There aren’t many experiences that have left me so truly speechless that they’ve stayed with me forever.
Cue the unmatched Solange Knowles and Bridge-s. Brought to Los Angeles’ Getty Center Museum by Dropbox and Getty in partnership with IAMSOUND, Bridge-s explores the themes of “transitions through time.”
From Getty’s press release:
Exploring themes of transitions through time, Bridge-s is a series of performances, films, and artist talks programmed and curated by GRAMMY-Award winning musician and visual artist Solange Knowles. Bridge-s features a new performance by Gerard & Kelly based on their Modern Living series—with a special musical score by Solange featuring Cooper-Moore, brought to life by a group of dancers and musicians across Getty’s iconic architecture.
“Bridge-s is a reflection on how much transition can be controlled and accelerated by our own ideas, thoughts, and movements vs. the natural process of time and space,” Solange said in a statement. “The works chosen to respond to these ideas are dear to me, and by artists, musicians, philosophers and filmmakers I have an immense amount of respect for. I couldn’t be more excited to program works that speak to the core of these themes alongside the Getty Museum.”
This past Monday, I was invited by Getty to check out a preview performance of Bridge-s, hosted by Solange. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s first-time experience (besides, simple words won’t do it justice), but let me just say the performance left me speechless. It was a kinetic, interactive, orgasmic, ethereal, monochromatic, hypnotizing, architectural and gorgeous piece of work. And it was all so Solange. It was like peeking into her remarkable brain.
“I just want to thank you guys for allowing me the space to evolve, experiment and express new frontiers,” Solange mused to the silently spellbound audience when the preview show concluded.
Additionally, the program will feature screenings of Mother Tongue, Mother Master, 2018 by Phoebe Collings-James, Wild Seed by Samuel Hindolo, Diary of an African Nun and Four Women by Julie Dash, Black to Techno by Jenn Nkiru, AFRONAUTS and Boneshaker by Nuotama Bodomo, The State of Things by Kish Robinson and more. Plus, there will be a special Saint Heron film premiere of NAIROBI by Phillip Youmans, who made history at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival with his award-winning feature debut, Burning Cane.
Also, the program will include an artist talk with British-Ghanaian philosopher, Kodwo Eshun.
Bridge-s will take place at the Getty Center Museum in Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 16 and 17 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public.