JOHN AKOMFRAH – THE UNFINISHED CONVERSATION & CONVERSATION ROOM

John Akomfrah's (*1957, Accra, GH) expansive film installation “The Unfinished Conversation” (2012) is a touching homage to the influential cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall (1932, Kingston, JAM-2014, London, UK). Hall's undogmatic thinking on racism, class and identity is still groundbreaking today. At the heart of Akomfrah's multi-layered, audiovisual montage is his mentor and friend's conviction that identity and belonging are not static and unchanging realities that can be reduced to an ethnic origin, but components of an ongoing ‘unfinished conversation’.

The Ghanaian-born British artist John Akomfrah, co-founder of the influential London Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC), became internationally renowned for his complex montages of image and audio tracks. In “The Unfinished Conversation” (45 min.), Akomfrah unfolds a multi-perspective panorama on three screens by interweaving archive material about Stuart Hall, the founder of cultural studies, with political events in Great Britain and world history. Akomfrah's haunting film installation invites us to reflect on the way we view ourselves and others.

CONVERSATION ROOM
with an intervention by Diana Ejaita

Accompanying the film installation “The Unfinished Conversation” by John Akomfrah, the CONVERSATION ROOM on the ground floor of the museum creates a space for dialog, exchange and joint reflection. Texts, books and a diverse supporting program invite visitors to explore topics such as origin, identity, belonging, racism and social coexistence in greater depth and engage in conversation. The Nigerian-Italian artist and illustrator Diana Ejaita (*1985) takes up these themes visually in a wall installation specially designed for the art museum.
In collaboration with Dr. Cornelia Lund, fluctuating images, Berlin as guest curator.

More information: https://www.kunstmuseum-ravensburg.de/km/ausstellungen/vorschau.php