teixeira-museu-de-arte-arquitetura-e-tecnologia/
Zohar Yanko
http://contemporanea.pt/edicoes/01-2018/exile
Steven Litt
http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2017/08/on_exile_video_at_spaces_revea.html

José Carlos Teixeira is a visual artist, filmmaker and researcher. His interdisciplinary work involves video-essay, installation, text and photography. Through participatory and performative structures, he investigates notions of identity, boundary, exile and displacement. Both the examination and the representation of otherness occupy a central role in his aesthetic materializations. At the intersection of art, politics, cinema and anthropology, his is a socially-engaged practice, stemming from a self-reflexive and critical approach. Teixeira is concerned with generating an encounter and framing the moment, without absolute control of the outcome. He is genuinely open to what the situation and the participants have to offer, and interested in carving space for collaboration, empathy and intersubjectivity.

Born in Portugal, Teixeira holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio from UCLA, and a BFA from the School of Fine Arts at the University of Porto. His work has been widely and internationally shown in venues such as LACE, Hammer Museum, 18th Street Arts Center (Los Angeles), Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena), Museum of the City of New York, Residency Unlimited (New York), MOCA (Cleveland), Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts (Princeton), Württembergischer Kunstverein (Stuttgart), DAZ, Rosalux (Berlin), 104 Cent Quatre (Paris), National Center for Contemporary Art (Moscow), M. K. Ciurlionis National Museum (Kaunas), Hélio Oiticica Art Center (Rio de Janeiro), S.P. Cultural Center, Galpão VideoBrasil (São Paulo), Oriente Foundation (Macao), Gulbenkian Museum, Carmona e Costa Foundation, Carpe Diem (Lisbon), and the Instituto Camões’ Cultural Centers (Brasília, Luanda, Maputo, Praia), to name a few. Recent solo exhibitions at MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon), MMoCA (Madison), and SPACES (Cleveland).

His films have been screened in numerous festivals across the world, such as the Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, AIFVF, Currents: Santa Fe International New Media Festival, Arthouse Asia, Respect – Human Rights Film Festival, FFP 7, FUSO International Video Festival, LA Freewaves, among others, and included in the media libraries of HotDocs and Visions du Réel. Teixeira is represented in several art collections, and has been the recipient of a Fulbright Grant, Gulbenkian/FLAD Grant, SMHAF Experimental Film Award 2019, FUSO Video Festival Jury Prize 2011, and the 2005 EDP New Artists Prize nomination. He was recently awarded the prestigious Efroymson Family Contemporary Arts Fellowship, at the MCA in Chicago. In addition, Teixeira was an artist-in-residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, MacDowell Colony, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Townhouse Gallery in Cairo. He has taught at different academic institutions such as ESAD.cr, CWRU, CIA, and UW-Madison.

Steven Henry Madoff is the founding Chair of the Masters in Curatorial Practice program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He lectures internationally on subjects relating to art history, contemporary art, and art education. He has served as Senior Critic at Yale University’s School of Art; as Executive Editor of ARTnews magazine; and as President and Editorial Director of AltaCultura, a project of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His books include Art School (Propositions for the 21st Century) from MIT Press; Pop Art: A Critical History from University of California Press; Christopher Wilmarth: Light and Gravity from Princeton University Press, while his essays have appeared in books and museums catalogues around the world, including monographic essays on such artists as Marina Abramovic, Ann Hamilton, Rebecca Horn, Kimsooja, and Shirin Neshat, among many others. New books, including The Power of the Unseparate: Network Aesthetics and the Rise of Interdisciplinary Art and an edited volume on curatorial activism are forthcoming. His criticism and journalism have been translated into many languages and have appeared regularly in such publications as the New York Times, Time, Artforum, Art in America, Tate Etc., as well as in ARTnews and Modern Painters, where he has served as a Contributing Editor. He has curated exhibitions internationally and is the recipient of various awards, including ones from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Academy of American Poets. He holds his PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University.