BUREAU debuted Amazing Grace featuring President Barack Obama at Material 2016, Mexico City

BUREAU of CHANGE exhibited at Material Art Fair, organized by Daniela Elbahara and Brett Schultz with Isa Natalia Castilla, February 4 – 7, 2016 at Expo Reforma in Mexico City.

Running alongside Zona Maco, Material is the only exhibition of contemporary art in Mexico dedicated to emerging practices. BUREAU presented our newest work, Amazing Grace ft. President Barack Obama, a gospel-rap video. We also exhibited selected works from our flat files.

Amazing Grace ft Barack Obama interweaves performance of a black man costumed as the Statue of Liberty who walks New Orleans streets around Confederate monuments the city slated for removal after the June 2015 massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, SC. Drawing from government archives, it’s beat and chorus samples President Obama’s voice singing Amazing Grace for the eulogy of Pastor Clementa Pinckney, one of nine killed at the church. New Orleans native K.G. wrote the lyrics, which he performs with jazz-gospel vocals by his mother. They bring home the emotions of Charleston, tensions around police shootings, and the role of viral witness videos in Black Lives Matter activism.

On Saturday, February 6th, BUREAU founder Margot Herster moderated a conversation in the Material Salon on interdisciplinary collaboration in education-centric practice with artist Steven Pedeaux and Professor Scott Sullivan.

Material 2016 included a rigorous selection of 64 galleries, non-profits and artist-run spaces from 34 cities and 15 countries.

www.material-fair.com