New Museum

Adelita Husni-Bey

Chiron

22 Jan - 05 May 2019

Adelita Husni-Bey
Chiron, 2018 (production still)
Video, sound, color.
Courtesy the artist
ADELITA HUSNI-BEY
Chiron
22 January – 5 May 2019

Curated by Helga Christoffersen, Associate Curator.

This exhibition by Adelita Husni-Bey (b. 1985, Milan, Italy) marks the artist’s first institutional solo presentation in New York.

In her practice, Husni-Bey makes use of noncompetitive pedagogical models to organize workshops and produce publications, radio broadcasts, and archives that form the basis of her exhibitions and films. For “Chiron,” she will create a new site-specific installation that incorporates several of her most significant films to date, including the premiere of a major new work. In Chiron (2019), Husni-Bey collaborates with lawyers working for UnLocal, an organization dedicated to providing pro-bono legal representation to undocumented immigrants and their families facing deportation in New York. The work takes its title from the Greek mythological figure Chiron, evoking the notion of the wounded healer, and touches on urgent themes such as migration and displacement. Addressing trauma in the US as a consequence of the country’s foreign policy actions, Chiron continues Husni-Bey’s ongoing explorations of the complexity of collectivity and the human and social consequences of imperialist ventures.