Video Data Bank TV, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Streaming June 16 – July 14, 2021
School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Video Data Bank TV presents PROTEST, a month-long online video screening program featuring work by Tony Cokes, Adrian Garcia Gomez, Sabine Gruffat, Linda Montano, and Videofreex.
The feverish dissent present during the George Floyd protests of Summer 2020 continued a rich tradition of grassroots activism, mass public dissent and organizing, and societal reenvisioning. PROTEST compiles work that interpretively and purely documents collective action surrounding the George Floyd protests, the Watts Riots of 1965, the Black Panther Party, and the recent efforts to critique and dismantle Confederate monuments. Each work exemplifies the potential of video as a medium of protest and the importance of video documentation in the collective memory of struggle.
For more information, please visit Video Data Bank TV's website.
Above: Tony Cokes, Black Celebration, 1988. Video, b&w, sound. 17:11 minutes. Courtesy the artist; Greene Naftali, New York; Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles; and Electronic Arts Intermix, New York.