Tracing the musical legacy of Afrofuturism from its rhythmic origins during the Transatlantic Slave Trade through the imaginary ’future’ worlds conjured in techno and jungle music, The Last Angel of History, created by the visionary Black Audio Film Collective and directed by John Akomfrah, examines the intersection between Pan-African culture, science fact, and science fiction.
This special 30th anniversary screening will be preceded by a live performance from Speaker Music, the music alias of DeForrest Brown Jr., whose improvisational performances and recorded works sculpt memory and sonic form into a multi-textural rhythmic body. The event will conclude with a moderated conversation featuring acclaimed interdisciplinary artists, writers, and theorists Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar, founders of UK artist collective The Otolith Group, in conversation with Brown Jr.
This event is presented in partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery, where, co-founder of the Black Audio Collective, John Akomfrah’s acclaimed three-channel film Vertigo Sea (2015) is currently on view as part of the exhibition Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change through January 10, 2027.
Co-Presented by
Oct 2
4:30 pm
5:00 pm
VIFF Centre, VIFF Cinema
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Artists
Black Audio Collective
Inaugurated in 1983 and dissolved in 1998, the 7-person Black Audio Film Collective are widely acknowledged as one of the most influential artist groups to emerge from Britain during the 1980s. From their base in East London, John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul, Avril Johnson, Reece Auguiste, Trevor Mathison, David Lawson and Edward George produced award winning film, photography, slide tape, video, installation, posters and educational and self-organised interventions.
The Otolith Group
Founded in 2002 by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, The Otolith Group is an artist collective whose practice spans moving image, installation, sound, photography, performance, publishing, and exhibition-making. The Group has developed an interscalar practice that brings together essayistic montage, archival thinking, and theory.
Working across visual art, experimental film, new music, writing, and post-lens-based media, The Otolith Collective has curated exhibitions and public programs with artists and thinkers including Black Audio Film Collective, Harun Farocki, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Bahar Noorizadeh, The Chimurenga Library, Chris Marker, and Mark Fisher with Justin Barton.
Speaker Music/DeForrest Brown Jr.
DeForrest Brown, Jr. is an Alabama-raised, ex-American rhythmanalyst, writer, musician, and curator, currently living within the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. His written work centres on a diagnostic exploration of electronic music through considerations of applied metaphilosophy.
His debut book Assembling a Black Counter Culture (2022) has been widely recognised for its critical depth. In 2023, he co-curated HOPE at Museion (Bolzano), the concluding exhibition in the TECHNO HUMANITIES trilogy. Brown’s work has been presented at institutions including Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Art Basel Paris, Somerset House (London), and Performa (New York). He has taught and lectured at Simon Fraser University, New York University, The New School, Harvard University, Brown University, and Princeton University. Recent collaborations include liner notes for Cybotron’s Maintain the Golden Ratio (2023) and Parallel Shift (2024), developed with techno pioneer Juan Atkins and Tresor Records.