Welcome to the Art Lovers Movie Club, where you’ll find a selection of artist videos available exclusively online at artreview.com.
At the first post-Soviet Olympics in 1992, the “Dream Team” – a group of NBA superstar basketball players – swept away all opposition, winning the gold medal for the United States. The team’s undoubted dominance coincided with, and reflected, a new era of global politics, epitomized by the United States’ technological and environmental assault on Iraq a year earlier.
Aivazian’s film draws parallels between these two events as paradigm shifts in hard power and soft power, exploring the celebration of violence that occurs during the passing of the torch, both literal and metaphorical. Using found footage, the film encompasses everything from technological and chemical warfare to solar explosions that occurred light years in the past. On a human level, the film also questions the extractive drives that weaponize other technologies: black oil and black bodies; tracking missiles and people; concealment of an airplane and a war crime.
About the artist
Haig Aivazian (born in 1980) lives and works in Beirut. His work has been presented at the Berlin Biennale (2022), the Yokohama Triennale (2020), the Marrakech Biennale (2016), the Montreal Biennale (2016), the Istanbul Biennale (2015) , at the Venice Biennale (2015) and at Videobrasil, Sao Paulo (2013, 2017), and exhibited at the Swiss Institute, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Home Works 8, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut; Jameel Arts Center, Dubai; Nottingham Contemporary, UK; MAXXI, Rome; and McaM, Shanghai among other museums and galleries. His solo presentations include The Showroom, London (2022); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2021); and Kadiste, Paris (2017). He is currently artistic director of the Beirut Art Center.
Screening dates:
Haig Aivazyan, Prometheus2019
July 13 – August 3, 2022
