The works draw a through line from these historical events to the present of systemic violence and ever-more-complex forms of social control. What are ways of seeing and responding to the seemingly endless cycles of inequality and oppression? How then, the exhibition queries, could one break those cycles and envision living as equals?

The title of the exhibition refers to Cokes’s Evil.27: Selma (2011), which reconsiders the contemporary dominance of the image as evidence and record. Invoking a period of civil mobilization in the United States that came about in a time without mass image circulation, the video examines what is lost when “everything is instantly visible.” Another work from his mostly includes Evil.16 (Torture.Musik) (2009–2011), which examines popular music as a US Army psychological warfare device through the very songs used in torture. Other central works include FADE TO BLACK (1990), an assemblage of Black stereotypes from cinema history that contends with the subliminal elements of race relations; and Black Celebration (1988), which reappropriates Situationist texts alongside footage from the 1960s-era riots in Detroit and Los Angeles.

To Live as Equals immerses viewers in the audiovisual language that Cokes has developed over his career, which typically blurs the aesthetics of pop music videos and visual art. Characterized by appropriation and repetition, and the use of archival materials and text set to identifiable pop bangers, Cokes’s work breaks with the modern grammars of media circulation in order to subvert popular rhetorics of power and violence. This practice is grounded in the fraught relation between history and memory, and strongly questions western contemporary culture while maintaining a sharp awareness of the limits of theoretical critique. His works instead interrogate current conditions of capital, knowledge distortion, and the fascisms of everyday life by rehearsing new possibilities of understanding, combining political analysis with the pleasure of pop.

28 February opening conversation Tony Cokes and Irit Rogoff
During the opening on 28 February 2020, curator/scholar Irit Rogoff entered into a conversation with Tony Cokes on his work and practice. Rewatch it here:

Update:
On 16 and 17 October 2020, we are happy to reopen the exhibition Tony Cokes: To Live as Equals at BAK, which was closed after only two weeks due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

The reopening spans two days, Friday 16 and Saturday 17 October 2020, between 13.00 and 21.00 hrs each day, to accommodate visitors safely and offer the public a chance to engage with Cokes’s works. At set times throughout the day, the BAK team gives introductions to Cokes’s work and the exhibition. The reopening also includes two evening programs: the launch of the publication Deserting from the Culture Wars, edited by Maria Hlavajova and Sven Lütticken and published by BAK and MIT Press (read more above), on Friday 16 October 2020, and the launch of a new book by artist Nicoline van Harskamp, My Name is Language, published by Archive Books in collaboration with Scriptings, on Saturday 17 October 2020.

We at BAK look forward to reengaging with our publics in a conversation about equality and justice through Cokes’s work at a time when these matters seem ever more relevant and urgent.

Program reopening
Friday 16 October 2020
12.30 hrs: Doors open
13.00–19.00 hrs: Opportunity to visit the exhibition, with introductions by the BAK team every two hours (timeslots at 13.00 hrs, 15.00 hrs, and 17.00 hrs)
19.00–21.00 hrs: Publication launch for Deserting from the Culture Wars (published by BAK and MIT Press) with guests

Saturday 17 October 2020
12.30 hrs: Doors open
13.00–19.00 hrs: Opportunity to visit the exhibition, with introductions by the BAK team every two hours (timeslots at 13.00 hrs, 15.00 hrs, and 17.00 hrs)
19.00–21.00 hrs: Book launch for My Name is Language (published by Archive Books in collaboration with Scriptings) with Nicoline van Harskamp and guests

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Opening Conversation: Irit Rogoff and Tony Cokes
28 February 2020, 19.30–21.00 hrs
On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, curator and scholar Irit Rogoff joins Cokes in a discussion of the artist’s work and ideas. There is limited capacity for the opening conversation, please book your spot via this link.

Public Studies: Practice as Theory [cancelled/to be postponed]
19–21 March 2020, 15.00–18.00 hrs
A three-day workshop presented by Tony Cokes on violence, representation, images, and the uses of theory through key works by the artist.

Propositions #11: Practice Is Theory [postponed]
April–May 2020
Propositions #11: Practice Is Theory takes place during the exhibition Tony Cokes: To Live as Equals, drawing from the concept behind Cokes’s public study program, Practice as Theory. Unfolding as a series of discussions and performances, Propositions #11: Practice Is Theory explores how diverse disciplines might create theory from practice. Challenging the shape, functions, and actions of the theoretical, the programs each seek in different ways to disengage theory from being just that other thing art and action [i]use.

Please note that on Sunday 8 March, the exhibition will not be on view, as we are organizing the Mama Cash Feminist Festival at BAK.