Arthur Jafa "Love is the Message, The Message is Death" 48h Streaming

Palazzo Grassi - Punta della Dogana presents the streaming of the video artwork of artist Arthur Jafa Love is the Message, The Message is Death (2016), shown for the first time outside of a museum or gallery setting, in a 48h-broadcasting.

The initiative responds to the invitation of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, in consultation with the artist, gathering 13 art museums and collections all over the world holding an edition of the artwork, with the aim of making it accessible to the broader audience possible.

Through a seven-minute-long montage of images uploaded from the YouTube platform, and on the notes of the hip-hop song Ultralight Beam by Kanye West, Arthur Jafa develops an immersive and meditative narrative of the history of the African-American community. In a context of police violence towards this community and of omnipresent racism, Jafa’s work reveals the suffering but also the strength and beauty of this Black America.

The participating museums and private collections the Dallas Museum of Art; Glenstone Foundation; High Museum of Art in Atlanta; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Studio Museum in Harlem Julia Stoschek Collection Berlin; LUMA Arles; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Tate in London.