October 30, 2017

Edgar Endress, an award-winning, international, multi-disciplinary artist and activist, will present his work and life in an engaging, interactive lecture on the evening of Wednesday, November 15th to commence his three-day residency featuring a variety of classroom workshops, film screenings, and panel discussions as a Rankin Scholar in Residence. Collaborative by nature, Endress' work integrates many disciplines, including new media, film, video, anthropology and global studies. His work focuses on, displacement in the Caribbean, cultural amalgamation in the Andes, and mobile art-making practices, exploring the complex narratives of global immigration and dislocation. Endress teaches new media and public art at George Mason University. Born in Chile, he has exhibited extensively throughout the Americas, most recently in the Museum of Contemporary Art MACBA Barcelona, Spain; at the Land Art Biennial in Mongolia; and in Pacific Time at the Getty Museum. He has received numerous grants and fellowships, including funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Creative Capital Fund, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  In 2015, in association with Provisions, he initiated the Floating Lab Collective, a team of interdisciplinary artists who deploy innovative art projects in collaboration with urban communities. Endress’ artist’s lecture will be on Wednesday November 15 at 6:30PM in the URBN Annex Screening Room. 

While Endress is at Westphal, he'll participate in a conversation with Courtney Bowles of the People's Paper Co-Op and Mark Strandquist, of Performing Statistics in the panel discussion, Migration, Incarceration and Sanctuary: Creative Response to Injustice and Social Change.

During the panel, they'll be discussing the potential of aesthetic practices for social change and justice, asking how do sanctuary cities, like Philadelphia, harness the creative engagement and response of artists? How can socially engaged art practices help communities imagine alternative approaches to immigration, policing and sanctuary? Can artists help us to not only envision but facilitate a more inclusive city and sustainable justice? This conversation takes place as part of the Global Passport Studies Passport Series "People on the Move", details forthcoming.

The following day, Endress will collaborate with the College of Arts & Sciences’ Women and Gender Studies program to meet with students and develop speeches as part of the new ‘Speaker of the House’ series of pop-up performances that will be delivered on campus. Working also with students from theater and performing arts, this series of speeches will appear on main campus throughout the afternoon of Friday November 17. That evening, Drexel’s student run art organization, DART, will be co-sponsoring an evening of contemporary video art and film from Haiti, curated by Maksaens Denis, an international filmmaker and multi-disciplinary artist born in Port Au Prince. This short screening will introduce time-based work currently made in Haiti, and will include video by Maksaens Denis, a collaborator and friend of Edgar Endress. Edgar Endress will be present for the screening and discussion.

Rankin Distinguished Scholar in Residence Artist Lecture: Edgar Endress

Wed. Nov. 15 // 6:30-7:30PM // URBN Annex Screening Room

Panel Discussion: Migration, Incarceration and Sanctuary: Creative Responses to Injustice and Social Change, part of the Global Studies Passport Series, ‘People on the Move’

Thurs. Nov. 16 // 5:30-7PM // Location TBD // Free & open to the public

‘Speaker of the House’ Workshops and Performance

Fri. Nov. 17 // TIME TBD // Drexel Main Campus // Free & open to the public

Haitian Experimental Video curated by Maksaens Denis

Fri. Nov. 17 // 5:30-7PM // URBN Annex Screening Room // Free & open to the public

Eric Endress' visit is made possible through a grant from the Rankin Scholar In Residence Program, supported by donations from alumni and colleagues of Dean Rankin to inspire students and to deepen our understanding of developments and thinking within our diverse design, media, and art fields.

If you’d like to support the Rankin program, you can make a contribution here or by mailing a donation payable to Drexel University to: Dean Sabinson // URBN Center, 3501 Market Street 1A20A // Philadelphia PA, 19104. For more information please contact Nik Kozel at ngk25@drexel.edu.  

For questions or to volunteer for any of these events, please email Professor Mark Stockton at mts66@drexel.edu.