M{if} Discourse Series x Rab Rab Press: Free Jazz Communism
Book Launch | Screenings | Talk | Performance
Museum of Impossible Forms is excited to host RABRAB Press as part of the M{if} Discourse Series, to launch their new publication Free Jazz Communism as part of the evening event, on Saturday 14th of March, starting at 6 pm.
The book launch will be accompanied by a talk and presentations by editors Sezgin Boynik and Taneli Viitahuhta, discussions with Helsinki 1962 Memory Work Group, a film screening, and performances.
Free Jazz Communism actualises the concert of Archie Shepp–Bill Dixon Quartet at the 8th World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki 1962.
Edited by Sezgin Boynik and Taneli Viitahuhta, the book contextualizes the politics of free jazz music in light of global decolonisation movements, anti-war activism, structures of racial capitalism, and forms of avant-garde music.
Apart from the theoretical and historical overview by its editors, the book includes testimonies of the collective and international spirit of the 1962 Youth Festival, translated documents from Finnish press, a new interview with Archie Shepp, commissioned text by Jeff Schwartz on the historical context of political engagement of free jazz musicians, and reproduction of three hard-to-find texts by Shepp.
During the event, you will get to know more about the context and thesis of the book, and enjoy in discussions actualising artistic and cultural avant-garde moments in the recent history of Finland.
The programme for the launch event:
18:00 Screening of Ron Mann’s “Imagine the Sound” (1981, 55’): one of the most interesting documentaries ever made on free jazz, focusing on the work of Shepp, Dixon, Cecil Taylor, and Paul Bley.
19:00 Presentation by Sezgin Boynik and Taneli Viitahuhta, editors of the book.
20: 00 Presentation and collective discussion by Helsinki 1962 Memory Work Group, with the participation of Ahmed al-Nawaz and Minna Henriksson.
21:00 Performance by Simultaneli, sax and loops.
21: 30 Material jazz session with DJ Trash Mango.
Please note that the book will be available for sale (in cash) at a reduced price during the launch.
Welcome and see you there!
Museum of Impossible Forms is a cultural space, located in Kontula, Helsinki. It is a contested Space and it represents a contact zone, a space of unlearning, formulating identity constructs, norm-critical consciousness and critical thinking. Impossible Forms are those that erase and facilitate the process of transgressing the boundaries/borders between art, politics, practice, theory, the artist and the spectator. For 2019-2020, Museum of Impossible Forms operates under the curatorial theme of ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs (For Insurgents, Citizens and Untitled Bodies)’.
Museum of Impossible Forms is a Safer Space. We follow a Safer Space policy to create a welcoming, inclusive, awesome environment.
Events at the Museum of Impossible Forms are completely free and accessible without prior booking. We encourage and invite you to participate/attend the ongoing events at the Museum of Impossible Forms to familiarise yourself and your group with the atmosphere, ethics, and ethos of the space.
Museum of Impossible Forms is accessible by lift with thresholds up to 4cm on the way. The toilet has no thresholds but is not spacious enough to meet accessibility standards. The nearest accessible toilet is located at Kontula metro station.
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