benj gerdes

"Strike Anywhere" Screening and Discussion IASPIS Studios Stockholm July 25

Informal screening and discussion at the IASPIS Studios in Stockholm.  Saturday, July 25, 8:30 PM.

posted July 20, 2009

"Strike Anywhere" Screening at Artillerie Berlin July 22

Strike Anywhere screening and discussion at Artillerie project space.

An event organised in cooperation with Art Laboratory Berlin / Introduction by Christian de Lutz

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 at 9 pm

artillerie | Exerzierstrasse 10 | 13357 Berlin

posted July 13, 2009

Kran>>Film Space Screening Brussels July 16

Screening of new and recent work at the Kran>>Film Space in Brussels on July 16. Home of the Kran Film Collective.

posted June 12, 2009

Half-Inch Half-Life at X Initiative's "No Soul for Sale" New York June 23-29

I am a contributor to Migrating Forms’ VHS archive project “Half-Inch Half-life” at the X-Initiative’s No Soul For Sale, a festival-fair hybrid gathering non-profit arts orgs from around the world to present programs and temporary exhibitions at X’s space in the former Dia building on 22nd Street in Chelsea, June 23–29, 1pm–9pm each day.

Luleå Biennial 2009 "Risk" June 17-August 23

My new video with Jennifer Hayashida, Strike Anywhere will be shown in the Luleå Biennial in northern Sweden. Exhibition organized by the Kilen Art Group and curated by Jan-Erik Lundström. The show opens June 17 and runs through August 23.

How Occupation Works at Left Forum and Migrating Forms

16Beaver has organized a two-part weekend bridging two other New York forums the weekend of April 18-19, Left Forum and the Migrating Forms Festival. Both deal with occupation as a strategy. The first event is an open workshop/conversation with folks involved in various struggles that have used occupation. The second is an open screening which will hopefully help us think through how occupation as resistance does and does not interact with forms of state and territorial occupation.

Read all about it on the 16Beaver page here.

posted April 12, 2009

Spring 2009 Ivar Kreuger Revival

My soon-to-be-completed video project with Jennifer Hayashida about the “Match King” Ivar Kreuger arrives at a moment of renewed interest in his financial dealings. Some high-profile write-ups of Kreuger include (some of these require subscriptions to read the whole article):

• Ron Chernow’s “Madoff and His Models” in the New Yorker

• NPR’s Marketplace story “Before Madoff, there was Krueger”

• “Fraud and Financial Innovation” a story about Kreuger from The Economist

Many of these accounts draw on research from one source, which is Frank Partnoy’s new book The Match King. Have we been scooped? No, not really, we’ve got a lot of original research of our own. Our conclusions are also quite different, or, to put it politely: we’re really using the history of Kreuger’s financial dealings to a different end. Since beginning this project three years ago we have felt part of an informal network of scholars and Kreuger experts–a research syndicate–and it’s actually very nice to see some dialogue about how the economic history of the last century informs the present. When describing the project to people we meet, it’s also nice to go from being asked, “How did you hear about that?” to some level of familiarity or interest.

It has been difficult to finish the project simply because the parallels to the present keep shifting, as the present crisis continues to unfold (unravel). When we began the project the allegorical element was more of a foreboding than a fact, gestured to but not explicitly addressed, but over the past year we’ve reshaped the project substantially.

posted March 23, 2009

Ceci n'est pas une CAA at Public School, Los Angeles

Pedro Lasch, Kirsten Forkert, and I (performing as 16 Beaver Group) will be having a conversation alongside Abigail Satinsky of InCUBATE (Chicago) at Ceci n’est pas une CAA. This is happening Friday and Saturday, February 27-28, and organized by The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest with/at Public School.  We’ll be there Saturday at 3PM.  Some very good folks involved, we’re excited to be in dialogue with them West Coast-style.  Their description:

The Public School is hosting its own conference with many of the same amazing people who are visiting Los Angeles for CAA. Ours will be free; it will be modeled as a long, open, informal conversation, occasionally interrupted by screenings and short presentations; and it will encourage as much overlap, cross-pollination, and running over time as possible. Drop in and drop out when you can – the following schedule is a guide to what might be happening.

posted February 25, 2009

Panel and Screening at SCOPE New York 09

My video in collaboration with Jennifer Hayashida Because There are So Many: Iraq (8:00, 2007) will be showing at SCOPE New York at Lincoln Center on Thursday, March 5 as part of the 6-hr screening program On the Contrary: Recent Artists’ Videos Concerning War in the Middle East curated by Mary Billyou and Meredith Drum.  In addition, I will be speaking the same evening on a panel moderated by Mary and Meredith with Martha Rosler, Caroline Koebel, Chen Tamir and Judy Ditner.

Screening Program 1 12pm–2pm Iraq Featuring works by Paul Chan; Mary Patten; Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hayashida; Sabine Gruffat; Caroline Koebel; Harun Farocki; Jenny Perlin; and The Yes Men.

Panel Discussion 6pm–8pm Shifting Alliances A round table discussion moderated by Mary Billyou and Meredith Drum with Martha Rosler, Benj Gerdes, Chen Tamir, Judy Ditner, Caroline Koebel, Maayan Amir and Ruti Sela.

Directions and more information online at On The Contrary and SCOPE NY 09.

posted February 12, 2009

Presenting at CAA

I will be presenting on a (soon to not be) anonymous media intervention of mine at the College Art Association conference in Los Angeles at the end of February.

Radical Art Caucus Panel: “Migration Struggles and Migratory Aesthetics”
Saturday, February 28, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM
Chairs: Karen Kurczynski, Kirsten Forkert
The other presenters are Henrik Lebuhn and Carla Herrera-Prats

posted January 14, 2009

Site redesign!

New site is up!  More old and new work coming soon.

posted January 05, 2009