This presentation of the archive of Hans Ulrich Obrist is dedicated to the late Édouard Glissant (b. 1928 in Martinique, France – d. 2011 in Paris, France), Martinique-born philosopher, poet and public intellectual. Drawing on periods of collaboration, friendship and mentorship between the philosopher and the curator, the presentation highlights a belief they had in common: conversation and reciprocal exchange with the other can be a means to produce new realities. For Glissant, a world in transformation is an “One-World” that listens and learns from each of its unique voices. Glissant is an emblematic figure for both Obrist, for whom he was a mentor, and for the Luma project in Arles, for which the thinker has been an inspiration since its genesis, as for many who are finally grasping the relevance of his thinking.

The Archive of Hans Ulrich Obrist (b. 1968, Zurich) documents his curatorial and conversa-tional practice. Since the late 1980s, the Swiss-born curator has been developing a multifaceted practice that is shaped, first and foremost, through interactions. His archive is about listening, since it contains a multitude of encounters with some of the most influential figures of our times.

Arthur Jafa is one of the most significant contemporary artists practicing today. Over several decades he has constructed a compelling body of work which defies categorization. SloPEX (2022) is a slowed-down, modified iteration of Jafa’s masterpiece APEX (2013). Its sound fills the entire exhibition space and the radical contrast of images, and complexity of associations, are daunting and surprising. Powerful and lyrical at the same time, his practice combines a profoundly unsettling blend of images and histories from diverse contexts and backgrounds. Bringing together affective memory that touches on matters such as the history of the United States of America, violence, repression, modalities of survival and how these exist in the production and dissemination of images, music, sound and time-based media, Jafa reflects on the ontology of race and of blackness.

Arthur Jafa (b. 1960, Tupelo, Mississippi) is an artist, filmmaker, and cinematographer. Across three decades, Jafa has developed a dynamic practice comprising films, artefacts and happenings that reference and question the universal and specific articulations of Black being. In 2019, he received the Golden Lion for the Best Participant of the 58th Venice Biennale “May You Live in Interesting Times.” 

Conceived and choreographed by Dimitri Chamblas, Slow Show is an intensive, collective dance performance whose visible repercussions are minimal, precise, and concentrated. The performance is rooted in the principles of trance, exultation, telepathy, and unconscious memories, revealing its strength and through movements slowed to the extreme, almost imperceptible, almost invisible.

Slow Show has been performed in different locations around the world; each repetition is unique, gathering around 50 local people from all ages and backgrounds and answering to their immediate context. The 20 min performance is accompanied by sound and music composed by musician, artist, and DJ Eddie Ruscha.

The installation ‘Slow Show’ brings together a selection of portraits of performers Chamblas filmed over the course of several performances that took place in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Arles (France), Minneapolis (USA) and Charleroi (Belgium). Presented in a specially devised environment at Luma Westbau, these moving images invite the audience to ‘slow down’ and immerse themselves in the meditative display surrounded by a site-specific soundscape.