MoMA Modern Mondays to Feature Rigoberto Jiménez, Dan Graham

MoMa has announced upcoming events in its Modern Monday series:

An Evening with Rigoberto Jiménez
November 7, 7:00 p.m.
Rigoberto Jiménez (Cuban, b. 1967) will introduce his short film portraits The Four Sisters (1997), The Echoes and the Mist (2004), and A Bridge over the River (2009). His award-winning films capture the dignity and stoicism of the men and women who live and work in the high, remote mountain ranges of the Sierra Maestro Mountains in Cuba-revealing their daily hardships and pleasures, as well as the haunting nature of the landscape in which they live.

Jiménez trains aspiring filmmakers in documentary techniques at Television Serrana (TVS), a unique collaborative project, officially recognized by the Cuban Government in 1993, that was initiated by UNESCO, the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, the Cuban Government, and the National Association of Small Farmers. Serrana's work depends upon the participation and engagement of the people who live in the Sierra Maestro, and today all of the filmmakers at TVS are the children of farmers. He has also worked on documentary productions outside of Cuba, with indigenous communities in Honduras and Argentina, and he has collaborated with UNICEF on productions about childhood and community work in Cuba. Jiménez currently runs the First Year Program at the International Film and Television School (EICTV) outside of Havana.

Organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film.

An Evening with Dan Graham
November 14, 6:00 p.m.
Dan Graham (American, b. 1942) has pioneered Conceptual, performance, and video art since the mid-1960s, producing a profoundly influential body of work and theory that has helped to shape the direction and practice of contemporary art over the past four decades. Beginning in 1965, Graham took a series of color snap-shots in suburban New Jersey and New York, using a Kodak Instamatic fixed focus camera. Referring to Minimalist reduction and seriality, Graham utilized the 35mm slide format as a repeatable "art structure" in and of itself. The resulting slide projection, Homes for America, premiered in the exhibition Projected Art at New York City's Finch College Museum of Art in 1966. For this evening, Dan Graham will present and discuss this work, which was acquired and recently restored by MoMA. In addition, Graham will speak about his early "proto-Conceptual" art dealing with magazine pages. MoMA added a substantial number of Graham's text pieces and works intended as interventions in magazines through the recent acquisition of The Daled Collection of American and European Conceptual Art.

Organized by Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art.

Tickets: $12 adults; $10 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $8 full?time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00-8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.

Modern Mondays is a program that brings contemporary, innovative film and moving-image works to the public and provides a forum for viewers to engage in dialogue and debate with contemporary filmmakers and artists. Modern Mondays presents new-and newly rediscovered-film and media works with the director in attendance, stimulating discourse, dialogue, and interaction in a social setting.

Organized by the Department of Film and the Department of Media and Performance Art. Modern Mondays is made possible by Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro. Additional support is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.