Free streaming of Arthur Jafa's masterpiece for understanding the problems of African Americans: Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death

Fifteen contemporary art institutes from different countries have joined forces to stream for free the masterpiece by U.S. artist Arthur Jafa (Tupelo, Mississippi, 1960), Golden Lion winner at the 2019 Venice Biennale: the 2016 video installation Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death (7 1/2 minutes long). Viewing will be possible from 8 p.m. (Italian time) on Friday, June 26 to 8 p.m. (also Italian time) on Sunday, June 28. The video will be available at www.sunhaus.us, where at 8 p.m. on June 27 and 8 p.m. on June 28 there will also be two online panel discussions (Arthur Jafa himself will take part). The platform features collaborations with: Dallas Museum of Art, Glenstone, High Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum, La Moca, Luma Foundation, Pinault Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Stedelijk Museum, The Julia Stoschek Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Tate Modern.

Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death is a video that combines clips from documentaries, news reports, social media footage, and Hollywood films to illustrate the experience of black Americans in recent U.S. history. Thus, the video alternates images of joy and important victories with sequences about conflict, violence, and unrest. All with the background of Kanye West’s song Ultralight Beam, sung by Chicago rapper Chance the Rapper, which serves as both a lament and a reflection on the social and spiritual awakening of the African American community. A work that has continued to cause discussion since its debut in 2016, at the time Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death was also exhibited in Italy in 2016 at Palazzo Madama (Turin).

The initiative was created to make one of Jafa’s seminal works on the African-American community accessible to a wider audience at a time when the latter rises to prominence in the life of the country by raising issues that affect the entire world. "I am excited for the opportunity to finally be able to show Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death to as many people as possible," the artist said.

“Through the presentation of works of art and through the dialogue created around them,” said Agustín Arteaga, director of the Dallas Museum of Arts, one of the museums participating in the initiative, "museums can serve as powerful platforms for increasing public engagement and understanding of the pressing issues and the truth of our stories. Arthur Jafa’s Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death presents a broad view of history that challenges observers to grapple with uncomfortable and troublesome truths. We are proud to collaborate with Jafa and our colleagues around the world on this global initiative that broadens the audience and impact of this important artwork."

Arthur Jafa is an artist, filmmaker and filmmaker. Through three decades, he has developed an artistic practice involving films, artworks and happenings that reflect and question the universal and particular articulations of being Black: Jafa’s starting question in his research is “how can visual means of expression, both static and dynamic, convey the power, beauty and alienation that underlie much Black music in American culture?” Jafa’s works have gained worldwide approval and his works are now part of numerous collections around the world: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the LUMA Foundation, the Perez Art Museum Miami, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. As mentioned in the opening, he won the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019.

Pictured is a frame from Love is the message, the message is death.

Free streaming of Arthur Jafa's masterpiece for understanding the problems of African Americans: Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death

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