Cécile B. Evans
in conversation with Martha Kirszenbaum

The Art Room is a format conceived by CURA. for Soho House Roma, consisting in periodical talks and video screenings aiming to highlight the work of some of the most interesting international artists. Mainly focusing on digital culture and moving image, The Art Room invites artists to present their recent productions and talk about the most urgent topics in their research.
For this sixth edition of the Art Room, CURA. welcomes the American-Belgian artist Cécile B. Evans, who for the occasion presents their last film “Reality or Nothing”, that represents the latest chapter in their research devoted to the transformation of the very concept of reality in a society increasingly crowded with the presence of alternative digital worlds. The work questions the possibility of distinguishing between the real and the virtual in the contemporary, and questions psychological and cognitive fallout of this mixture.

Cécile B. Evans is an American-Belgian artist living and working in La Plaine Saint Denis. Evans’ work examines the value of emotion and its rebellion as it comes into contact with ideological, physical, and technological structures. They have previously realized new commissions at Centre Pompidou (FR), Museo d’Arte Moderne di Bologna (IT), Tate Liverpool (UK), Lafayette Anticipations (FR), Tramway (UK), Serpentine Galleries (UK), Castello di Rivoli (IT), Museum Abteiberg (DE), and and exhibited work at Whitechapel Gallery (UK), Haus der Kunst (DE), Renaissance Society Chicago (US), Singapore Art Museum, Mito Art Tower (JP) amongst others. Evans’ films have been screened in festivals such as the New York Film Festival and Rotterdam International. Evans’ work is held in public collections such as MoMA NY (US), the Whitney Museum (US), Centre Pompidou (FR), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (DK), and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul (SK).

Martha Kirszenbaum is a curator and writer living and working in Paris and Los Angeles. She graduated from Sciences Po (Paris) and Columbia University. Kirszenbaum is the curator of the French Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale represented by Laure Prouvost. Previously, she was the director and curator of Fahrenheit in Los Angeles, and has held positions at the MoMA in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, New Museum in New York, Belvedere Museum, 21er Haus in Vienna, and the Kunsthalle Mulhouse. She has organized exhibitions, performances, screenings and talks at renowned international institutions, contributed to numerous publications and books, and taught curatorial practice in France and the United States.