Events — Feb 22 until Mar 3, 2019

In addition to the Sonic Acts festival night on Friday and the weekend performances on February 23 and 24, the exhibition ‘HEREAFTER, An Exhibition in Three Acts’ with work from Tony Cokes will be on view until March 3.
Price
Museum ticket
Location
Different locations throughout the museum
Time
Feb 22 until Mar 3, 2019, 7 pm until 6 pm

Since 2011 Sonic Acts and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam have collaborated on projects related to sound art. In 2017, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Sonic Acts initiated a long-term research trajectory dedicated to the lesser-known pioneers of sound art. The first stage of this collaboration activated the archives of American composer and sound artist Maryanne Amacher; the second commissioned a film by artist Luke Fowler that memorialized the work and musical ideas of Martin Bartlett; and the third stage, in 2018, mounted an exhibition, new sound piece and performance by the Swedish composer, mathematician, and visual artist, Catherine Christer Hennix.

Tony Cokes, Black Celebration, film still, 1988. Courtesy of the artist; Greene Naftali, New York and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
Tony Cokes, Black Celebration, film still, 1988. Courtesy of the artist; Greene Naftali, New York and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

This year, Sonic Acts and Stedelijk continue this trajectory by exhibiting works that celebrate the Tony Cokes’ revolutionary, sound-driven video works, as well as the forgotten legacy of Julius Eastman (1940–90), the queer African-American avant-garde composer, pianist, vocalist and conductor, whose piece is featured in the work by The Otolith Group, The Third Part of the Third Measure (2017).

HEREAFTER at the Stedelijk further presents the microTone—a special project commemorating 50 years of STEIM Amsterdam.

Tony Cokes

A selection of video works
The video works on show span over three decades but all of them have one thing in common: they question the politics of representation perpetuated by visual and aural media and popular culture. Cokes challenges the implicit ideological biases of our mediated world with unexpected juxtapositions. He appropriates and subverts a mix of low and high materials from the public sphere of influence—be it Trump’s speeches, a fragment from a comedy set by George Carlin, texts by The Situationist International or Barbara Kruger, set against music by Skinny Puppy, Gang of Four or Whitney Houston—denouncing previously unquestioned ideas and attitudes.

Locations: gallery 1.2/1.3/1.4
Dates: 22-02-2019 (7 PM) – 03-03-2019 (6 PM)

Tony Cokes, Black Celebration, film still, 1988. Courtesy of the artist; Greene Naftali, New York and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
Tony Cokes, Black Celebration, film still, 1988. Courtesy of the artist; Greene Naftali, New York and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

About Sonic Acts

Founded in 1994, Sonic Acts has established itself as a platform for research in art, technology, music and culture, a gathering place for artists, theorists, scientists and philosophers, and a festival for forward-looking projects, ideas and works. Each festival edition explores the chosen theme by means of an international conference, a wide range of concerts and performances, exhibitions and screenings, and embraces a broad spectrum of fields, practices and disciplines.