Noah Simblist and Christina Yang

Tania Bruguera and The Francis Effect: Then and Now

On the occasion of his new book The Francis Effect, curator, artist, scholar, and educator Noah Simblist joins BAMPFA Chief Curator Christina Yang in conversation about noted Cuban artist/activist Bruguera’s project The Francis Effect (2014–ongoing), in which she requests that the pope grant Vatican City citizenship to all immigrants and refugees. Simblist also discusses his other projects, such as Commonwealth (2020),an exhibition and book that investigate the history, utopian potential, and limitations of a term that we often take for granted; and Conjunctions and Disjunctions (2022),a group exhibition at Black Ground - a cultural space dedicated to the African diaspora in Cali, Colombia. A book signing will follow the conversation.

Simblist is an associate professor and the former chair of the Department of Painting + Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University. As a curator, writer, and artist, he works specifically on the ways in which contemporary artists address history. He has contributed to Art in America, Art Journal, Modern Painters, Terremoto and other publications. His curatorial projects include Summer Sessions: Commonwealth at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU (2019); Aissa Deebi: Exile Is Hard Work at the Birzeit University Museum, West Bank, Palestine (2017); New Cities Future Ruins in Dallas (2016); and False Flags at Pelican Bomb in New Orleans (2016).