In 1971 the NYC Public Schools Program promoted the teaching of video techniques to children living in economically deprived neighborhoods in Harlem and Yonkers. The same year, the Division of the Humanities and the Arts of the New York State Board of Education in Albany commissioned to create a multimedia event. On that occasion Aldo Tambellini completed several hours of filming and in early 1972 joined the filmmaker Mike Kuchar in the editing process. The output of that unique collaboration is Sights and Sounds of Youth, a 30-minute documentary. 

Forty-five years later, we wanted to link up those traces of a still very present past to the movements advocating for racial justice rising across the world. We created a new narrative reworking 20+ hours of discarded rough footage in a new multimedia installation, producing a score with the chants from the Black Lives Matter, the immigration deportation protests, the demonstrations against the Muslim ban recorded between New York and Boston, along with excerpts of poetry by legendary activist and UMBRA poet Askia M. Touré, that strengthen the political aspect of the piece, forcing the viewer to face the reality of today’s precarious political climate in the USA.

March 11–August 6

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Lorenzstr. 19
Karlsruhe
zkm.de