Judith Barry, Spiegel-Wilks Artist in Residence Lecture

Slought is pleased to present ...Cairo stories, a video and photographic installation by Judith Barry, on display at Slought from September 15 to October 24, 2014. Please join us for an opening reception, as well as a conversation with the artist and Alexander Alberro (Columbia University), on Monday, September 15th, from 6:30pm-8:30pm.

Created from a collection of more than 200 interviews Barry conducted with Cairene women between the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, ...Cairo stories is a series of short video monologues. The selection of stories chronicles personal experiences of women from a variety of social and economic classes in Egypt and expands the artist's concerns with notions of representation, history, subjectivity, and translation — particularly as these ideas circulate across cultures.

The original interviews were conducted in simultaneous translation to maintain fluidity and integrity of tone and meaning, and Barry considers them to be collaborations between her and the subjects. The vast source material was then 'vetted' by a diverse range of Cairene women. The emotional integrity of each woman's story is the crux of this project; the translators and interviewees remained active participants in both the narrative arc of their stories and the development of the project. In the gallery, a selection of 15 narratives is performed by actors, highlighting that all stories, including those we tell ourselves, are ultimately fictions.

...Cairo stories is a continuation of Not reconciled, a series of 'as told to' stories Barry recorded in a variety of countries and cultures, and bears witness to the artist's long-term interest in the strength and the political implications of the voice. Since the Egyptian revolution, the voice — and the right to vote or ability to speak out ­— has become a central concern in everyday life. The positions of women in the public, political — and private — spheres is also at the forefront of these discussions.

Since the 1970s, feminists such as Hélène Cixous have written about the continued importance of self-historicization by women to 'transform their history, to seize the occasion to speak.' This philosophic position of écriture féminine directly addresses the transformation of subjectivity and the contention of sanctioned identity. It is through both writing and foregrounding the female voice that ...Cairo stories opens a space for embodying a new subjectivity.

Public Conversations:

Alexander Alberro and Judith Barry in conversation
Monday, September 15th, 2014; 6:30pm at Slought

Anne Norton, Judith Barry and others in conversation
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014; 6:30pm at Slought
Presented with Scribe Video Center's Muslim Voices of Philadelphia project

Rosalyn Deutsche and Judith Barry in conversation
Thursday, October 16th, 2014; 6:30pm at Slought

Spiegel Lecture by Judith Barry
Thursday, October 23rd, 2014; 6:00pm at ICA
118 S. 36th St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Presented with the University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts Department

Omar Kholeif and Judith Barry in conversation
Friday, October 24th, 2014; 6:30pm at Slought

Biography:
Judith Barry (1954, USA), studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and received a MA in Communication Arts, Computer Graphics, from the New York Institute of Technology in 1986. Currently, Judith Barry is Professor/Director of the MFA VA at Lesley University College of Art and Design, Cambridge, MA. She trained in architecture, art, literature, film theory and computer graphics and her work encompasses a number of disciplines including performance, installation, film and video, sculpture, photography, and new media. Barry has exhibited in many international contexts, including at Documenta XIII, Sharjah Biennial 10, Cairo Biennale 2001, Venice Biennale of Architecture 2000, Sao Paulo Biennale 1994, Nagoya Biennale 1993, Carnegie International 1992, Whitney Biennale 1987.

In 2000, Barry won the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts and was awarded Best Pavilion at the Cairo Biennale. A major survey of her work was mounted at DA2 Salamanca, Spain, 2008 and Berardo Museum, Lisbon, 2010. Her work is represented in the collections of MoMA, Whitney Museum, DIA Foundation, Generali Foundation, Mumok, Centre Pompidou, La Caixa, MACBA, FRAC Lorraine, Goetz Collection, among many others.

Sponsor: Emily and Jerry Spiegel Fund to Support Contemporary Culture and Visual Arts and the Lise and Jeffrey Wilks Family Foundation Residency Program