Hugh Edwards Memorial Lecture
The annual Hugh Edwards Lecture in Photography honors the memory of Hugh Edwards, curator of photography from 1959 to 1970. A tribute to Edwards’s tremendous dedication and achievements during his time at the Art Institute, this annual lecture has been established to bring internationally renowned practitioners in photography to as broad an audience as possible. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Rabih Mroué
Lebanese artist, actor, and playwright Rabih Mroué will deliver “a non-academic lecture” on the image politics of Islamist recruiting videos. In recent years, the formats and image styles of these videos match expectations among youth raised in Europe (Mroué lives in Berlin), while deliberately testing the limits of what one wants to see and stomach. Having researched material secured by the German Intelligence Services, Mroué reads the videos for their ability to engage Western(ized) youth and then reflects on assumptions underlying common or official Western responses to these videos.
Mroué has for years been speaking from the stage in a way that seems both expository and poetic and involves video and photographic imagery alongside the spoken word. Winner of the 2010 Spalding Gray Award and featured in Documenta 13 (2012), Mroué has spoken at the Walker Art Center; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Tate London, among many other venues.
*Museum admission is free for Illinois residents every Thursday, 5:00–8:00—including during this event.
