Tony Cokes Thinks You Should Dance

Shiv Kotecha profiles an artist whose practice has challenged US imperialism and anti-Blackness through language and music

When I met the artist and DJ Tony Cokes last month, he showed me a way to watch his videos I had not  considered before: by dancing to them. We were in the lobby of the Maritime Hotel in New York after Cokes had finished installing a suite of new and reworked videos as part of the 2022 Whitney Biennial, titled ‘Quiet as it’s Kept’. When I asked Cokes about ‘SM BNGRS’ (2022), a series of videos about club culture and nightlife, he recalled their conception: focused reading, conversations with friends and social-media footage of children cutting a rug to one of his own videos. ‘She can’t read’, wrote one proud parent, ‘but she can respond.’ [...] 

Read the whole article at frieze.com

Both Haus der Kunst and Kunstverein München present a joint exhibition project with works by Tony Cokes. It takes place in the two institutions as well as in the public urban space.