Shift: Music, Meaning, Context explores how music changes in form and interpretation as it moves across time, bodies, and place. Co-presented with the Museum of Contemporary Photography, this exhibition brings together an international group of artists exploring music and social history through video, sound art, and photography.
Music, like any artistic medium, can be subject to modification, transformation, and even perversion of its original intent. Folk songs can be used for propaganda, pop hits are deployed as tools of torture, and cultural origins are erased – or reinvested – in particular songs, instruments, and genres. At the same time, music can also become a site of play, serendipity, and healing.
The exhibiting artists for Shift include: Bani Abidi, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Tony Cokes, Jeremy Deller, Hassan Hajjaj, Sven Johne, André Lützen, Cecil McDonald, Jr., Emeka Ogboh, and Taryn Simon. Shift was co-curated by Leonhard Emmerling, Director, Goethe-Institute Chicago; Leah Gallant, Program Curator, Goethe-Institut Chicago; and Asha Iman Veal, Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary Photography.
