Illicit Gin Institute Assembly 2 with Zina Saro-Wiwa

835 North Kings Road,West Hollywood CA 90069

30 October, 2021

Description

Zina Saro-Wiwa: The Illicit Gin Institute Assembly October 30, 2021 Please join us for the 2nd Assembly of the Illicit Gin Institute with artist Zina Saro-Wiwa presented by Active Cultures in partnership with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture 835 N Kings Road in West Hollywood ______________________________ October 30, 2021 4 – 7 pm PST Please arrive at 4 pm for check in. Each Assembly is a durational performance; the program begins at 4:30 and ends around 6:30 pm. Assembly 2 features a performative lecture by the artist; a silent tasting; a storytelling session; cocktails and snacks; and a closing dance circle. This program is free and open to the public! ______________________________ In a newly commissioned series by Active Cultures, British-Nigerian artist Zina Saro-Wiwa will present the inaugural public Illicit Gin Institute Assemblies, three special evenings in Fall 2021, produced in partnership with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture and hosted at the Schindler House in West Hollywood. The Illicit Gin Institute is a radical creative think tank founded by the artist that is dedicated to the exploration of a Nigerian spirit historically known as “illicit gin.” The project is an extension of the artist’s practice, which centers the environment, land use, and indigenous African botanicals, and serves as both a reclamation and celebration of the Niger Delta. Bridging the two oil towns of Port Harcourt and Los Angeles, Saro-Wiwa invests in the radical potential of storytelling and the shared experience of taste and ritual to improve the fate of each, while rooting our collective experience in Los Angeles to these spirits. The Assemblies will feature tastings from the artist’s craft distillery in Port Harcourt, where botanical Sarogua Palm Wine Spirits are produced by her team; a performance lecture given by Saro-Wiwa; a conversation with special guests; a cocktail and chocolate hour; and a storytelling session featuring invited guests and members of the public. Each of the three Assemblies will close with a joyful dance circle DJ'd by the artist. ____________________________________ Notes on the Program and COVID-19 Precautions: This event requires that all participants and attendees are fully vaccinated. Please plan on bringing proof of your vaccination. We kindly ask that if you are unvaccinated that you please abstain from attending this time around. The program will be held entirely outdoors, and masks will be required, except for when participating in tastings. You must be over 21 to register for the event. Capacity is extremely limited! If you register and realize later that you cannot attend, we ask that you kindly release your reservation so that we can accommodate someone on the waitlist. ____________________________________ The Illicit Gin Institute Assemblies are organized by Active Cultures Curator of Public Programs Bianca Morán and produced in partnership with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture. Subscribe here to receive Active Cultures news and updates, including the next two dates for the Illicit Gin Institute this Fall. Zina Saro-Wiwa lives and works between Los Angeles and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Born in 1976 in Nigeria and raised since infancy in the United Kingdom, she studied Economic and Social History at Bristol University and worked freelance as a BBC producer, presenter, and reporter for over twelve years. Always rooted in storytelling, her practice began to incorporate art making to navigate her complex and tragic family history, as well as her understanding of the environment around us and our place within it. Saro-Wiwa has been working with local "illicit" gin since 2013 when she moved back to the Niger Delta to develop her art practice. Her gins are always present at studio visits, performance banquets, and at exhibition openings she curates. But more than just being a celebratory offering, it is through this gin and the Illicit Gin Institute that Saro-Wiwa hopes to instill a deeper appreciation for the natural world and the ways in which it is intertwined with human emotion and fate. Saro-Wiwa is one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinkers of 2016, recognized for her work in the Niger Delta. She was Artist-in-Residence at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn 2016-2017 and in April 2017 was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Art. She has given talks and shown work regularly at biennales and museums around the world including Sao Paolo Biennale, Kochi Biennale, and the Tate in London. Her work can be found in the collections of MoMA, the Smithsonian, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, among others. The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is a multidisciplinary, experimental center for art and architecture that operates from a constellation of historic architectural sites and contemporary exhibition spaces. Offering a year-round schedule of exhibitions and events, the MAK Center presents programming that challenges conventional notions of architectural space and relationships between the creative arts. It is headquartered in the landmark Schindler House (R.M. Schindler, 1922) in West Hollywood; operates a residency program and exhibition space at the Mackey Apartments (R.M. Schindler, 1939) and runs more intimate programming at the Fitzpatrick-Leland House (R.M. Schindler, 1936) in Los Angeles. The MAK Center encourages exploration of practical and theoretical ideas in art and architecture by engaging the center’s places, spaces, and histories. Its programming includes exhibitions, lectures, symposia, discussions, performances, music series, publication projects, salons, architecture tours, and new work commissions. Image Credit: Image from the Illicit Gin Institute Assembly 1 with Zina Saro-Wiwa, presented by Active Cultures and The Mak Center for Art and Architecture. Courtesy of Sean Pierce and Ashleigh Parson at Roadwork Studio. Active Cultures is a nonprofit cultural organization that explores the convergence of food and art in contemporary life.