Whitney Museum Announces Dates for 2024 Biennial Film Program and MUBI Streaming Partnership

Clarissa Tossin, still from Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’/Antes de que los volcanes canten/Before the Volcanoes Sing, 2022. HD video, color, sound; 64:17 min. Commissioned by the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. © Clarissa Tossin. Courtesy the artist; Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo; and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles and Mexico City

The Whitney Museum of American Art will present an expansive film program featuring dozens of films as part of Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing. For the 81st edition of the Museum’s landmark exhibition series, the longest-running survey of American art, film and moving image works will be available to view in the Biennial galleries, onsite during five special film screenings, and—for the first time in Whitney Biennial history—online at any time through the streaming platform MUBI.

Co-organized by Whitney curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, along with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr., and Zackary Drucker, the 2024 Whitney Biennial film program explores the porousness of boundaries and identities, articulating many of the exhibition’s throughlines in cinematic form.

For the first time, the Whitney is partnering with the streaming platform MUBI to bring the 2024 Biennial to audiences beyond the Museum’s walls. Starting on April 12, MUBI will offer access to stream eight films from the Biennial galleries and onsite film programs to subscribers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This partnership not only gives existing MUBI subscribers access to the 2024 Whitney Biennial film program, but also offers each Biennial ticket holder a free 60-day MUBI subscription to watch Biennial films along with full access to other MUBI platform titles.

“Film has been an important component of Whitney Biennials since the 1970s, and we are thrilled to continue our commitment to film in a new online initiative partnering with MUBI, giving an even greater platform to artists and allowing us to reach wider audiences beyond the Museum,” said Iles and Onli.

Onsite Film Programs

The 2024 Whitney Biennial includes five special onsite film screenings guest curated by Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr., and Zackary Drucker, which will be presented in the Museum’s theater. Visit the Museum’s website for more information about each screening and to purchase tickets (an asterisk indicates the film will also stream on MUBI).

Speaking in Camouflage: Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich

Friday, April 12, 2024 7 pm

The 2024 Whitney Biennial film program kicks off with a screening organized by Greg de Cuir Jr., co-founder and artistic director of Kinopravda Institute in Belgrade, featuring a version of Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s work, Too Bright to See (2023–24), accompanied by live music. The film installation, which can also be viewed in the Museum’s fifth-floor galleries, explores the life and legacy of Martinican writer and intellectual Suzanne Césaire. This special screening in the Museum’s theater will include a live musical performance by Sabine McCalla, who wrote the original music for the film, accompanied by Ajai Combelic. A conversation between Hunt-Ehrlich and writer-curator Yasmina Price will follow the film.

Film details:
Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Too Bright to See, 2023–24. 24 min.

the land wants you 

Friday, May 3, 2024 7 pm

Curated by Inuk artist and filmmaker asinnajaq, this film program opens dialogues between Indigenous artists based in the United States and Indigenous communities beyond its borders. Bringing together works by Samí, Mongolian, Mapuche, Inuk, and Native American artists, the land wants you features films grounded in issues of place, land stewardship, kinship, care, and belonging. This screening will be followed by a conversation between asinnajaq; Biennial artists Kite, Lada Suomenrinne, and Sydney Frances Pascal; and Samí photographer and director Carl-Johan Utsi.

Film details:
Alisi Telengut, Baigal Nuur–Lake Baikal, 2023. 8:55 min.
Kite, Pahá kiŋ lená wakháŋ (These hills are sacred), 2017. 8:32 min.*
Zulaa Urchuud, Nuudelch Khand’laga’ (Nomadtitude), 2021. 6 min.
Seba Calfuqueo, TRAY TRAY KO, 2022. 6 min.*
Jenni Laiti, Teardrops of our Grandmother, 2022. 14:37 min.
Lada Suomenrinne, Mun&Don (You&Me), 2019. 1:48 min.
Sydney Frances Pascal, n̓ áskan nwálhen ninskúz7a (i am going to meet my daughter), 2023. 11 min.
Lada Suomenrinne, Я неба (Me the sky), 2022. 17:09 min.
Siku Allooloo, Spirit Emulsion, 2022. 7:30 min.*
Jenni Laiti, Bivdit luosa máhccat // Asking the salmon to return, 2022. 6:01 min. Niillasaš-Jovnna Máreha Juhani Sunná Máret – Sunna Nousuniemi, 100 Vuogi Dadjat Mii x Orrunsádji ASMR Edition (100 Ways to Say We x A Place to Be ASMR Edition), 2021. 13:07 min.
Sydney Frances Pascal, distance, 2022. 6 min.

Dear Ghost, if a memory is false does it mean it does not have real consequences?

Friday, June 21, 2024 7 pm

Organized by Thai-born, United States–based artist Korakrit Arunanondchai, this program presents films by a group of artists and filmmakers, all born in Asia, who, through storytelling, dreams, animistic beliefs, and metaphors, explore their own conflicting adoption of the Western idea of modernization. A conversation between Arunanondchai and artists Ho Tzu Nyen, Simon Liu, and Riar Rizaldi will follow this screening.

Film details:
Ho Tzu Nyen, The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia (excerpt A to L), 2017–. 23:51 min. Simon Liu, Let’s Talk, 2023. 11:30 min.
Shuang Li, ÆTHER (Poor Objects), 2021. 18:28 min.
Riar Rizaldi, Ghost Like Us, 2020. 20 min.
Yasmine Anlan Huang, Her Love Is a Bleeding Tank, 2020. 5:31 min.
Raqs Media Collective, The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone, 2023. 25:05 min.*

Sis, I Don’t Know: Remembrance a Summer Flower, International Portal of Artificial Maximum Results
Friday, July 12, 2024
7 pm

Sis, I Don’t Know: Remembrance a Summer Flower, International Portal of Artificial Maximum Results, organized by artist and producer Zackary Drucker, brings together an intergenerational group of filmmakers whose work explores love, desire, and loss. This selection of experimental and narrative short films examines the body, gender, and sexuality through relationships that go beyond the romantic to include relationships with oneself, with art, and within the filmmakers’ communities. A conversation between Drucker and artists Miranda Haymon and Nyala Moon will follow this screening.

Film details:
Edward Owens, Remembrance: A Portrait Study, 1967. 5:36 min.
Penelope Spheeris, I Don’t Know, 1970. 20:11 min.*
Gbenga Komolafe & Tee Park, Winter Insect, Summer Flower, 2021. 11:02 min. Miranda Haymon, Sis, 2023. 12 min.
Aron Kantor, Interdimensional Pizza Portal, 2023. 4:36 min.
Nyala Moon, Dilating for Maximum Results, 2023. 14:10 min.*
Chanelle Tyson, Artificial, 2023. 12 min.

Speaking in Camouflage: Christopher Harris

Friday, September 20, 2024 7 pm

Speaking in Camouflage: Christopher Harris, organized by Greg de Cuir Jr., explores a body of work by Christopher Harris, one of the leading Black film artists to emerge since the year 2000. Harris’s analog films address concern for Black communities and culture and are paired with free jazz and other avant-garde musical forms. This program, screened exclusively in 16mm, features the global premieres of two new films, b/w (2023) and Speaking in Tongues (2024), as well as the premiere of a newly restored print of Harris’s early masterwork still/here (2000). This screening will be followed by a conversation between Harris; editor, writer, and curator Dessane Lopez Cassell; and Michael B. Gillespie, Associate Professor in the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies at New York University.

Film details:
Christopher Harris, b/w, 2023. 3 min. – global premiere
Christopher Harris, Speaking in Tongues, 2024. 25 min. – global premiere Christopher Harris, still/here, 2000, 60 min.

Streaming Film Program

For the first time in Whitney Biennial history, audiences will be able to enjoy Biennial films at any time via the streaming platform MUBI. Starting on April 12, MUBI will screen eight films from the 2024 Whitney Biennial selected by Whitney curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli. This streaming option will be available to MUBI subscribers in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. All Whitney Biennial 2024 ticket holders will have the option to sign up for a free 60-day MUBI subscription.

Films Streaming on MUBI:

Siku Allooloo – Spirit Emulsion
Seba Calfuqueo – TRAY TRAY KO
Kite – Pahá kiŋ lená wakháŋ (These hills are sacred)
Ligia Lewis – A Plot, A Scandal
Nyala Moon – Dilating for Maximum Results
Raqs Media Collective – The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone
Penelope Spheeris – I Don’t Know
Clarissa Tossin – Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los volcanes canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing

Siku Allooloo, Spirit Emulsion, 2022, 7:30 min.
In the experimental short film Spirit Emulsion, the Inuit/Haitian/Taíno filmmaker, writer, and activist Siku Allooloo combines analog Super 8 film that was hand-developed with plant medicines and flowers from both the Northwest Territories (where Allooloo is from) and Coast Salish territories (where the film was made) with digital video to convey the enduring presence of her maternal Taíno culture.

Seba Calfuqueo, TRAY TRAY KO, 2022, 6 min.

On view in the Biennial sixth-floor galleries, screened during an onsite film program, and streamed on MUBI, Seba Calfuqueo’s TRAY TRAY KO invites viewers to embark on a journey into the heart of Mapuche cosmology through a video performance in which the artist interweaves her own body into a sacred landscape.

Kite, Pahá kiŋ lená wakháŋ (These hills are sacred), 2017, 8:32 min.
In the video Pahá kiŋ lená wakháŋ (These hills are sacred), the Oglála Lakóta artist Kite focuses on the intricate interplay between artificial intelligence and Lakóta philosophies of the nature of being.

Ligia Lewis, A Plot, A Scandal, 2023, 20 min.
Weaving together multiple historical epics with political and mythical narratives, artist Ligia Lewis’s A Plot, A Scandal uses ideas of spectacle and scandal to address the continued dispossession of “Europe’s Others,” as Lewis describes them. Lewis’s film is also on view in the Biennial fifth-floor galleries.

Nyala Moon, Dilating for Maximum Results, 2023, 14:10 min.
In the film Dilating for Maximum Results, director, writer, and actress Nyala Moon tells the story of Dreya (played by Moon), a Black transgender woman attempting to dilate her vagina after undergoing vaginoplasty surgery in preparation for her first romantic encounter with a man she met online.

Raqs Media Collective, The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone, 2023, 25:05 min.
Raqs Media Collective’s The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone approaches the histories of the year 1980 from multiple vantage points, alternating between analog video and the historical present.

Penelope Spheeris, I Don’t Know, 1970, 20:11 min.
Widely recognized for documenting America’s punk and metal subcultures during the 1980s and 1990s, director and screenwriter Penelope Spheeris centered her film I Don’t Know on the amorphous relationship between her biological sister and a transgender person.

Clarissa Tossin, Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los volcanes canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing, 2022, 63:16 min.
Artist Clarissa Tossin’s film Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los volcanes canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing, a collaboration with the Maya K’iche ’Kaqchiquel poet Rosa Chávez and the Ixil Maya artist Tohil Fidel Brito Bernal, looks at ways in which contemporary Maya culture is activated by means of both reclamation and recreation. Tossin’s film is also on view in the Biennial fifth-floor galleries alongside 3D-printed copies of ancient Maya flutes that appear in the film.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL

A constellation of the most relevant art and ideas of our time, the Whitney Biennial showcases contemporary artists working across media and disciplines, representing evolving notions of American art. Established by the Museum’s founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, in 1932, the Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art. More than 3,600 artists have participated to date, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Alexander Calder, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Raven Chacon, Ellen Gallagher, Jeffrey Gibson, Nan Goldin, Renee Green, Wade Guyton, Rachel Harrison, Jenny Holzer, Edward Hopper, Joan Jonas, Ellsworth Kelly, Mike Kelley, Willem de Kooning, Barbara Kruger, Pope. L, Jacob Lawrence, Carolyn Lazard, Zoe Leonard, Roy Lichtenstein, Glenn Ligon, Agnes Martin, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Julie Mehretu, Sarah Michelson, Joan Mitchell, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Georgia O’Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Laura Owens, Jackson Pollock, Postcommodity, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Martine Syms, Wu Tsang, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, and David Wojnarowicz.

The 2024 Whitney Biennial is organized by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, with Min Sun Jeon and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr., and Zackary Drucker.

EXHIBITION AND PROGRAM SUPPORT

Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing is presented by HYUNDAI.

The exhibition is also sponsored by BVLGARI AND Sotheby’s.

Generous support is provided by Judy Hart Angelo; The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston; David Cancel and Family; Lise and Michael Evans; Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely; the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation; The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation; The Rosenkranz Foundation; Marcia Dunn and Jonathan Sobel; and the Whitney’s National Committee.

Major support is provided by The Keith Haring Foundation Exhibition Fund.

Significant support is provided by the 2024 Biennial Committee Co-Chairs: Sarah Arison, Paul Arnhold, Jill Bikoff, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Miyoung Lee, Joel Lubin, Michael Kassan, and George Wells; 2024 Biennial Committee members: Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul, Alexandre and Lori Chemla, Suzanne and Bob Cochran, Deepa Kumaraiah and Sean Dempsey, Sheree and Jerry Friedman, Ashley Leeds and Christopher Harland, the Kapadia Equity Fund, Dawn and David Lenhardt, the McCallum Family, Orentreich Family Foundation, Nancy and Fred Poses, Jonathan M. Rozoff, Katherine Sachs, Alice and Manu Sareen, Annette and Paul Smith, and Patricia J. Villareal and Thomas S. Leatherbury; and Susan and Matthew Blank, James Keith (JK) Brown and Eric Diefenbach, Jung and Nelson Chai, Jill Cowan and Stephen Davis, Martha and Paddy Farrell, Melanie Shorin and Greg S. Feldman, Charlotte Feng Ford, Cindy and Mark Galant, Christy and Bill Gautreaux, Debra and Jeffrey Geller Family Foundation, Judelson Family Foundation, Peter H. Kahng, Cathy M. Kaplan, Lisa H. Kim and Eunu Chun, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Iris Z. Marden, Marjorie Mayrock, Shelley and David Sonenberg, Gloria H. Spivak, Jackson Tang, and anonymous donors.

Biennial funding is also provided by endowments created by Melva Bucksbaum, Emily Fisher Landau, Leonard A. Lauder, and Fern and Lenard Tessler as well as the Adam D. Weinberg Artists First Fund.

Curatorial research and travel for this exhibition were funded by an endowment established by Rosina Lee Yue and Bert A. Lies, Jr., MD.

New York magazine is the exclusive media sponsor.

The Whitney Biennial and the Hyundai Terrace Commission are a multiyear partnership with Hyundai Motor. The Hyundai Terrace Commission is an annual site-specific installation on the Whitney Museum’s fifth-floor outdoor gallery.

Support for the land wants you is provided by the Consulate General of Finland in New York, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York, and the Consulate General of Sweden in New York.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been a champion of the most innovative art and artists in the United States for over ninety years. At its core, the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force supporting modern and contemporary art. The Museum helps to define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment

The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.

As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgment, visit the Museum’s website.

ABOUT MUBI

MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI creates, curates, acquires and champions visionary films, bringing them to audiences all over the world.

MUBI is a place to discover ambitious films, from both iconic directors and emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators. With MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a free ticket every week to see the best new films in cinemas. And Notebook explores all sides of cinema culture — both in print and online.

Some recent and upcoming MUBI Releases include: Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Ira Sachs’ Passages, Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life, Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Kevin Macdonald’s documentary High & Low — John Galliano, Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, Felipe Gálvez’s The Settlers, Aftersun from Charlotte Wells,

Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, Lukas Dhont’s Close, and Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman.

MUBI Productions include Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebushpruning starring Kristen Stewart, Josh O’Connor and Elle Fanning, Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down starring Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan, Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross’ Gasoline Rainbow, and Zia Anger’s My First Film starring Odessa Young and Devon Ross. MUBI Co-productions include Michel Franco’s Memory starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning starring Léa Seydoux, Ekwa Msangi’s Sundance prize-winner Farewell Amor and Rachel Lang’s Our Men.

Founded in 2007 by Efe Cakarel, MUBI is the biggest community of film lovers, anywhere. Available across 190 countries, with more than 16 million members around the world. MUBI acquired renowned sales agent and production company The Match Factory and Match Factory Productions in January 2022, and a majority stake in leading Benelux film distributor Cinéart in February 2024.

Subscription plans are $14.99 a month or $119.88 for 12 months, or $19.99 a month or $167.88 for 12 months to include MUBI GO. MUBI is available on the web, Roku devices, Apple Vision Pro, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, LG and Samsung Smart TVs, as well as on mobile devices including iPad, iPhone and Android.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Public hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10:30 am–6 pm; Friday, 10:30 am–10 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 am–6 pm. Closed Tuesday. Visitors eighteen years and under and Whitney members: FREE. The Museum offers FREE admission and special programming for visitors of all ages every Friday evening from 5–10 pm and on the second Sunday of every month.