Reckoning and Repair
An experimental oral history podcast with artists, curators, and organizers speaking on the need for reckoning, and the (im?)possibilities of repair in art worlds and social spaces around the globe.
Season 2 of Reckoning and Repair: The Art of Resistance in Argentina endeavors to explore these stories and the legacy of art activists from Bueno Aires and beyond. Originally captured in Spanish from June to July 2022, these narratives have since been condensed and adapted into the English language to share these incredible artists and their activism more broadly.
Season 1, "The Art That's Touched Philadelphia", was recorded, written, and produced by students in "Conversations with Contemporary Artists" a course by Alissa Jordan at the Center for Experimental Ethnography. This CEE production runs alongside the 2023 exhibit "Rising Sun-Artists in an Uncertain America", an African American Museum of Philadelphia (AAMP) and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) collaboration. How do artists and organizers confront the troubling histories of Empire in their midsts? Is it even possible for colonially-based art institutions to meaningfully reckon with their own exclusionary histories? What models of reckoning and repair already exist in Philadelphia's art worlds?
Reckoning and Repair
S.2 E.6// Las Paredes Tienen Ojos: Una Historia Oral con Cabaio Spirito
De escapismo a pasión, el viaje de Cabaio Spirito en el arte callejero comenzó en medio de la crisis económica de Argentina. Después de sus turnos en el restaurante, Cabaio y su amigo Nico descubren el estarcido; transforman las calles en lienzos. Al principio, se percibe como vandalismo. Pero en una exhibición en un sótano de Palermo, una epifanía: ¿puede un hobby ser arte? ¿Puede llegar a lo más profundo y despertar algo más? A medida que Buenos Aires abraza el muralismo, la obra de Cabaio también evoluciona, absorbiendo la energía de la ciudad, deleitándose en sus condiciones propicias. Una revolución, reflexiona Cabaio, no necesita ser grandiosa; el arte revolucionó su propia vida, de la tristeza a la alegría, de camarero a artista. Ahora, enseñando estarcido en El Barrio Mugica, Cabaio es testigo del poder de expansión del arte: una herramienta para la perspectiva, para romper mitos, para imaginar mundos mejores.
For episode extras, and to learn more about the artists, hosts, and organizations involved, check out the Reckoning and Repair website: rnrphilly.com
Reckoning and Repair is part multimedia counter-archive, part laboratory, for telling stories and listening to stories in cities. Each season traces stories of resistance to (and repair from) the enduring and specific legacies of exclusion/withholding/erasure that haunt our cities. Through immersive oral histories and collaborative storytelling, student scholars, activists, and creatives illuminate the slow, difficult, yet vital work of accountability and healing in haunted worlds. The project is directed by Dr. Alissa Jordan at the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennyslvania.