Arthur Jafa in conversation with Anne Hilde Neset

The American artist and filmmaker Arthur Jafa is referred to as one of the most interesting and groundbreaking artists operating today. In 2019, he was featured at Kunstnernes Hus as part of the exhibition Medicine for a Nightmare with Norwegian-Nigerian artist Frida Orupabo where he showed his film Love is the Message, The Message is Death. In connection with the exhibition, he joined us for a conversation with Anne Hilde Neset, director at Kunstnernes Hus (The Artists' House). The Los Angeles-based artist and filmmaker has been described as a phenomenal public speaker whose reflection on black identity and culture is a pivotal point in his work. He has worked with a number of well-known musicians and directors, including Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee, Solange, Beyonce Knowles, Jay-Z and John Akomphrah, and guests Oslo for the first time. At Kunstnernes Hus he spoke with director Anne Hilde Neset about his projects including his seven-minute film Love is the Message, of which he has said the following: “I have a very simple mantra and it's this: I want to make a black cinema with the power, beauty, and alienation of black music. That's my big goal. The larger preoccupation is how do we force cinema to respond to the existential, political, and spiritual dimensions of who we are as a people. Music to me is a convenient marker of that. Music is the one in which we know [as black people] we have totally actualized ourselves; we don't ever have to write another song to contribute as magnificently as we already have. So a cinema like the music — that's what Love Is the Message is trying to do.” © Kunstnernes Hus, 2019 FOLLOW US! @kunstnerneshus kunstnerneshus.no